Raffles Hotel, Singapore; 1/200 scale

[Marco]

That's a beautiful build and building! I visited a few times when I worked in Malaysia and Brunei. Wouldn't mind a Singapore Sling while shelling some peanuts!

[chris190]

Thanks Marco, it would be nice to be there, especially now it's really winter here!

A bit more progress today and some photos of how I am cutting out the balcony balustrades which at this scale are uncomfortably small.

First the whole arch opening and balustrade is removed. Then the lowest gaps between the uprights are removed, involving cutting vertical/sloping edges only, not the cut across the lower edge. Then the piece is glued back into the arch but only along the balustrade edges.

Next cut is across the top of the fretted area and so the triangles in the fret can easily be removed with two diagonal cuts, not the cut across the top. Then the remaining bit of the arch is put back and glued to the fretted area and finally a cut along the top of the balustrade horizontal is made and the remaining bit of the arch cut out can be taken away and thrown away.

The idea behind this is that forming holes is made much neater if the area is open on one edge, fewer difficult internal corners to get right.

Might not have explained that too well but I have found this a great help on quite a few of my models, especially when forming spoked wheels for Micromodel locomotives. What would be much easier of course, is using laser cutting the card but that's way beyond me!

Best wishes to all

Chris

[Philip]

That's a neat idea.

[aansorge]

i would be delighted to try laser cutting. Then I think of all the things you must tell me for my pieces to actually work with your model, the paper and printing that would match is probably the most difficult to get straight, the drawing itself, of course. A way to check my scaling, And I feel as though I'm missing enough details that we might end up going back and forth a hundred times.


Still....


And a beauty it is.


al

[Viator]

Thanks for the tip!
I have observed the same when preparing 1/300 railings and ladders. It is far easier to glue together a "comb" opened on one side with a closing bar than to cut out many small closed areas.

[chris190]

It seems to have been some time since I last posted but here is the latest state of completion with the right hand side and matching rear return elevation now in place.

I think the main quality that this shows is an ability to persevere - construction has become rather tiresome and this may well show in my standard of workmanship; the repetitiveness of the details on the long elevations and the difficulty of trying to reproduce sculptural, three dimensional elements in small bits of solid card combine to make progress very slow.

Excuse the inclusion of balsa wood for the floor slabs, much the best solution for warp free elements and they are the only non card short cuts on the model!

Best wishes to all

Chris

[Erik Zwaan]

Wow Chris, that looks very impressive! You really turn it into a very realistic scaled copy of the original. Keep up the good work and persevere!

Cheers,
Erik

[Don Boose]

What a magnificent building!

And to steal a thought from Aaron Murphy, wood is pre-paper.

Don

[chris190]

Your kind comments much appreciated Erik and Don! There have been occasions recently when I have seriously considered dumping this project so encouragement from fellow modellers is really welcome.

This afternoon sees me start the left hand elevation, same as the right but maybe it will go more smoothly??!!

Best wishes

Chris

[Vermin_King]

I hope it moves smoothly.


Sending you encouragement