Friday, May 29, 2009

The Mockup

The cardstock model went together nicely, with only a couple of slight adjustments.

While doing this does take a bit of time, experience has taught me that in the long run it saves time by exposing any problems with the design. It's much easier, and less painful, to rip up a piece of cardboard than to have to discard and redo a good piece of wood with window and door openings painstakingly cut into it.

The next step will be calculating the window and door openings; then real construction will begin. I should add that I will have to scratch build the windows and doors for this building, as they are unusual shapes and sizes.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Reply to Comments

I should have mentioned that this one is going to be exterior only, with landscaping.

I agree with the comment that it is an interesting house, with a lot of charm. Similar stone porches can be seen on a number of houses in the same area. I suspect there was a very good local mason at they time they were built, who liked to do such projects. Michigan has an endless supply of interesting rocks, thanks to ancient glaciers, and he has made the most of them.

I also like the bit of "carpenter's lace" in the gable. The door and window surrounds are very nicely designed, and clearly the work of a skilled carpenter.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Beginning...

The first step in the new project was to get good photographs (some were provided by the client) and critical measurements of the real building.

Now I'm translating these into plans for the 1:144 scale version. This is a time consuming part of the project, and involves a lot of math. I first made a "footprint" and then elevations of the walls on all four sides. The finished house will be 2 1/8" to the top of the roof.

It's vital that the calculations be accurate in order to avoid problems later on, so I'll make a quick cardstock model to make sure everything will fit together properly. If all is well, I'll move on to plotting door and window openings. I probably won't do a plan for the roof - I can work that out after the walls are up.

Here you can see photographs of the house, my field notes (on the left), the footprint drawing and a couple of the elevations (center and right front), and my tattered but indispensable chart for converting decimals to fractions.

And yes, for anyone who may be wondering, I do wear reading glasses!

Just click on the picture to enlarge it.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Victorian House

Back to work!

My next project will be something I haven't done for a while - a replica of a real house (outside only). The original is a small Victorian house with an interesting stone porch.

I've been on site to take photos and do measurements. My next step will be to make a floor plan and elevation, which will take a few days. I don't make detailed drawings - just basic shapes - and I work out the details as I go along.

This is the sort of thing I had to do during my movie career, when I often had to work from only photographs with no measurements at all. Having measurements makes the planning stage quite a bit faster, believe me!

I will post some pictures when I have the basic design worked out.

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