SCALE DOWN: A Bigger than Life Tale [the second installment]
by Ricardo
One of my favorite aspects of building models and diorama is the challenge of making its photograph look like the actual scene or structure. When those who marvel our work on photo would ask, “is this the photograph of the actual site?”, that’s more reason for me to strive harder and do better. On this waterfall feature of the diorama, somebody made exactly that comment when she was shown this photo.
Attention to Detail
Water features, oceans, rivers, streams and the like are, for me, one of the most difficult effect to achieve when you want a realistic feel in scale models. For more than ten years I’ve tried to experiment on quite a number of materials and methods to achieve a realistic water cascade including waves and ripples. On this Waterfall, it is particularly challenging due to the different textures involved. The appearance of the foam formed by water falling from a few meters high appears a million miles different from water a few meters deep and shallow water just a few centimeters deep and of course the splashes. Even the ripples differ, so there’s the challenge.
Waterfalls or drops won’t look like the real thing if there’s no rock formation that comes with it, like robin is to batman. With rocks, it is imperative to use materials which simulate the textures of a rock formation. This is one facet of the “real look” thing, which model builders can never do away with. With rocks I mean both above and under the water surface. These are impressions that help capture the imagination of the target viewers.
Replica of a street Legend
The tartanilla was once hailed as the “king of the road” decades ago. Now, it only plies on certain minor streets on certain areas of Cebu City.
To achieve an authentic look, I have always believed we should be focused on three simple things: detail, detail, detail. We endeavored to secure data from all possible sources to create an accurate replica. I got my sketchbook and first sketched the tartanilla with all its parts / components.
In planning out on how to go about it, I thought of employing state-of-the-art laser cutting equipment on cutting minute details and components of the 1:12 scale tartanilla. As I went through all the gathered data so far, I realized all tartanillas shared one thing in common, all are handcrafted by skilled carpenters. Armed with this information, I decided to have it done by good old-fashioned manual cutting. This will allow a few imperfections here and there but not destroy the quality altogether.
Things I Keep In Mind All The Time
Making models by hand for me is still the best method, if you may call it that. This is how I look at scale modeling: “no matter how good and accurate your state-of-the-art cutters are for your components, if you are not good in assemblies, your output will never be good enough”.
Laser cutters are only tools to help us in making our job easier and faster, but nothing replaces good craftsmanship.
Next Week’s Menu
On next week’s installment of this blog, we will discuss how new materials can look like authentic old structures. Don’t miss it.
