Marketing in Miniature: Turning over the keys!

Today is the final build day on the miniature stores. The truck came at 5, and we just made it! For some reason, we were able to really enjoy this build. Even though the timeline got squashed at the end due to the "mid-project" prop build we had to, I still found the time to really appreciate the models. Back in the summer on the Turbo-Town build, I had no time to enjoy the work, just build and ship, build and ship. And when it was done, on to something else. This has been great.
I think a lot of it is because these clients are so low stress, they are a dream to work for!

I started the day off by assembling all the wall panels. When I painted the window glazing, the first coat of paint was the wall color, followed by the silver mullion color. This meant that from the inside, the window mullions were wall color, but on the outside they were silver. As the ABS lacquer is very opaque, it blocked any light from showing through the silver, which would have looked pretty bad.

Once the walls were assembled and glued down to the base, I installed the 3/4" thick pvc shelf blocks around the perimeter of the store. I pocketed in 2 holes in each block. These holes will get a 5/8" screw driven into them. The thought being that we will glue magnets to the backs of the shelf facades we made, and they will grab onto the screws. This will allow them to just quickly attach new shelves, with different product graphics, if they choose. I do believe that eventually they want these to represent an assortment of stores, from liquor stores, to grocery/ convenience stores. The swap out shelves will be fool-proof for them.

Once the walls were all together, I was able to fab the sidewalk pads that will butt up against the bottom of the walls. I had to do these manually, just in-case the model wasn't dead center on the base, which proved to be exactly what happened! The concrete expansion joints were quickly added by our little table saw with a .040" blade. The sidewalk serves 2 purposes for us. One, it cleans up the look of the building by hiding the wall to floor seam, and two, it creates the final side of the "track" for the walls. Effectively giving more gluing surface for the walls/ base joint. So the walls of the building ends up pinched between the interior floor, and the sidewalk pads.

Once the sidewalk pads were glued down, I wrapped the sides of the bases with a brushed metal laminate, then installed the final block-work around the walls. The last bit of assembly was to attach the entrance arch to the columns.

We actually took these final pictures while the models were half way out the door. As I look back on this post as I write it, It amazes me how simple and easy the model looks, yet I know how many hours went into it. It seems the more work you put into building something, the more you make it look simple!

 The final step now, is to fabricate the small labels that will identify all the zones they want. Were going to build those over the weekend, for delivery to Vancouver.
Then I'm off to teach Vectric software for 2 days up in Thunder Bay, ON.
That should be a lot of fun, I like teaching. Which is ironic, because I hated school!
8)
JO

Marketing in Miniature #5!

Our miniature marketing model is in full swing. We have to deliver tomorrow by end of day. We should be in good shape. There are a bunch of little tags with magnetic bases that go along with the model, but we don't need those till early next week.

I started the day by having our Techno cnc chew out the plates for the 8 shelving units that run around the perimeter of the buildings. I drew these up in Aspire, and had the software cut a .0625" track for each of the 6 shelf strips. These are going to be .060X.080 strips that symbolize the shelf. As we are adding prints of wine bottles, there's really no need for the whole shelf.

 Just before we left yesterday, I made the 3" thick, 30X30" bases that the buildings will sit on. Pretty basic stuff, hollow, with a few ribs for strength. I wanted all the wood glue nice and dry before I started to contact cement the 1/8" pvc slab. I'm using pvc, as it glues really well to the styrene walls that will be sitting on it, plus it contact cements really well. And I have a lot of it at the moment!

Once the pvc was down, I drilled 5 mounting holes into the 1/16" sheet metal, used some heavy duty carpet tape, and fastened it to the base. This will get covered by .025" styrene that will get the floor treatment. Again, the metal is just for the magnetic pieces that will populate the store. Normally we don't do this quite this way.

All of our little fixtures got their paint job last night, and were fully dry by this morning. Woo Hoo!

It's taken a total of 2 days to trim and install all the shelf prints. This seems like a long time, but they were a total pain in the.............. Jody did a great job, I didn't get frustrated once! We also cut a brushed aluminum frame that frames in the upper portion of the larger gondola's. These were just vinyl cut on our plotter. Once again, Jody got it done, and I didn't even break a sweat!

I added the coping stone to the top of the exterior stone-work, and grooved it on our little table saw. These were all done from pvc.

These got a kind of khaki color as the base coat.

Once the paint was almost dry, I speckled a fine misting of the exterior stucco color over top. This is done by thinning the paint quite a bit, then using a very low psi through the gun, letting the mist settle where it may. You can get some really great effects like this. We're painting most of this model with ABS laquer. It bonds right into the styrene and pvc, and it can be sanded in less than 10 minutes. Now were talkin!

Here's a closer view, to make it a bit easier to see. Looks pretty good. The only draw back to this process is that it can visually hide a lot of the detail, so Jody mixed a small amount of grey, and darkened the mortar joints.

We used the same technique for the floor as well. I didn't add any tile work grout lines, as I think a .5"X.5"  grid pattern would distract from the intended interior application. It keeps the inside clean. We used all the building colors in the floor speckle. Including the silver from the fridges. It kind of gives a neat effect as you move around the model.

The final bit today was getting the fridge assemblies finished. We were given very specific layouts for the freezer, and were supplied all the artwork. We had to keep checking the layout to make sure the cases of beer were all in the correct order! Overall, I think these fridges rock! They're gonna look great at the back of the store. If it wasn't -20 outside, I'd feel like crackin' a cold one!
8)
JO

Marketing in miniature#4

We were interrupted on the miniature build for a last minute prop build. Can't post about it until June, but we're back onto the models now full swing!

The day started like most, with our awesome coffee lids! However, our fantastic coffee lady has changed her shifts, so our cool lids are not as frequent anymore :(

The bases for the gondola shelf units were made from 1/8" black pvc. We'll mask it off before paint so as they stay black. I drilled 3/8" holes into them, but only part way, this will effectively trap the rare earth magnet. No need to worry about them breaking loose.

Jody worked pretty quickly getting the shelving gondola's assembled and ready to paint.

This is the final configuration of the unit. Being that it was all made in separate pieces, it will allow for an endless configuration. The two models are of a generic liquor store, so there will be endless amounts of prints to wrap on these bad boys!

I had our Techno cnc cut the columns and entrance arch for the front of the store. 90% of all of these parts will get mitered corners, so we dont have to sand and fill the joints. Our mitering/ routering jig makes this extremely easy and accurate. It actually takes 1/2 the time to miter all the corners, rather  than deal with a butt join.

I got the columns all scribed, and the glazing slid into it's tiny track, every piece gets multiple test fits before we commit them with the glue, and even then there are surprises!

The interior architectural details got finished as well. Instead of goofing around with tiny strips of crown molding, I cut a whole top cap of 1/4" styrene for the top of the window arches, and routed a small edge detail. This makes the view from above the roofless model clean and crisp. You'll notice the gap between the wall sections and the floor. This is to allow for the 1/16" thick metal plate inside the model, as well as the .025" styrene floor pad that will get glued to the metal.

I started to work on the canopy portion for the entrance way. The arches were cut on our Techno, and fit perfectly to the model. The cross bracing was cut from table saw strips out of 1/4" styrene.

While the glue on the entrance was curing, I routed 3/4" pvc strips for the molding that will adorn the top of the building. It was actually easier to router a block of the pvc, then cut the edge off on the table saw. Then re-route the edges of the block, and cut the edge off. This gave me a strong piece to route, that wouldn't be too tricky to get a clean edge. Plus it keeps fingers away from the cutters!

Once the glue on the canopy frame set up, I clad the roof with .060" styrene. I used a couple of Evergreen strips to add some detail, avoiding a big boring surface. It's amazing what taking a few extra minutes here and there can do.
8)
JO
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Marketing: in miniature#3!

No awesome coffee lids today :( Our usual amazing server wasn't in.
This build, like all the others, is progressing in the usual fashion. The usual fashion being that it looks like not a lot is being done. In fact, it looked like we had more done first thing this morning than when we left!

I was able to spray out the fridge shelves in the bright silver color we're using. Once the graphic panels get placed into them, the only thing visible will be the shelf edges. This makes it very easy to paint as I don't really have to mask off anything.

I employed our handy-dandy height gauge, loaded with an X-acto blade, to cut through the paper masking on the acrylic. The idea is to remove the mask around the outside, so when we paint the panel silver, and remove the center masking, we'll have a set of metal framed glass cooler doors.

It didn't really take very long to cut the mask on all 14 doors.

I added a 1/2" length of .060"X .125" strip styrene to the center of the door, then ran it through our smaller table saw with a .040" thick blade. This became the double handle on the cooler doors. This was a lot faster than adding individual handles, but gives the same look.

After a couple of coats of bright silver, these guys are done. The great thing about cutting the mask right on the acrylic, is that the score of the blade stops any paint bleed under the masking for the glass.

I also got the building walls scribed for the stucco panel look. The next task was to glue up the .060"X .060" styrene strips that will become the track that we can slip the window glazing into.

It went pretty smoothly and looks really clean.

I used a piece of masked .060" acrylic, that will later become the doors and windows, as a spacer for the styrene track. Leaving the paper on stops the glue from attaching the glazing prematurely, and also works as a small spacer. This should ensure that the glazing will still slide in after paint.

Right now there are all kinds of neat little piles of model parts in various stages of completion.
This will all come together in the final hour, effectively making the model look like it was really simple to build. "Oh yeah, no sweat!"

8)
JO

Marketing: In Miniature 2

I spent a lot of the weekend drawing up and cross-checking parts and pieces for the miniature store we're building.

Jody and I start every morning with our daily staple of coffee. 2 mediums, 2 cream, 2 sugar. And every morning, the fabulous girls at the donut shop write something different on our lids. It has now become a tradition! I think I'll start posting these now, as they always bring a smile to our faces.

Once at the shop, things started up right away.

Over the weekend, I drew up the wine bottles that will sit on the many gondola shelves that populate the 2 stores. I wrapped one shelf, just to make sure everything was going to fit properly. Score!

Jody was tasked with the endless job of assembling them all. There are 24 gondola's, that consist of 9 pieces each. That's a total of 216 pcs. Quite a bit of assembly! Thankfully the parts are light, or she'd probably quit.

I was also able to get all the walls cut. However, for some reason, it keeps slipping my mind that we're building 2 models at the same time, so occasionally I don't cut enough. DOH! These interior arches were one of those parts as well. These will reside on the inside of the store, as a small architectural detail over the windows,  just to break up the large boring walls.

Although it looks like an earthquake tragedy at the moment, it is coming together rather quickly.
We were kind of hesitant at first to move to far along without having our clients come out. But Jami and Ryan were able to make it by mid-day today, and were quite happy with the size and style. So full steam ahead!
There hasn't been a single drawing to go by on this job, so it kind of fills a closet desire of mine to be an architect, without the legalities of being sued by miniature people if the structure were to collapse:)
It was a lot of fun to come up with a universal design for this job.

The base of the building is getting a smooth block-work detail added to it. The blocks will scale out to be 12"X24" This will wrap all the way around the building, breaking at the doors and windows. With all the techniques available to create this, I went for the "old-school" way of using a height gauge with a scribing blade in it. It took a while to carefully scribe all the stone-work for the two buildings.

Once it gets its coping, it's going to be great!

We left the shop around 5, as we had to pick up all the rare earth magnets we need to attach the shelves to the floor of the model. By that time, Jody had conquered over half the gondolas.

This is a lot of fun. I love it!
8)
JO