News / 3D models

My last post was in January (yikes, where has the time gone!), about my desire to learn to draw. I tried to do drawings of my surroundings, or my imagination every day. Of course, as soon as things got busy for the summer, I found it very difficult to continue this practice. But I did come out with a series of nice drawings of Schull, my next town here in West Cork. I worked these illustrations into my new model kit: Tiny Schull

As always, I worked these illustrations onto my models. This, I feel, gives my models an added gifty feel. They are like three dimensional postcards, and they put the chosen buildings into the context of the surrounding landscape and history. Please take some time to look at the finished sheets below to see how my illustrations work on the buildings:

Every town in Ireland has its own special atmosphere - Cork is so different to Dublin, and in turn different to Galway, Limerick, Sligo etc. The Imperial Hotel is as essential to the feel of Cork as is the Shandon Tower, UCC, The English Market, McCurtain Street....

Again, I tried to illustrate some of the history associated with the hotel while making the model. The front facade is very much the present day with, however, some old fashioned visitors - a hint towards its history. As you turn the model, you'll find Sir Thomas Deane (who originally designed the building in 1813) looking out of one of the top floor windows - down upon a horse-drawn coach.For the rear of the building I drew a scene of Franz Liszt giving his famous piano recital at the hotel in 1843.

Charles Dickens, also a famous visitor, is busy writing down thoughts, while Michael Collins stands by his iconic armoured car: the "Sliabh na mBan". On the western gable I placed an old map of Cork.

It is a relatively easy model to make: simply join the central block and attach the wings to it. The roof then fits onto it after the decorative facia is turned up to meet the facade.

The "Tiny Imperial Hotel" model kit is available at the hotel itself - so please visit soon!

It's been such a busy few months that I have only now come around to appreciate all the projects I've done this year already... March the 10th 2018 seems like a long time ago. On that bleak Saturday afternoon, Fionn and I, took the ferry from Cobh to Spike Island. As we approached the island, the melancholy, eerie mood, which was to stay with us during the whole visit, overcame us.

How was I ever going to create a TinyIreland model of this? The star shaped fort was hardly visible from the waterside - it is set into the island surrounded by a deep trench - and yet, it is its most remarkable feature. My initial idea was to somehow project the ruins and landscape around the fort onto its walls. So, I began by making drawings...

The views from the island of the harbour all around where breathtaking - beautiful and interesting. I fostered ideas of working this into the model as well...

It took us about 40 minutes to walk around the whole outside of the fort. We then entered through the impressive entry archway. This also needed to be featured on the model, I decided. But how could I accommodate the huge fort as well as its impressive interior buildings and architecture? If I made the whole thing to scale, the fort would be huge and the buildings absolutely tiny... and all this was to fit on an A5 card!!!!

 I love the patterns the buildings form - like playing cards folded out to line the interior shape of the fort...

After trying out various ideas, I also realized that the inward slant of the fort walls were important - they could not be vertical - it just didn't look right. This made the layout of the artwork much more complicated. It had to be arranged in a curved pattern:

This formed the exterior of the fort on the base shown. But I also needed the interior. I decided to place that on the reverse side of the card, which posed the challenge of alignment during printing.

And this is what it looks like when assembled!

Often, it is these huge, imposing buildings which impress us most when we view a city like Dublin. A few weeks ago, I stood in front of the GPO, wondering how I could make a model kit out of this beautiful monster! So far, I've only made an A5 kit of it - the A4 kit will be available soon!

My tiny Gpo A5 kit, takes about 10 - 15 minutes to build. The completed model is 55mm tall. The most difficult bit is to cut out the little figures on top of the facade gable. I use a craft knife for this - usually before I cut out the rest, so that I have more grip.

The gables and rear walls of buildings are often not visible or even ugly - for me they form a tiny canvas to paint my impressions of the town upon them. What is it I love most about Glengarriff? Well, walking through the forest down to the Blue Pool is a must at every visit. Taking a ferry out to Garinish island is also a memorable outing. I also love the outcrops of rocks here and there - particularly at the north end of the Blue Loo - the pub seems to be built right into the rock face.

There is a feeling that Glengarriff is the gateway to a world of adventure: the mountains, the rugged Beara peninsula, the tunnels to Kenmare, the lakes of Killarney. We leave the civilised part of West Cork behind us and head out into the wild... this is why I drew that signpost on the gable of The Maple Leaf...

Each page in my "Build your own Tiny Glengarriff" kit reveals exciting details and impressions - the essence of what inspired me.

When I first saw Bunratty Castle up close I was completely overwhelmed by it. How could I even begin to make a paper model out of this?

I normally don't bother with architectural drawings - I just photograph and draw whatever details strike me, and then create my model. But with an heritage icon like this, I felt intimidated and longed for something concrete to go by. I finally did get my hands on some basic technical drawings - but the rest all came out of my observations. Here are some of the detail drawings I made in preparation of the actual model in the Tiny Bunratty pack.

This is a very intuitive way of going about making a paper model. I'm reluctant to allow myself to get bogged down with the technicalities. I just want to capture the quirky beauty of some of the buildings I see...

Have you read "The Magic City" by Edith Nesbith yet? It is one of my favourite childrens' books. Philip, the boy in the story, builds a city out of everything he can find in his new home - he starts off with conventional wooden building blocks, but when they run out, he uses books, ornaments, cutlery, whatever he can find. Then,at moonlight the magic happens:he becomes tiny, the city becomes huge and he walks through these amazing streets he has created.

It inspired me as a child to make miniature townscapes - sometimes with whatever was available in our house, and sometimes outdoors in the forest, on the beach, in the garden. I used to make tiny little stone houses with real cement and stones. I'd build tiny fireplaces and chimneys into them and light real fires inside them and watch the smoke rise out of them. How alive it made them look! Coming home in the evenings I'd smell like someone who'd spent the whole day by a camp fire. My parents were a bit concerned that I'd started smoking - until they found out what I was doing...

Recently, I received an unusual commission: to make models of Dingle Pubs as centre pieces for tables at a wedding! What fun, I thought... what if I could light them up and make them come alive like those little huts of my childhood?

Some of my customers have asked me whether my model kit of Bunratty Castle is very difficult to make. My answer to you is: I have put a lot of thought into making this as easy to understand and assemble as possible - my focus is on fun, not tedium! So whether you're a complete newcomer to papercraft, or an experienced modeller, I think you will enjoy making this one!

I have outlined below the steps you need to take to build my great model of Bunratty Castle:

Before cutting out any of your kit, score all edges to be folded using a ruler and something pointy such as a darning needle or a very hard pencil - or, if you want to be really professional, a metal scribe.

Then start with the south facade:

Cut out and glue the turrets onto themselves and then cut out the white areas as shown. The flaps are folded inwards to receive the floors

Now move onto south facade part two:

I did try to squeeze everything into as few pages as possible to keep it nice and compact - so here is my way of building that tower wall as well as the south facade alcove all out of one piece of paper!

I think, once you've reached this stage you're flying, but do email me if you get stuck...