Micro Master Builder

I guess I've been away longer than I thought... Things at work started to heat up with the addition of the 3d printer, having to share myself between the two opposite roles of my daily job, Estimator or 3d modeller ? 

It's hard to imagine my days without the 3d printer. I've been developing architectural models for clients which has been both challenging and rewarding

One of the first models I developed, before I knew the settings, before I had begun to model the inside.

Since then we have refined the process to deliver a more beautiful and architecturally correct model.

I never lost interest in my model, I simply ran out of room to develop it sharing a small space. Now I'm in a larger space I can have the model set up to play with as I please, so here I go again. The only alteration I will make however to the original plan, is that the upper frames (and perhaps trusses) will be made using the 3d printer. If I'm being completely honest, I think it comes down to the accuracy of the model I want to achieve. My lower section is great, but it's not perfect. I now have the tools to develop it 100% accurate, call it lazy if you will...

Not a lot of people are privileged enough to enjoy going to work every day. But I am. I enjoy the people (albeit sometimes frustrating) I love how dynamic it is, but lately, most of all I love our new 3D printer. Now the 3D printer was huge asset to the business, however, with unrestricted access to it everyday, it has also become a huge advantage to me. Remember how i said i was having trouble with working at 1:24? Well not anymore, that's what this machine was built for !

So here are my window frames drawn up in sketch up and transferred to the 3D printing program. I was having so much trouble making these with my hands, but when after loading the file onto the computer, they took just 36 minutes to print. Now maybe that's cheating, maybe now my model is not entirely hand crafted, but I still designed them, and manually loaded them onto the program, changed all the settings. What I'm getting at is that it still required skill.

The result is unbelievable! every intricacy is in extreme detail. But it started me thinking, how much I could have done (and probably still will) do on the machine. Furniture, cupboard door detail, door knobs, taps, toilets, kitchen appliances, possibilities are endless, 

It's the first time I've run into a problem associated with it being 1:24 that I cant solve. 

This morning I finally sourced the carpet ( It's just a thick upholstery fabric) and after loving it, hating it and throwing a tantrum, I've decided I can deal with it. I wanted to find something without a pattern, but Spotlight let me down. 

Cool timber feature wall huh?

The walls are up, I've used the spak-filler to smooth out the edges, internal corners and top of the walls. It's given it a really nice finish and will look even better when its all sanded and painted.

I realised that the perspex I got from reverse art truck last week for the windows is much to thick to cut with any tool I have, so I'm using a clear plastic sheet, probably 1mm thick. The windows should be easy but I'll need matchsticks. Note to self: buy match sticks.

So I'm bouncing back and forth between tasks at the moment, it has become apparent that I may need a 'to-do' list.

These are the stairs that I designed last night. I had a vision of what I wanted the end result to look like, but as always trying to put that into a 1:24 model is still difficult. I used paddle pop sticks and notched out where the treads would go. The main structural part will be black as if it were steel, and the treads will be stained like the flooring.

Incredibly impressed with the end result. Very difficult to try to get everything straight on all angles. They look great!

After going to Reverse Art Truck and Bunnings yesterday, I think I have enough materials to finish the lower storey, Paint, putty, sandpaper, clear acrylic, fabric, wire, vinyl - still missing carpet :(. After all that I have painted the walls, put a gloss over the floors, and tiled the laundry and powder room. I'd like to note at this point that the paint section (especially  the whites!!!) is very daunting, I'm only making a model and I spent about 20 minutes choosing the right white paint.

The picture doesn't show it as well, but the one on the right is the new colour, it's probably a bit more cream than I would prefer, but its much better than the sterile white that was originally the cardboard

Everything associated with dolls house is antique or old fashioned. Apparently modern dolls houses or modern building replicas don't exist, perhaps there's just not as big market for it. Take door handles for example, these are the only sorts of things i can find :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dollhouse-Miniature-1-24-Scale-Brass-Door-Knob-and-Key-/261334885505

After putting my arts and crafts away last night I was on the computer searching for a place I vaguely remembered my mum taking me to when I was about 7. Very difficult when the only thing I could come up with was ‘reverse something’… It was full of offcuts of cardboard timber, buttons, fabric, rubber… all the art supplies you could think of. I remember it being a wonderful place. 

And used the entire packet of balsa wood, like, there isn't a single stick left... I did make some changes (some unintentional) to the model. The lounge room and kitchen got wider by about 300mm, the front door now has a full height window adjacent and the lower bedroom window is right down to the ground. The next stage is to clad the walls inside and out, I think I’ll need a more precise cutter for the edges of the cardboard because it would just end up looking tacky if the edges weren't straight.

I should note at this point, this was the video that started all this for me. His however, took two years, I can't see mine taking that long.

Have I mentioned I'm impatient? I'd almost finished building the wall frames and I decided I couldn't wait, so I started standing them up. It's such an awesome thing to see, they look so good, it seems like such a shame to have to cover them. 

Alas, plaster (white cardboard) and exterior cladding (icy pole sticks) to follow. Thoughts today about the hinges for the doors, I doubt they make them that small, for replica purposes I'd love to find some, however it's probably easier to just a small strip of rubber. I'll look into it. Tried to get perspex for the windows, I'm after 1-1.5mm thick stuff that I can cut with a Stanley knife, was unsuccessful. Will have to try harder next week

My favourite part of the build so far. As I mentioned earlier, I'm using balsa wood for the frames. I didn't like the idea of using thick cardboard or foam core to build the walls, it didn't seem genuine, so I designed and pre built the panel walls exactly to specifications (as we do every day at the factory I work in). Using my lunchtimes at work, I input the walls into their program so it gave me correct door width, lintel sizes and stud spacing’s. The icy pole sticks are a much stronger timber than the balsa wood so I was using them wherever it specified a F17 stud for an opening (they were also really good for lintels)

Forgot to mention, each one of those studs is half the width of the balsa I brought, although I now have double the balsa wood I thought I did (money saving$$), I had to cut every single one down the centre length ways to get the right width.

When I initially started building my model, my boyfriend turned to me and asked.. 'I don't get it, why are you going to so much effort?' I basically shrugged my shoulders and said, 'I dunno, I'm bored' But as I go more in depth to achieve a more realistic replication, I realised I'm doing it to challenge myself, because I'm almost certain I can do it and if something comes up I don’t know, I'm interested to learn.

So basically I started by drawing the exterior of the plan onto a piece of card. This would ensure things would stay square from the start (fingers crossed). The biggest challenge I faced here was the accuracy of the numbers on my plan. Trying to get 1670mm at a 1:24 scale, really isn't feasible, so I had to botch the numbers and do the best I could there.

The subfloor couldn't be concrete and the best way to emulate joists was to use icy pole sticks every 450mm. For convenience, I broke them up into sections, this would also help to keep it rigid.

The part I skipped last time was the card on top.

Realistic construction practices ensure that 19mm particleboard flooring or similar is laid before carpet; tiles or floor boards are placed on top. It also gave me a canvas to sketch in where the interior walls were likely to go, as these would sit on the cardboard rather than the timber flooring I was laying (height concerns)

  And so started the monotonous task of taking both curved ends off each icy pole stick, ensuring they were cut straight and sanding any imperfections they had, although I found wire cutters to be much more useful than the scissors I was using initially. I was still using a hot glue gun simply because it dries the quickest and most effective.

....On a side note, I did get a little ahead of myself when I started laying the flooring again. I started at the front door?  Luckily it all worked out without having to cut any.