Old Firehouse Model

[phil_o]

There are some very nice older buildings in my home town. I modeled the firehouse from a photograph. I plan to do others, they are a lot work but the buildings are beautiful.
The first picture is the screenshot from Aspire. The second is the firehouse machined in MDF. It is patiently waiting to have the finish applied. I can't decide whether to paint it as shown in the screenshot or use a glaze finish to simulate wood.

[wberminio]

Very nice-Great Job!
I like the detail.

[steve_g]

Really nice!
With the shopBot you don’t have to decide how to finish it … do one each way! Are they V-carved?

Steve

[phil_o]

Thanks, Erminio and Steve. I just might do more than one and try different finishing techniques. They are not VCarved. I created a 3D model in Aspire and used a 1/8" ballnose to machine.

[gemdandy]

That's beautiful work Phil! Detail is very crisp, did it take a long time modeling?

[bleeth]

The texture in the stones and brick is great! Did you create it from "create component from bitmap" or add a texture to raised shapes?

[phil_o]

Modelling took damn near forever. I started the model last Aug., put it on the shelf for a while and came back to it. Some of the new tools in Aspire 3 simplified the process. I came back to it after seeing the new tutorials. I've learned a lot and I know how to approach a project like this much better than I did before. So it should take a lot less time to do another building.
The stone texture is a texture applied to a base. For the bricks I made a brick wall, no cutouts for windows or any other items. Then I did a 3Dfinish toolpath and created a toolpath from the preview and used the toolpath for the brick wall and punched out window, door, etc. holes.

[bleeth]

I can imagine. It's a heck of a job and some of the nicest stone relief I have ever seen.

[billp]

Phil,
Have you considered "bronzing it" with something like Sculpt Nouveau instead of having wood grained bricks?

[phil_o]

Hi Bill,

The good folks at Sculpt Nouveau just sent me a few samples. I plan to work with them a bit and maybe do a bronze coating.
Any tips?

Phil

[billp]

Phil,
Their stuff is SO easy to use it just comes down to what combinations of color/patina/sealer works best for you. If you get a chance take a peek at the thread from the just completed Texas Camp and look at Steve Glassel's
"sample board" on which he combined a bunch of different colors, etc.
Your buildings easily lend themselves to something like this because it gives any material a rich look/feel of aged metal.
You can brush,spray,wipe,dip the material into their coatings, depending on how thick of a surface you want to create. And with all of those bricks you wouldn't lose ANY of the detail either.....
The patinas are just as easy, and the biggest "problem" most people run into is deciding which one looks the best ! You can 'experiment' on a plain board, and keep adding more, and different patinas one on top of the other to get even further depth as well. I think you'll like what happens once you give them a try.....
I'm sure others reading this may also have ideas of what "flavor"coating to use.
Please let us see what this looks like if you decide to use the SN stuff!

[steve_g]

Phil:
When I first saw your firehouse I thought of silver or brass Sculpt Nouveau with a black wax fill. The attached images are V carved and coated with silver SN with a black wax fill. Your softer carvings will show shades of black rather than lines like mine. But I think it will look very nice.

Steve

[phil_o]

Bill,

Steve posted a couple of pictures - thanks Steve. I assume these are the ones you referred to.
I went to the pictures posted from the Austin Camp http://www.shopbotblog.com/index.php...-camp-shopbot/ (http://www.shopbotblog.com/index.php/2011/02/2011-austin-tx-camp-shopbot/)
and didn't see Steve's projects. Are there others?

Phil

[billp]

Phil,
Steve's pix are on the second page, there are 4 of them I believe.