FMP Blogpost 10 - Permanent camping

This is the building that helped to inspire my entire FMP, and so I was very excited to finally get to making it.

My sketch models allowed me a good understanding of the way that this building was constructed, and what to be wary of when making the final model - such as ensuring that each floor sat evenly on top of the one below it.

This is the model that required the most thought, maths and working out as the plans were not very detailed at all. Luckily there were plenty of pictures of the building itself which helped me to work out where the doors and windows were located, as well as how the lifting walls functioned.

I brought some corrugated aluminium for this model, in an orange-red rust colour to match the building itself. I also sourced some card in a very similar colour from the AUB library material collection’s free card section to use for the door and window frames, and roof of the model.

I began with a plywood base, and used more of my balsa wood leftovers to create the wooden deck of the model. The legs for the deck were made of another set of leftover dowels I had from a previous model.

I cut out paper templates for each of the 4 floors of the model, and used those to cut out each of the 4 walls for each floor. I did panic briefly when I realised I would be one wall short, however I managed to use two pieces of the metal and stuck them together, the grooves of the corrugated aluminium fit together well so that the seam line is barely visible on the final model. I did make sure that wall in particular did not have any windows or doors cut out of it to ensure it would stay stable enough on the final model.

I used the same paper template technique to make sure all of the doors and windows were the correct dimensions.

I used the aforementioned rust coloured card to create the window frames and door frames, and used a bit of copper wire for the door handles as this was a larger scale model and I felt small details like that were necessary.

I stuck the 2 floors of the outhouse toilet together - layering pieces of card between to make sure the top floor was stuck straight and then glued it to the base. I used 2mm thick aluminium wire to create the pipe that runs up the back of the bathroom.

The main building required a wooden frame inside like the real building as I wanted to have one of the walls lifted open to show off that particular feature of the building. I used leftover dowels to make both the frame and ladder, before adding the aluminium walls. I stuck one down so that it was lifted up and then stuck the two floors together.

I created the metal beams that held up the lifting walls using the same card that I used for the window frames. I then created loops out of 0.5mm thick aluminium wire, and also used a length of the same wire to show how the wall was lifted.

I made the sliding glass door with more wooden dowel. I decided not to add anything to represent the glass as I felt it was not necessary and may obstruct the view of the inside of the model. After sticking that to the main building I could glue it all down to the deck.

I created a 1:50 scale figure and set of chairs to place inside the model using card I had used in other models, and more of the rust coloured card to create the metal ladder of the building and the vent on the top. I could have used copper wire for the ladder, however I felt that it would not have looked as neat as the card, and the rust card was used to represent the metal roofs and window frames in this model anyway so I felt I should also use it for the metal ladder in order to have everything match. I wanted to add these smaller details as the model was a large enough scale for them to be important. Plus I wanted there to be some furniture inside of the model as I had the wall lifted up to show off the inside.

Finally, I used some textured green card to represent the grass of the landscape and stuck everything down to the base.