Nothing to do with cars, but I thought you might like to see what I get up to my spare time. The conjunction of 'tactile' and 'models' usually makes the Censoring software go into overdrive but as you will see from the photos the subject is hardly erotic.

They are two 3-dimensional representations of the city centre of Cambridge, cast in bronze, mounted on stone plinths, outside Great St Mary's church opposite the Senate House. They are intended to give visually impaired persons, as well as sighted persons, a grasp (literally) of the layout and built form of the historic core and the general arrangement of the wider central area.

I made the casting models with MDF (medium density fibreboard) because it takes a clean edge when cut. The labelling was made by a rubber stamp manufacturer, and the braille dots are small stainless steel rivets. Because the studs could not be guaranteed to show in the bronze casting I had to insert them into the bronze after casting - some 6,000 rivets using about 250 1.4mm drill bits.

The models were unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh last Monday. The Dook is the one without the glasses on a string.


Silver Legend + The Dook



1:2,500 scale Central Area model



1:625 scale Historic Core model

 

That's very impressive.

Wooly

 

Talented git!

 

Beautiful

 

And what's with Phil's suit? It looks like he slept in it!

 

Very impressive indeed Vernon

 

Mmmm! A model S2000 in bronze, that would be nice.


I will look out for the models the next time I visit.

 

You'll probably need to make a few changes on model once we've done the Grand Arcade development - something I've been working on recently - and am up in the city on Weds to check it out !

Looks pretty ace - I'll check it out when I'm up there.

G

 

Thanks for the comments, fellows. You can appreciate that I am feeling pretty chuffed after all the hard work in getting the project realised.

Hi, Guy - Grand Arcade, are you with Shearer? The bronzes are a 'snapshot in time' - no intention of bringing them up to date (except that in casting, the Bridge of Sighs went AWOL, which is embarrassing because it is my own College, so a replacement will be cast and instant glued/araldited into place)

 

VMC

Nope, I'm with Grosvenor who did the Grafton Centre plus several other things in town; we're doing the development with USS. It should be a really good end product that will benefit the ageing town centre.

'Twas just joking when saying changing for Grand Arcade - it'll be a fair wait if it was - many years until it'll be complete.

I look forward to seeing your hard work.

G