We may be able to visualize thewhole process in some detail, if weve done it or something very similar before. The two of these then need to be temporarily secured to something so that they stay upright, parallel, synced etc. softer or less fibrous card for these circlesthan youve used for the rest of the modeland dont even attempt to cut circles from the thick, dense, hard recycled type! not all the way through) from top to bottom. whether fast or slow), gluing needs to be prepared for. Here I am gluing it into position against the top and bottom support curves in stages, starting by fixing one end firmly, pressing it tight and then introducing thin superglue into the seam from outside (the technique of gluing from outside illustrated earlier). Its not just the necessaryvisual embodiment of worked out intentions (necessary because others have to see them) .. its a major part of that process ofworking out! There are no special prizes for being able to cut through in one go! If left on permanently they will lose their tack over time but will still improve the rulers grip. Many people get by without undue stress, but if you feel you are not or if this is damaging your work, you have to take positive, compensatory action because otherwise it will always stand between you and your confidence! If your answer was No, of course not! The only way to solve this (until it wears down a little with use!) Although many are quite simple shapes, just to look at them, it is not often obvious how to make them .. or perhaps more correctly, how to start on them. Put the tip of the scalpel in the beginning of the line youve started and slide the ruler up against it. See Common sizes of things in the Methods sectionfor more on standard step measurements, but lets say that each step needs to be 200mm high (known as the rise or riser) and 250mm deep (or along, known as the tread). by cutting the line in the direction straight ahead of you rather than side to side. Ideally our initial reading should be just as free,unselfconscious or unbiased .. initially that is. But I can suggest other things that are likely to help in any case, and these are: if you can, find a lead for your compass thats slightly harder than the standard supplied i.e. As Ive said, as a maker youll only be as good as the materials you know about! I will be teachingfive 3-hour sessions in model-makingfor the theatre design students at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London throughout this month. What staircases of this more contemporary type have in common (i.e. The following three photos were taken for the bookby Astrid Baerndal. dividing 200mm into 4 metres to give 20 and multiplying that by 250mm to give 5 metres length. As for the question of size, and especially if this is a design intended to be built and used, one must take into account the building regulations which, in the case of spiral staircases, advise that treads must be at least 26inches (c. 66cm)in width. In this case the flat of a small metal rulerwas useful for pressing them level. Most wall structures turn out to be just a base layer with additions one side or the other (speaking in terms of making them in a model! Make repeated and regular-spaced half-cuts (i.e. Pressure comes afterwards, once ones established this line and it shouldnt matter how many passes it takes to cut through. And yet we are all required to do that in an instant, just to establish where we are even very vaguely,as we read a novel or a play text. Ive found some ways which have helped .. How separate, or rather where exactly to draw the line in terms of having a lot of separate bits, is something one can only learn by doing. This can easily be sliced off later (I havent glued the bottom step to the base!). up to 1mm) the angle of the cut edge, in other words whether its at a right-angle to its surface or not, doesnt matter so much. The glue takes longer to set completely but the piece will stay together in the meantime and can be moved .. it just shouldnt be put under any pressure for a while. Against this though, one has to weigh up the fact that a great deal can only be learned by doing; that theres a limit to what can be visualized beforehand; that being hands on withmaterials will suggest and inspire different and unforeseen ideas! that you have the basicmaterials, tools and information) to get you through the next few practical steps. This is made from pure wood pulp and if it is soaked thoroughly in water it can be bent into a curve without creasing. I find the last four areas relatively easy to advise on, perhaps because they can be more easily illustrated, but Ive always had some difficulty sorting out what I should say for the first. Its a subject for another discussion whether thats at all possible for us of course, but then afterwards.. our reading has to become very selfconscious, biased and critical. Even so its best if one gets used to holding the scalpel upright in the first place. It may not work for everybody, but I seriously believe from my own experience that if you keep the conscious mind reasonably focused on the practical/immediate, the subconscious mind is left toworkcalmly on the bigger ideas and deliver them when needed. But probably an even better, more memorablestarting point isjust to go and see whatan outlet like the4D modelshop in London has to offer. You might need to adjust, beginning and end, a couple of times. Holding onto that position put the tip of the scalpel in the end of the line and move that end of the ruler against it. Often the blades are a little thicker than scalpel blades and this can make a noticeable difference when cutting because they produce more friction! Can much of this be scraped off? This ensured that the upright piece was glued in the right position along the edge of the base piece. Some need to be a little smaller youre ok and on your way, but if it was Yes and you really cant see why this could be wrong youre going to be challenged! The best way to make a stable rake is to cut a number of those trianglesand glue them at regular intervals to the underside of a sheet. in making it look exactly as you want the real set to be built,should extend to all details. If the glue is slow-setting such as Pva wood glue, pieces need to be held (ideally fairly tightly) in position until the glue grabs sufficiently. By this I mean two different tasks .. firstly being able to cut circles or regular curves in a flat sheet, and secondly building structures such as curved walls. Is it possible to see or to foresee more? One really does have to have a feeling of steady flow to do it properly and it usually doesnt work if youre agitated. For this reason Ivearrangedthese notes .. going from the general to thespecific .. firstlyunder the heading General approach, which is more about ways of thinking; followed by Practical guidance which turns more towards ways of doing; ending with more specificWorking examples which aim to illustrate how these ways of thinking and ways of doing combine at the worktable level. Theres nothing harder than trying to construct something in mid-air! After getting a reasonably good idea of the length of card you need to complete the curve, cut a piece to size but with some extra length (Ive used foamed Pvc plastic below, because I wanted these demonstration samples to last and I prefer foamed Pvc over card anyway). Specially made supporting forms like this are known as construction jigs. Its much easier to maintain the knife upright if you can actually see the angle while cutting, i.e. Probably model-making taxes ones ability to plan ahead in this way more than most other things I can think of, because there are so many variables! The drawing above represents what one has to do first, that is, to draw up a groundplan view to scale, establishing the size of the staircase and the shape of the treads. Keeping built elements as separate as possible until theyre textured or painted is quite an important general consideration in model-making .. one of the important points on the planning ahead checklist. Because the structurewas three-dimensional Ihad to makethe special foamboard construction below to glue it on. Metal blocks like these can be bought from metal retailers such as www.metalmaniauk.com for just a few pounds (see Lexicon entry metal construction blocks). Knowledge of materials and where to get them. The ability to see ahead .. to actuallywork in a very practical and realistic way, butin ones mind ..is the first and most important tool that the designer reaches for! This can vary according to what youre prepared to do or the amount of space there is behind, from just bending a piece of wire and attaching it to the back, to the supporting construction Ive made here. The builders mantra strongest, neatest, quickest and cheapest already gives many things to juggle with,but ideally most creative should also be added. I also suspect that this difficulty arises, not becausethose people are unable to think logically or systematically enough or that theyre not mentally organized, but ratherits something to do with not being able to retain information that has almost no emotional or visual reference. Have you really got enough proper light to work by? Similarly, the way one chooses to create a surface may add a lot to the thickness, so it also needs to be thought about at an early stage .. unfortunately far too early in many respects! Thin (i.e. For example with the simpler one on the right its easier to cut a main wall piece as a continuous stripand stick the protruding part over it as a box if the construction isnt going to be seen. Below is not intended as a solution to this, but it does help to know that blunted blades neednt always be replaced. Cutting needs to be learned and practised! The photo below illustrates how one would normally approach building any curved structures in the model, whether concave (curving inwards) or convex (curving outwards). Believe me, its best and easiest to make it this way, even if the stair itself is going to be enclosed between other walls. There are other sheet materials which can be used for creating curved surfaces without the need for scoring. What follows is a very basic schema for a generalised look.. it doesnt answer every detail or for every type but may provide aframework method to build upon or adjust. Alternatively (although not so usual)the riseof all the steps can be adjusted, becausetheres a reasonable leeway from 15cm minimum to 23cm maximum. After checking for a reasonable match, the profile pieces need to be fixed in a position where theyre upright, the right distance apart, parallel and in sync. You may think that its going to be easier to curve thinner card, but it may not keep its shape well enough. Im asked a surprising number of times, mainly by theatre or film design students,how to go about making a spiral staircase in a model. the front of this theatre model-box is a relatively simple structure which can be put together in layers. Make sure that youre always planning enough in hard practical terms (i.e. The quality of what comes out depends on the quality of what goes in. For example, its hard to visualize the concept of a circus on stage (i.e. Here a thin plastic solvent is being used to glue styrene plastic, but thin superglue can also be used and this can also work with card. Thinking purely of my own experience, I cant imagine what quagmire Id still be in now if I hadnt found out about and played around with Kapa-line foamboardor foamed Pvc sheet! That version may have been updated or expanded since. It only remains to give the steps the required surface, whether thats concrete, wood or carpet etc. Ive got to the stage where I can comfortably make almost anything imaginable from either foamed Pvc, Kapa-line foamboard, blue Styrofoam, strip styrene, obeche wood sheet and Polycell Fine Surface polyfilla. All of these, and more, are considerations and only you can discover what works best for you. when it gets blunt) should be the easiest thing in the world (if the world were fair) but unfortunately it can be a bit of a nightmare with a new scalpel handle, because the fixing is often too tight at first, making it hard to slide the blade either off or on without fear of injury. Another way of setting things up, involving a different technique of gluing, is offered by the fact that thin liquids will be drawn into tight gaps (whats known as capillary action). Ones focus at this stage should be more on the edge of the ruler than the material to be cut. Now, compare that to reading a play text with the view to designing it. Can ones ability to visualize be strengthened? I needed to be careful not to apply too much superglue to the joints otherwise it would have glued thescaffolding to the card. Just spending the time to look systematically at the range they have, including many options for preformed structures as above, can be quite an education in itself and it means much more becauseyou areactually seeing and handling things. It also means that, if need be, individual sections can be more easily kept separate for painting. This includes elements such as walls, platforms, seating banks and staircases, but also curved set elements, raked floorsand open frameworks such as scaffolding. It sounds so simple .. but its not! The best thing to do is to draw up a complete grid (above), composed in this case of 200cm x 250cm rectangles. I have confidence in being able to construct whatever I want in Pvc plastic, so the best answer for me is to construct in plastic and thinly clad with wood. The gradient (the slope) is the amount the rake rises compared to its length, so for example a gradient of 1:8 (as its normally written) rises one unit of measurement for every 8 of those units along. Its a favourite catch-thought of mine that success in model-making lies more with the head than the hands, meaning that it rests upon thorough planning or thinking through; that nothing reliable can be achieved without researching the right information; that problems are solved by a mixture of focused and divergent thinking; that one can only be as good as the materials one knows about. Especially when cutting longer lines its usually better to stand up for this so that you can reach over the work properly and use your own body as a measure of uprightness. For example, some people take refuge in planning for much longer than necessary because the part that follows either involves more effort or it involves more unprotected engagementwith the unknown .. exactly what one should be doing in fact! Some people are such good visualizers (those who can see quite far ahead in detail, rehearsing doing things in their minds and even mentally picturing the outcomes) that theyve worked everything out from start to finish, leaving themselves seemingly nothing more to discover. But I have to say, they rarely matched completely. Otherwise you might have to make do withthe more limited choice of wooden dowel from the nearest timber merchant or hardware store, or failing that really making do with something you have around such as a thin cardboard tube. in this case 200mm in scale. Its the most general-purpose but also the most precise. But, as with everything seemingly, there are points and counterpoints .. to accommodate the innate differences in people and their situations. If you want the flight of stairs to reach 4 metres you could use something similar to the counting on fingers method for working out what length on the ground this will come to i.e. They can quite easily be sharpened on a piece of wet and dry or Emery paper (usually best 600-800 grit) by stroking the blade firmly at a shallow angle, a few times each side. The penultimate step (i.e. Lastly the blades for this knife are more cheaply made, not as sharp and .. Almost all glues are meant to be used as sparingly as possible, because bonds between things are always stronger the tighter they can be pressed together, regardless of how thick or gap-filling the glue may seem. Here I cut a strip of card exactly the right width for gluing between the uprights and cut all the riser pieces from it. Scale model-making of this kind is so dependent on being able to cut a straight line in the right place. After all the treads are glued in place the piece can be easily loosened from the foamboard support. A common exercise for beginners is making a complete 6-sided cube using flat card. Consider the drawing a master-plan .. take time over it, treat it with respect, put it up on the wall if you can, update it immediately if you make changes. Speaking of that, you might have noticed that whereas I was careful before to adjust the height of the two profile pieces to allow for the extra card base, I didnt say anything about the extra thickness of card which has been added to make the treads. Its stronger anyway, its actually quicker,and the extra material hardly makes a difference in cost. So for example we may have the general circus image, but then we have tostartmaking it real by questioning .. can we trust what we think we know; what bits dont we know, and whichcan only be found by starting or experimenting; what more do we need to start that? But if youve tried and tried again, and youre still not getting anything like a circle, there are other things that could help. This can be left if its not going to be visible, and if it has to go it can usually be easily cut away afterwards. The scalpel in the centre has been fitted with a rubber cover, which is much more comfortable and makes the knife much easier to control. I know for a fact that my problems with numbers are because I dont retain them, theyre not memorable in my head for more than an instant if they remain as just numbers. .. in particular, can you see your marked line clearly enough or is the edge of the ruler casting a shadow over it? Models can easily go too far into unnecessary or gratuitous detail and it is the same with planning. I think .. not as easy to find. If on the other hand a fast-setting glue such as superglue is used this will not offer the same margin for repositioning so the set-up is important in this case as a means of making sure that pieces can be positioned right first time. The right-angle supports glued inside are essential to make sure that the profiles remain properly upright. Some can let their imagination roam further than others; somemay not wander so far but cansee what theyhave in more detail; some are good at shutting out what they dontwant or need to see in order to focus. The more weve seen in our lives, whatever the sources, the more well be able to visualize. For example the proscenium walli.e. This means that difficult-to-glue pieces such as the curving sheet below can be set up in the correct position and the glue is introduced along the joint afterwards. This is usually the place to start when sorting out how to construct the structure. Changing the scalpel blade (i.e. The blade in the other knife will tend to flex and wobble too much, especially when pressing hard. Whatever goes on top needs to be kept reasonably thin, because it will change the dimensions slightly (but this difference will only be noticeable on the top and bottom steps of course because if the steps get an even treatment the proportions of the others will remain unchanged). Here I havent cut all the treads out yet but have fixed the pole (with a spot of glue) in the centre so that the sheet serves as a base and helps to check the positions of the steps as theyre added upwards. The closer these lines are to each other the better, and the smoother the curve, but it depends how much patience you think youre going to have. The only way to keep a mental grip on this is by drawing up and noting clearly on the drawing what goes on where .. or at least what you plan to do at that stage. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Using a try square is a clearer way of checking, not least because one only has to look at one edge rather than two. After gluing I just needed to remove the pieces of masking tape and slide the scaffolding construction off the supporting form. There are dangers, both in terms of scrutinising the present in too much detail or trying to look too far into the distance. First of all you need to focus on whatexactly it is that you find difficult, and it could be just one, a few or a number of things. The knife on the far right is not a scalpel, but is another very common type (especially with hobby or craft shops)and isnot as good in a number of respects. .. looking at a mass of cut pieces on the cutting mat having lost track of which of them were pieces and which were off-cuts. Another way is writing on a piece of masking tape. An example of the second is a raked floor, which could be improvised in the sketch model just by propping a piece of card over an object. It often delivers the ideal, based on a string of assumptions At the very least, anyone not practised in cutting needs to consider it a subject in itself which needs to be rehearsed, explored and made peace with as far as possible before being able to do anything else. All sides and all edges of a cube need to be perfectly equal. .. by feeding the mind with better information for a start! You should also rehearse what it feels like to run the tip of the blade steadily along the metal edge, without necessarily cutting at all. Maybe its the only way of doing it anyway, its just that Ive seen attempts at steps that appear to be more organically improvised shall we say! I then inserted these in the right positions using Pva wood glue to allow for some repositioning. 1.5mm .. higher than they should be? The answer is .. no, its not a major error if levels dont quite match up in the model but its generally better if they do. Laying a set-square over the corner is often the way that people check but because set-squares are usually transparent one has to strain the eyes a bit to see this and it may not be sufficiently accurate. These need to be checked first. The first pass with the knife should simply be to establish a guiding scratch-line which only has to be deep enough to be found again with the tip of the blade. The easiest way to do this is to stick them on a base cut to the proper size. If youre fortunate enough to live within reasonable distance of a materials shop such as 4D modelshop in London there is such a range of dowels and tubes that one can usually find exactly the diameter one wants either in styrene, acrylic or wood. But it doesnt start with quality necessarily .. it starts with quantity. Planning is supposed to be logical and rational, but it can also become paradoxically unrealistic! Is it that you find it difficult to retain numbers in your head long enough to work with them or that you cant see them in your head sufficiently as quantities for adding together? It actually needs far less technical expertise to get results with them than with the others, and they suggest new ways of working that I wouldnt otherwise have thought of. Another way of making a good guiding mark is if you can rig up your compass with another metal point (in place of the lead). It neednt be more complicated than this and if you dont like the visiblejoin (indicated by the shaded strip on the drawing below) this can be faced with black paper. In this example Ive finished the unit by cutting another strip of card, this time the full width between the outer edges of the uprights, so that the treads can be cut and applied on top. Im sure I must have said many times that theres a whole little book to be written just on cutting with the scalpel, hence the devotion of space to it here! If this positioning is followed it shouldnt be necessary to mark the correct heights of steps on the pole itself. But what if one needs a run of steps which are not boxed in, for example if theyre clear underneath or as part of a metal fire-escape? Again, the more weve made the more well be able to realistically visualize making. The fact is that when pieces of card are glued edge to face for things like this the thickness of card becomes part of the measurement, so some pieces of card need to be cut shorter to allow for this. Ive been careful to give each a little bit of the curve of the pole diameter at the centre so that they glue better to it, but the outer edge could either be curved or straight. often as far removed from reality as it can get! 1.5mm mountboard is usually fine. It might have been simpler and perhaps quicker though to think of the step proportion 200:250 (which is the same overall)reduced to1:1.25 and simply multiply 4 metres by 1.25. If not, we can still piece together a provisional visualization from general things we know about materials and ways of making, mixed with some more specificsnap-shots ofthings weve experienced which couldbe related. That is, the base layer is a cut-out following the exact dimensions of the proscenium window with a thick strip built upon the front of it and another strip fixed to the back of it to complete the proscenium arch depth. It needs to be kept in that curve while drying though i.e. Once the dimensions are sorted, two identical profiles (side views) need to be drawn up and cut out. Swann-Morton No.3 handle, on the left below) is by far the best knife to use for model-making work. After basic structures have been tested in the sketch model and are approved they often need to be further refined in terms of exactdimensions or, moreunderstandably, the method of making them,and it is better to work these out on paper first. The individual pieces of rod needed to be taped onto card to hold them in position while glue was introduced into the joints. Ive been quoting the spiral staircase from the beginning of my teaching, as an example of instances where model-making interferes with design. Thinking in terms of base layers and add ons. Its an annoyance I used to experience countless times! These will become the sides of a freestanding stair box. Again, foamed Pvc is ideal for this because it is flexible but thin styrene sheet or even stencil card would also be suitable. This will add a little extra height though, so to compensate the same needs to be taken off the base of each profile. As for the first, I could just say that, really, cutting out a nice, smooth circle which you have drawn with a compass is just a matter of practise!
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