Building a 3D Model

Having never built a 3D "to scale" model before, I must say, I was rather intimidated. I mean, I have NEVER so much as built a solar system out of tooth picks & Styrofoam like kids do in the 3rd grade. I had no idea what I was getting into!

Next, " I drew out a "blue print" on a poster board to get a visual idea of how big my model would be.






I then taped off the 21'' x 21'' area that I thought my area was going to end up being. (I was confused about the math & even though I knew my area was only 20'' x 21''ish I wasn't sure how that affected the math of the "to scale" model??) Apparently it had no effect ... good to know.

I taped off the area on my (tri-fold) foam board so that I didn't get paint everywhere.

I managed to only stab myself 2 times during the assembly of my model which is impressive really since I bought the "light weight" blade ... oopps!

Other injuries included: my skin vs. a "high temp" hot glue gun ... grrrr. I hate burning myself, especially with a hot sticky substance that you can't quite get off fast enough! lol. Ah, fun times.

I used a dark silver paint as a base coat.

I thought I would be able to show the seams in the sidewalk by using twine before I spray painted the textured paint top coat. Turns out I was totally wrong and hours of work went to waste. I did press the twine into the board a bit to indent it & used those lines to somewhat guide me when I used a silver sharpie instead to draw the seams in the "cement".

Notice I had to use "labels" to keep from getting disoriented ... all grey gets confusing! lol.

It turns out that the textured paint I picked out takes a VERY long time to dry. I had to get creative on where to dry my model & not have kids or animals get a hold of it. lol.

This is what my "concrete / cement" on my model looked like dry, with the twine, tape & labels removed.

These are a few pictures of the individual pieces I had to make. What the picture doesn't show is that I took apart each piece at least once to get the sizing right. (Even then, it ended up far from perfect!)

I made a wall, long bench, pedestal (where a lamp would go- did not include lamp), a trash can (TOTAL pain!!), stairs & a railing (straws, genius!!)

This is a cell phone photo of the finished product ;o)

I really like this photo ... it shows off the texture well.

I like that this photo shows that I got the right idea at least. ;o)

This photo is my favorite, (even though it is a cell phone pic). It makes my model look awesome in front of the real thing! ;o) So proud ... of my little foam creation!

I actually think I kind of enjoyed this challenging project ... I would not however enjoy doing "model building" for a living!

The OCD part of me know that the words on m model are way too small ;o( oh well!