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What do I mean by main construction?

I mean the big things, starting for example with the theatre model-box and then the main
structures of the set .. the principle architecture in other words. This includes elements such as
walls, platforms, seating banks and staircases, but also curved set elements, raked floors and open
frameworks such as scaffolding. 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.

GENERAL APPROACH
Leading with the head
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. 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
with materials will suggest and inspire different and unforeseen ideas!

The ability to see ahead .. to actually work in a very practical and realistic way, but in ones
mind .. is the first and most important tool that the designer reaches for! Everyone has it, because
otherwise none of us would be able to rehearse a difficult conversation, write a shopping list or
plan a journey! Undoubtedly some would seem to be better at it than others .. but its more a
case of some being better at aspects of it. Some can let their imagination roam further than others;
some may not wander so far but can see what they have in more detail; some are good at
shutting out what they dont want or need to see in order to focus. My point here is that its
important to recognise which of these you are, acknowledge your strengths and question whether
you can improve. Although the second point on this list is the accepted way of dealing with any
deficiency, or safeguarding against being misled, there is still a great deal that we either dont
have time to test or dont realize theres a need to.

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 materials chosen need to be reasonably
durable (though not to last forever); affordable; obtainable when needed; ideally within ones
comfort zone in terms of familiarity or technical ability; but perhaps not so familiar or
comfortable that they engender predictable results i.e. a little challenging or even inspiring!.
Similarly ones methods of working with them need to accord with the above; they must be
affordable timewise; they must be flexible enough to give freedom to the development of the
design; they must keep the sense of discovery alive! The builders mantra strongest, neatest,
quickest and cheapest already gives many things to juggle with, but ideally most creative
should also be added.

Can ones ability to visualize be strengthened? Is it possible to see or to foresee more?


Absolutely! .. by feeding the mind with better information for a start! The quality of what comes
out depends on the quality of what goes in. But it doesnt start with quality necessarily .. it starts
with quantity. The more weve seen in our lives, whatever the sources, the more well be able to
visualize. Then, the move towards quality begins simply with questioning; the act of
interrogating what it is were seeing, where it might come from, how good those sources
are and what visual assumptions we might have been making.
For example, its hard to visualize the concept of a circus on stage (i.e. to shape it in our minds
in terms of what general actions are going on, what sort of background the performers are seen
against and what they look like) if weve never seen one before. 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. Im willing to bet that although probably very few people nowadays have actually been to a
circus, we will all have some kind of scene-setting image which is pieced together from various
sources .. storybook images seen as a child, related scenes from other plays or performances we
might have been to, scenes from films or television. When we are reading a novel for enjoyment
we just need to set the scene for ourselves vaguely, without even being really conscious of it, just
to get through the story and unless the writer refines or directs our vision with a more specific
description, that image of ours has to serve. It probably doesnt matter how incomplete that image
is or how silly the sources are, as long as the writer is doing their job properly in directing our
attention to whats important. Now, compare that to reading a play text with the view to
designing it. Ideally, our first experience of the material should be exactly the same! Ideally our
initial reading should be just as free, unselfconscious or unbiased .. initially that is. 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. We do then have to examine that
scene-setting image weve formed of the circus and subject it to questioning .. what are we really
seeing; how complete is it; where have those visual impressions come from; which of those are
coming from the text; what more do we need (whether in terms of quantity or quality) to start
building that image for real?

The process is similar in many respects when planning the making of something. We may be able
to visualize the whole process in some detail, if weve done it or something very similar before.
Again, the more weve made the more well be able to realistically visualize making. 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 specific snap-shots of things weve experienced
which could be related. So for example we may have the general circus image, but then we have
to start making it real by questioning .. can we trust what we think we know; what bits dont we
know, and which can only be found by starting or experimenting; what more do we need to start
that?

Sketch model-making
Sketch model-making .. in other words making quick, rough mock-ups to get a better idea of how
something is truthfully likely to look .. is a standard and, I believe, indispensable practice in
theatre design! One could say that the less youre confident in your powers of visualization the
more you should do this. But because the sketch model has the other function, more a
communicative than a freely exploratory one, when working with the director for example, its
uses can get a bit confused. You, as the designer, may view the sketch model properly as the
closest approximation of something yet to be properly defined, whereas it is difficult for the
director to look at it as blurred in the same way you do. You have to be prepared for the sketch
model being judged on exact face value and you need to be clear about what you
consider purposely vague and what isnt. The other thing is, sketch or rough in this context
should be understood more in terms of quickly made or not precious rather than necessarily
inexact. Scale for example needs to be as exact as you can manage, even in a sketch model,
otherwise nothing specific can be learnt from it.
Defining with measured drawing
After basic structures have been tested in the sketch model and been approved they often need
to be further refined in terms of exact dimensions or, more understandably, the method of making
them, and it is better to work these out on paper first. An example of the first might be a flight of
steps which it might be acceptable to generalise roughly in the sketch model but which need to be
checked on paper (see Working Examples below). 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.
To make the rake properly the height at the highest point needs to be measured together with the
length along the floor from the lowest point and drawn up on paper (as a long, thin triangle) to get
the gradient. 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. The best way to make a stable rake is to cut a number of those triangles and
glue them at regular intervals to the underside of a sheet.

Knowing when the planning should pause


Models can easily go too far into unnecessary or gratuitous detail and it is the same with
planning. Its not entirely true that There is no such thing as too much planning. There are
dangers, both in terms of scrutinising the present in too much detail or trying to look too far into
the distance.

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 engagement with
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. Planning is supposed to be logical and rational,
but it can also become paradoxically unrealistic! It often delivers the ideal, based on a string of
assumptions
about what one thinks one can achieve and when, setting up an end-goal that is
often as far removed from reality as it can get! That kind of planning usually only
results in frustration and disappointment!

Instead, the kind of planning Im advocating is episodic rather than epic! Make sure that
youre always planning enough in hard practical terms (i.e. that you have the basic materials,
tools and information) to get you through the next few practical steps. Of course its important to
have a notion of the bigger picture, why it is youre doing things and where it could all lead, but
dont allow this picture to overwhelm the present or close your mind to the changes that each step
could generate. 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 to work calmly on the bigger ideas and deliver them when needed.

Knowledge of materials and where to get them


As Ive said, as a maker youll only be as good as the materials you know about! But, as with
everything seemingly, there are points and counterpoints .. to accommodate the innate differences
in people and their situations. I still hold that the key to solving most model-making challenges is
to at least know of the existence of a wide variety of material options. 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 foamboard or foamed Pvc sheet! Its not just that I am enabled to
do things with these materials which would either be impossible or impractical with others. 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. 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. This is my point though .. Ive made my selection from exploring many! It pays to be
divergent and explore all sorts of different options but after a while it also pays to converge upon
a chosen few that one knows particularly well.
Learning about new materials isnt difficult or particularly time-consuming! You can dip into the
articles here, or browse through the Lexicon for example .. or countless other websites .. not to
mention books! But probably an even better, more memorable starting point is just to go and see
what an outlet like the 4D modelshop in London has to offer.

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
because you are actually seeing and handling things.

Thinking in terms of base layers and add ons


Structures, particularly architectural ones, often have a defining shape which I call the base
layer meaning the most significant outline, although this may not be located literally at its base.
This is usually the place to start when sorting out how to construct the structure. For example the
proscenium wall i.e. the front of this theatre model-box is a relatively simple structure which can
be put together in layers. 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 neednt be more complicated than this and if you dont like the visible join
(indicated by the shaded strip on the drawing below) this can be faced with black paper. 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! They may be built differently in reality).
I made the wall pieces below to illustrate how seemingly involved wall surfaces can just be a
collection of boxes on a base layer. For example with the simpler one on the right its easier to
cut a main wall piece as a continuous strip and stick the protruding part over it as a box if the
construction isnt going to be seen. Its stronger anyway, its actually quicker, and the extra
material hardly makes a difference in cost. It also means that, if need be, individual sections can
be more easily kept separate for painting.
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. 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. 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!

If youre not good with measurements .. do something about it!


My theory is that its the creatively divergent thinkers that make the best theatre designers, and
quite a few of those that I know or have taught have difficulty with the number processing
aspects of the work (although Im sure it doesnt follow that if youre good with numbers youre
neither creatively divergent nor a good theatre designer!). I also suspect that this difficulty arises,
not because those people are unable to think logically or systematically enough or that theyre not
mentally organized, but rather its something to do with not being able to retain information that
has almost no emotional or visual reference.

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! First of all you need to focus on what exactly it is that you find
difficult, and it could be just one, a few or a number of things. 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? Or might it partly be the way measurements
are written, for example?
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. Ive found some
ways which have helped .. I write numbers down fairly bold on pieces of paper so that theres
also the sense of the movement Im making with the pen; I say the numbers out loud and often
retain the sound of my voice saying them etc. I think Ive also assigned some kind of character
to each of the 9 single digits, in a very vague way, to help with both differentiating and
remembering them. I always try to transfer a group of measurements I might need (ideally no
more at one time than can be fitted with large writing on a post-it) to lie directly in my field of
vision while working, as below. This has helped a lot, because at times its felt as if they can
disappear somewhere within the 2metre journey from drawing-board to worktable!

Cutting needs to be learned and practised!


In my experience a standard surgical-type scalpel (i.e. Swann-Morton No.3 handle, on the left
below) is by far the best knife to use for model-making work. The best blade to use with it is the
10A. Its the most general-purpose but also the most precise. 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. Unfortunately I have only seen these on sale in Sweden! The knife on the far right is not
a scalpel, but is another very common type (especially with hobby or craft shops) and is not as
good in a number of respects. In the first place the flat orientation of the scalpel helps with
controlling it, compared to the round barrel. Secondly the scalpel blade is more firmly supported
and this support extends further towards the fine tip, as you can see. The blade in the other knife
will tend to flex and wobble too much, especially when pressing hard. Lastly the blades for this
knife are more cheaply made, not as sharp and .. I think .. not as easy to find. Often the blades are
a little thicker than scalpel blades and this can make a noticeable difference when cutting because
they produce more friction! These knives are not necessarily cheaper than scalpels (at least they
shouldnt be if the shop prices fairly) and in any case .. why should one think about saving just 1
or so on a tool which will last and which ones using all the time?
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! 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. Scale model-making of this
kind is so dependent on being able to cut a straight line in the right place. It sounds so simple ..
but its not! It cant just be taken for granted that everyone will be able to do this with just a little
practise and often people who could otherwise become excellent makers are put off the whole
idea of model-making just because this one aspect is never really conquered. Here are a few
guidelines:

If youre using a material for the first time you should take a while just to get a sense of how it
cuts i.e. starting with how steady the metal ruler will lie on it, how resilient or giving the surface
is to the initial pass with the blade, how many passes are needed to cut through cleanly without
excessive pressure. If you dont feel confident that the ruler will stay where youve put it, you
either need a better ruler or you need to do something so that it will grip better. Flat steel rulers
will certainly need a strip of masking tape on the back at the very least but sometimes this isnt
enough so pieces of double-sided tape could be added provided they wont damage the material.
If left on permanently they will lose their tack over time but will still improve the rulers grip.

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. It should feel locked there, able to run freely along but not
to depart from the edge. The scalpel blade is slightly flexible and it should be pressed hard
enough into the metal edge so that it flexes just a little.

There are no special prizes for being able to cut through in one go! 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. Ones focus at this stage should be more on the edge of the
ruler than the material to be cut. Pressure comes afterwards, once ones established this line and it
shouldnt matter how many passes it takes to cut through. If youre having to press so hard to get
through the material that you cant control the straightness of the cut anymore it means one or
more of the following:- the material is too tough or thick to be cut with a scalpel and you will
have to try with a Stanley knife or failing that a saw; you can turn the sheet over and try cutting in
exactly the same place on the other side (when cutting thick materials its the friction on the blade
that becomes the problem and starting new from the other side often works); or you need to
build up some more strength in your hand and arm through practise.

If, for whatever reason, the ruler moves while cutting, dont try repositioning it by eye. Put the tip
of the scalpel in the beginning of the line youve started and slide the ruler up against it. 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. You might need to adjust, beginning and end, a couple of times.

Its worth asking yourself consciously whether youre working under the best conditions or
whether they can be very simply improved? For example .. is the cutting matt flat and smooth or
is it more like a Jackson Pollock? Can much of this be scraped off? Is the cutting matt really flat
on the table or are there small bits of scrap under it? Have you really got enough proper light to
work by? .. in particular, can you see your marked line clearly enough or is the edge of the ruler
casting a shadow over it?

Usually with thin materials (i.e. 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. Generally, if ones holding the
scalpel normally it will be fine. But if over 1mm thick it can matter, especially if the edge is to be
glued on something else at a right-angle. If using foamed Pvc or wood it would be normal
practice to straighten the cut edge using a sanding block and this will even work with foamboard
or some types of cardboard. Even so its best if one gets used to holding the scalpel upright in the
first place. Its much easier to maintain the knife upright if you can actually see the angle while
cutting, i.e. by cutting the line in the direction straight ahead of you rather than side to side.
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.

Changing the scalpel blade (i.e. 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. The only way to solve this (until it wears down a little with use!) is either
to use pliers to get the blade off and on, or to file into the blade channels a little. Below is not
intended as a solution to this, but it does help to know that blunted blades neednt always be
replaced. 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. Its
usually only the very tip of the blade that gets blunt so its best to focus on sharpening just this
small part, flexing it a little into the paper.
PRACTICAL GUIDANCE
Keeping track of what is being glued to where
A common exercise for beginners is making a complete 6-sided cube using flat card. All sides
and all edges of a cube need to be perfectly equal. Does this mean that the first task is to cut out
six perfectly identical squares? If your answer was No, of course not! 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 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. Working out the measurements needed and best method of assembly for a simple cube can
be challenging enough, so one gets an idea of the forethought involved in making more
complicated constructions. 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.
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. Dont be afraid of making it multi-
coloured if that helps .. this is not prissy!

Labelling cut pieces


Its an annoyance I used to experience countless times! .. 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. There was
often one that I never managed to find again, probably because Id mistakenly cut it up to make
something else. These pieces need to be labelled as soon as cut, including the record of where the
top or bottom is etc. You can use bright post-its as below; these are cheerful and important
looking, but they could come off. Another way is writing on a piece of masking tape.
Getting and keeping right-angles
In the first place, never assume that a sheet of card (or especially an off-cut of card) has perfect
right-angles even if its straight out of the shop. These need to be checked first.. 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 ..
Using a try square is a clearer way of checking, not least because one only has to look at one edge
rather than two

Using try square; marking out on the drawing board;


Setting up for gluing
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.

Whichever materials are being used and whatever the properties of the glue (i.e. whether fast or
slow), gluing needs to be prepared for. 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. With a good
quality wood-glue and normally-absorbent card this will not be long, perhaps just a couple of
minutes. 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.

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. I use metal blocks (steel offcuts) to glue pieces against.
For example, below I placed the edge of the base piece up against the block, put some glue on the
edge of the upright piece and just had to slide it down the block surface into position. This
ensured that the upright piece was glued in the right position along the edge of the base piece.
Metal blocks like these can be bought from metal retailers such as www.metalmaniauk.com for
between 5-10 (see Lexicon entry metal construction blocks
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). 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. 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.
The scaffolding construction below needed a bit more preparation to set up the pieces for gluing.
The scaffolding was made from 2mm acrylic rod, superglued together and then painted to look
like metal. The individual pieces of rod needed to be taped onto card to hold them in position
while glue was introduced into the joints.

Because the structure was three-dimensional I had to make the special foamboard construction
below to glue it on. I needed to be careful not to apply too much superglue to the joints otherwise
it would have glued the scaffolding to the card. After gluing I just needed to remove the pieces of
masking tape and slide the scaffolding construction off the supporting form. Specially made
supporting forms like this are known as construction jigs.
Below, some of the side poles needed to be glued afterwards and these also needed small
temporary supports to assist gluing them in the right place.
Faking surfaces
This is not a sudden jump forward to talking about how to create surfaces although, as Ive
mentioned, one does have to include certain decisions about them from the beginning especially
if theyll add to the thickness of structures. What I mean here is that if for example I need to make
a structure that looks like real wood it often makes sense to use real wood (if the scale looks
right), but it doesnt make sense for me to construct in wood because Im not familiar with
working with it in a constructional way. 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.
This has many advantages; it cuts down on cost, it gives more control over the appearance (type
of wood, staining, direction of grain), it doesnt require special tools or woodworking methods.
Dealing with curves
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. 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! One really does have to have a feeling of steady flow to do it properly and it usually
doesnt work if youre agitated. You need the practise to get an idea of how your hand behaves in
that situation; how much you can rest it on the material but still slide it along smoothly; whether
its easier holding the blade upright or more oblique; whether it goes more smoothly using a
sharp blade or a slightly blunted one; whether you need to be sitting down or standing up over it.
All of these, and more, are considerations and only you can discover what works best for you.
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. H rather than HB to
give a sharper pencil line or, failing that, sharpen the end to fine point using a nail-file; as with
most other cutting, make your first pass just a gentle guiding cut on the surface to be able to move
more freely without having to press down too much; if possible use a different, i.e. softer or less
fibrous card for these circles than youve used for the rest of the model and dont even attempt to
cut circles from the thick, dense, hard recycled type!

But if youve tried and tried again, and youre still not getting anything like a circle, there are
other things that could help. There are so-called cutting compasses like the one below which
usually dont cost too much. They have a very small blade in place of a pencil lead. I can
guarantee that you wont be able to cut anything like mountboard right through with them (its
impossible to press down enough while moving round) but you will be able to make a good,
precise guiding cut. You will then need to trace this with the scalpel. 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). Art or graphics shops often sell spare points.
The photo below illustrates how one would normally approach building any curved structures in
the model, whether concave (curving inwards) or convex (curving outwards). If card is being
used it needs to be a relatively soft one, such as mountboard, and .. this is important .. not too
thin, i.e. 1.5mm mountboard is usually fine. You may think that its going to be easier to curve
thinner card, but it may not keep its shape well enough. 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). Make repeated and regular-spaced half-cuts (i.e. not all
the way through) from top to bottom. 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. Ideally
each cut should have the same depth (or rather theyre cut with the same pressure) but this is very
difficult to regulate. If all goes well the scored card should bend easily and evenly, and the strips
act as reinforcement keeping it straight vertically.
Curves almost always need a support behind them to keep them in shape. 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.
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). Ive made the curved piece
longer than necessary because its easier to handle it this way and its easy enough to trim the end
off once its firmly in place. With this method the score lines are always visible, whichever side
youre facing, but the way to eliminate this completely is to cover the curve with another surface
of strong paper (or thin plastic), preferably using spraymount to glue it evenly.

There are other sheet materials which can be used for creating curved surfaces without the need
for scoring. Thin (i.e. 0.5mm) white styrene sheet is very bendable (available from model shops
such as 4D). Also available from 4D is a special form of soft cardboard called Finnboard. This
is made from pure wood pulp and if it is soaked thoroughly in water it can be bent into a curve
without creasing. It needs to be kept in that curve while drying though i.e. by securing it around a
bottle or similar former.
WORKING EXAMPLES
Steps and staircases
I often use the example of making a unit or run of steps to illustrate many of the issues of main
construction, and in any case the question of making stairs is always coming up. Ive adapted
this account from my book Model-making: Materials and Methods but Ive also extended it to
include a method for open steps and a basic approach to making a spiral staircase.

Even with a simple staircase unit it will become clear after a bit of thought that certain things
need to be found out before starting .. firstly the standard acceptable proportion (i.e. height and
depth) for a step, the height you want your staircase to go to and the distance along thats going to
be needed to get there. See Common sizes of things in the Methods section for 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). 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. dividing 200mm into 4 metres to give 20 and
multiplying that by 250mm to give 5 metres. It might have been simpler and perhaps quicker
though to think of the step proportion 200:250 (which is the same overall) reduced to 1:1.25 and
simply multiply 4 metres by 1.25.
Once the dimensions are sorted, two identical profiles (side views) need to be drawn up and cut
out. These will become the sides of a freestanding stair box. Believe me, its best and easiest to
make it this way, even if the stair itself is going to be enclosed between other walls. Theres
nothing harder than trying to construct something in mid-air! A lot of construction challenges are
solved simply by taking the time to rig up a support to glue upon. 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 best thing to do is to draw up a complete grid (above), composed in this case of 200cm x
250cm rectangles. The try square comes in handy for this, or the card can be taped to a drawing
board. The grid helps in keeping lines straight and spacing regular, and the extended lines will
help when positioning the ruler to cut against later. 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! In the past I often drew up a larger grid so that I could make use of the cut zig-zag for both
profile pieces. But I have to say, they rarely matched completely. The following three photos
were taken for the book by Astrid Baerndal.
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 synced. The easiest way to do this is to
stick them on a base cut to the proper size. This will add a little extra height though, so to
compensate the same needs to be taken off the base of each profile. The right-angle supports
glued inside are essential to make sure that the profiles remain properly upright.
For the next stage above Ive used coloured mountboard to make it clearer how Ive chosen to fill
in the steps because there could be a number of ways. Here I cut a strip of card exactly the right
width for gluing between the uprights and cut all the riser pieces from it. I then inserted these in
the right positions using Pva wood glue to allow for some repositioning. In this case the flat of a
small metal ruler was useful for pressing them level.
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. It only
remains to give the steps the required surface, whether thats concrete, wood or carpet etc.
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).

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. Doesnt this mean that the steps are
slightly .. i.e. 1.5mm .. higher than they should be? In fact theyre not because in making this I
fortunately anticipated that and sliced a total of 3mm off the bottoms of the profiles before gluing
to the base piece. I left that fact out to make this point .. does it really matter? 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. Pride in getting the model right, i.e. in making it look exactly as you want the real set to
be built, should extend to all details. Things like miss-matched joins, warped surfaces, ragged
areas or spots of glue are only human, but even these little things can prevent a good model from
being fully convincing, rather like tiny errors of continuity in a film which are enough to wake us
up from the illusion.
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? The general method is fairly similar. For example
the first stage is to draw up the necessary grid as before to get the right proportions and spacing.
But then instead of cutting out a profile wall one needs to cut a profile strip, as above.
The two of these then need to be temporarily secured to something so that they stay upright,
parallel, synced etc. Above, I cut a strip of 5mm foamboard to the right width, checked that this
was straight, and secured the profiles to it using small strips of double-sided tape. Below this is
the strip for the treads waiting to be cut. Ive used 1mm Palight foamed Pvc for this
construction, using superglue. After all the treads are glued in place the piece can be easily
loosened from the foamboard support.

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. Maybe its not so surprising because its a beautiful
form, and is often the only attractive solution within a confined space. But having to build it in
model form with at least a semblance of its grace will tax ingenuity and patience to the limit! Ive
been quoting the spiral staircase from the beginning of my teaching, as an example of instances
where model-making interferes with design. So often spiral staircases are ditched in favour of
something easier to make!

What follows is a very basic schema for a generalised look .. it doesnt answer every detail or
for every type but may provide a framework method to build upon or adjust.
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. 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. The same regulations advise on how deep (horizontally) the treads
should be at their middle point and I wont go into detail here but good advice can be found on
sites such as
http://www.accentironwork.com/building%20code.html
This drawing can form the template for cutting out the individual treads later (if copied and
tacked on with repositionable spraymount), but it is also essential for working out how many
steps will be needed for the height required. For example if the staircase needs to reach an upper
level of 3 metres, 14 steps will be required assuming that (as I have done here) that each step rises
200mm and that the last step is to the platform. By starting at the top step (aligned as it will be
with the platform edge) and counting the progresssion of steps downwards on this plan you can
find out how the spiral ends (or rather how the staircase begins). The direction of entry onto a
staircase is something that cant just be left to chance (it has to be appropriate to the way its
going to be used)and if it needs changing there are two things that can be done. The penultimate
step (i.e. the last tread of the staircase itself, before the step up to the platform) can be extended if
theres a gap and usually it wont be noticeable. Alternatively (although not so usual) the rise of
all the steps can be adjusted, because theres a reasonable leeway from 15cm minimum to 23cm
maximum.
What staircases of this more contemporary type have in common (i.e. those usually made of
metal, often with open steps) is a round central pole, as above, and this is the starting point for
construction. This needs to be found first, so that its diameter can be entered on the drawing. 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. Otherwise you might have to make do
with the 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. Its important though that whatever you use has a firm surface and that superglue sets well
on it i.e. a balsawood dowel may not be strong enough.

I am, as always, using 1mm Palight foamed Pvc to solve the problem of needing something that
is thin and easy to cut with accuracy, but still having a firm surface, straightness and resilience.
Above, Ive started to cut out some of the treads. 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.
Above I am dividing up a strip measured the full length of the steps to make the risers. Since each
riser will be glued along the underside of each tread but the preceding tread glued against the
bottom of its face, each riser is the proper height i.e. in this case 200mm in scale.
The best way to start constructing is, as I say, to superglue pairs of tread and riser together first,
trying to keep to right-angles. 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. This can easily be sliced off later (I havent glued
the bottom step to the base!).

If this positioning is followed it shouldnt be necessary to mark the correct heights of steps on the
pole itself. In any case there will be some slight variation however exact one tries to be; the
overall effect will look right!
Often its not the steps that present so much of a problem, its the balustrade. One solution for
achieving this is to cut it as a flat piece which can then be glued and wrapped around in one piece.
Again, foamed Pvc is ideal for this because it is flexible but thin styrene sheet or even stencil card
would also be suitable.
The positioning needs to be checked and then fixed in stages since this is not possible in one go.
Ive only made a portion here to show the principle.
Posted in construction, design, drawing, materials, model-making, teaching, visualization | Taggedcutting circles or
curves, how to cut, making a model spiral staircase, making construction jigs, making model steps, methods of
gluing, model construction, planning construction, principles of construction, problems with numbers, sharpening a
scalpel, sketch model-making, spiral staircase, theatre set design model-making, visualizing from a text, visualizing
the process of making, working out with drawing | 27 Replies

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