Field Trip - Dr Who Exhibition, Kelvingrove Museum

The second half of today was spent at the Dr Who Exhibition at Kelvingrove Gallery. I've got to be honest this is the last thing i'd go to see personally, but i've got to admit, with a model making hat on it was really quite interesting. Lots of different types of props and models. You could get up close and examine them, see how they where put together. There was a display that showed the entire process of creating a creature right from the conception to the design to the final production.

Art & Design

So today was the big day of testing. We had brief 30 min to make any final adjustments while the gap was being set up. Each bridge was first tested with the Thomas the Tank Engine in both directions. Then it was on to the fun stuff. Weight was gradually added to the train to see which could take the most before destruction.

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‘Bridge over GA GA’ was victorious taking over 800g of weight before it gave way.

Constrction Technique

Today was about finishing the bridge. Most of the trusses had been finished yesterday and were left to dry over night. Today they will be pieced together. We also created a narrow track that will run down the centre of the bridge. This track is 1500mm long, extending beyond the structure on both sides. The theme being Lady Ga Ga, we decorated the trusses with piano keys and other Ga Ga associated images. These also acted as bracing mechanism to the trusses giving added support.

We had a brief opportunity to test the bridge with the motorized train. As expected it ran perfectly in both directions with not even the slightest twist or movement form the bridge.

Week 1 - Tools & Equipment / Model Materials

Today was my first day of Model Making HND at the Metropolitan College. As per usual it was an induction day. Quite different it has to be said. The first task was a team building exercise.

The Task.
To build a bridge able to span a distance of 800mm.
The Bridge must be able to carry a small motorized train both ways unaided.
Each bridge will then be tested to destruction with added weight.
Only materials provided can be used.

The materials included approx 80 paper straws, assorted paper and card of various thicknesses, a bottle cap, clothes pegs, some string and some coloured pipe cleaners. 1 metre of masking tape, 1m of double sided tape along with some latex glue was also provided.

We were divided into teams of 3. Each team was also giving a theme which must influence the design. Our theme is Lady Ga Ga. We have 2 days construction time along with a 30 min 'tinkering time' on Weds morning before testing. Each bridge will be tested in 3 ways, ability to carry the train in both directions, aesthetics and final tested to destruction with added weight.

We quickly concluded that a simple truss box would be the simplest and most effective way of spanning the gap.

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I worked out the dimensions needed to create the boxes and we started a production line. Straws were cut into the correct length before being glued into rectangles. 3 rectangles, each 1000mm x 100 were created which will act as the floor plate and 2 walls. Long beams were created by inserting straw inside each other to join and strengthen them. These will be connected to the rectangles forming 2 prism shaped beams from which the structure will be supported.