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My 13 year old son has a school project to build a model town with three suburbs, a city hall, a port, train, fire, police stations, water filtration plant, to industrial sections … you get the idea. There are about 80 structures in all.
It cannot be larger than 60 x 30 inches in size and he (we) cannot use pre-built structures such as (monopoly pieces) or lego.
Any creative ideas on materials we could use? I think I’ll have more fun with it than he will….
I know this is slightly off topic but I can’t find the link to Taunton’s Fine School Projects website.
Thanks Paul
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For the buildings, if you have access to tools (and you or your son can use them safely), make the buildings out of blocks of wood. Take a length, and slice off the right sizes, like meat in a deli. If you don't like the look of wood, you can always spray paint them. Think long and hard before making any pitched roofs, as this takes a lot of time. If you decide to go for it, chipboard is easy to work with.
For the landscaping: Hobby shops sell moss (or you can find your own outside), which works well for grass. For the trees, find a bush with very small leaves, and break off some twigs. Drill a small hole in the base, put a dab of elmers in the hole, and drop in the twig.
Hobby shops/model railroad shops have all sorts of accessories, but I think it will be more fufilling (and cheaper) to make your own stuff.
Don't forget to take photos when you are all done.
*A chop (miter) saw can make pitched roofs rather easily - attach them to your block buildings with hot glue - with a little planning, these roofs can overhang add realism - I'll also through in a plug for 'A Pattern Language' by Christopher Alexander as a resource - accessable city design study - there's a way to add terrain to the board, my daughter did a contour of our farm, but I don't remember what she used to build up the hills and such - I'll check with her and get back, or maybe someone else knows - I second the picts when you both ar done -
*i did a contour poster board in layers?
*One of my hobbies many years ago was model building - using the cardboard that came from the cleaners with my dad's shirts. I used so much cardboard the service that delivered the shirts would bring me a 6" stack every week.Whatever I was building would be drawn to scale on the white face of the board then the board would be creased, folded and glued or taped. We didn't have hot glue back then so the pieces went together kinda slow.With a few dozen 2 oz bottles of acrylic paint from the craft store, along with inks, thread for the power and phone lines, balsa wood and dowels of various sizes and diameters, clear plastic page dividers cut to make window glass, wire and brass rod from the hobby shop, deer moss and twigs from the road side, grass in a bag (not that kind of grass), also from the hobby shop and a few magazines about model railroad and scenery building you have a good start on your model town.Easy to use tools from exacto, such as the miniature saw, razor blades with the easy change red handle, a metal rule straight edge, wire cutters and sandpaper are all safe tools that both you and your son can use.A large piece of foam core board for your 30x60 base will get you started. All components are light weight and even fully assembled could be handled by one person. Put all this on a folding leg table which can be obtained in the amazing stock size of 30x60 inches and you are in business.This is a project that has the potential for that multi-million dollar look that designers, planners and architects pay big bucks for if you and your son pay attention to detail.Above all else have fun - because it is fun.
*Dear Paul,My son recently had to do a village scene on a much smaller scale than you're talking about. But we made if fun by constructing "pop-ups" instead of just drawing flat huts on paper. Using my layouts, he decorated the buildings in a simple painting program and printed everything in color. He cut, folded and glued the buildings together and they looked good.The best part was copying and pasting duplicate huts. That might help you develop the dozens of units you need.Cordially, Fred
*or you could use balsa wood. you can cut it with a utility knife and glue it with wood glue. hobby shops sell it in small sheets of vaying thicknesses. from 1/16" thick to 1/4" or greater. metal straight edge x acto or utility knife and you can add windows and doors as well. check out some of the modeling magazines in the hobby shops and you can get lots of ideas for different types of dioramas.
*might be time to pick up a dremel tool...fredl. i like the idea of the fold-outs. brian
*Here's an idea to get the 'burbs done.Draw the shape of four different sized houses when viewed at the gable end-wide and thin one story, wide and thin two story. Make the height of the peak of the one story just shorter than the soffit of the two storyUsing a router table with some straight bits and bevel/chamfer bits to put that profile on some long pieces of wood.Now just chop off various lengths houses and fit them together for different styles. It will probably look too much like current spec house 'burbs ;-)Black wet-or-dry sandpaper would make nice asphalt driveways and parking lots. . .Good Luck
*Wow! Where do I begin...I think a combination of both wood and cardboard housing will be effective. We could have really a lot of fun with having a higher-end neighbourhood with nicely gabled roofs (I've been looking for an excuse to buy a router). My son Gordie is pretty proficient with the SCMS. but I still don't let him use the table saw - call me chicken!At the other extreme we could make poorer neighbourhood using the cardboard for good effect. Also easy duplication of the houses will be really nice.Ralph, unfortuneately I don't quite have a collection of drycleaning cardboards (how lifestyles change) but my wife has a nice collection of cardboards from stockings.My wife is a goldsmith with her own shop, so she has a foredham and tons of burrs - if she can remember to bring them home.I really like the idea of the black sandpaper - what a smart idea. I next have to figure out a scale so everything fits.The project is due sometime in April (the exact date is gathering dust somewhere in Gordie's brain). With March break starting next week, he (we) will start attacking the project then...if I ever get him and his brother peeled off the Nintendo.I'll start taking pictures through out the processes and I'll post them in the Gallery.By the way, anyone ever build an airport....CheersPaul
*No airport, but I have Mission building experience. California has missions, we built one & recycled it a couple years later. That thing was around for years but finally vanished somewhere. Joe H
*Yeah,I'm originally from Santa Barbara. Going to LA for a cousin's wedding in May. Really looking forward to going home.Paul
*Last year my kids did a section on Egypt. To create the pyramids, the Sphynx, etc, they used polyisocyanate insulation. On the tablesaw I ripped several lengths from a 1" thick, 8' long sheet, about 1" wide, they used steak knives to cut them into "stone blocks." They then used the blocks to build the pyramids, etc.This year they did another set, a town similar to what you're describing. They again used the poyiso RFBI to cut out the shapes of the buildings. Some they painted directly, others thay did building facades on paper and then glued the paper facade to the Polyiso block.It was very easy for them to vary each house from its neighbor, as the RFBI is so easy to cut and shape.They cut cars/trucks out of the RFBI, thgen swabbed titebond over the vehicles. After the glue dried they painted the vehicles, it gave a nice paintable surface.An added bonus? Each project is SO EASY TO MOVE because the RFBI is so lightweight.