Believe it not, that's a real one pound coin sitting on
the desktop next to the monitor! It's there to give an idea of scale although
many people don't notice it at first glance. I've been interested in model
making for many years now, reducing objects in size and sometimes enlarging
them can be a very rewarding and challenging pastime.
Of course, anything that is worth doing well takes time and this model was no
exception. I forget precisely how long it did take but a few weeks would be
near to the truth.
I started on the computer first. I had planned to produce several of the Model
B computers as lapel badges and so went about creating a master design from
which I could make moulds and then castings of polyester resin with filler
powder. The original carving was made from a single piece of Milliput which is
a two part epoxy putty. Once it goes hard it can withstand very rough treatment
indeed. Finally the casting was painted using Humbrol enamel paints.
The desk was made from balsa wood, the magazine and user guide reduced in size
photographically. The spiral binding of the user guide was made by winding thin
fuse wire around a cocktail stick and then painting it with white matt enamel.
Last but by no means least, the monitor. This was based on a Microvitec Cub
monitor from the eighties always it seems, connected up to BBC B Computers in
schools and homes. The body of the monitor was made from thin sheet aluminium
and painted regulation beige. The screen surround was again carved from a
single piece of Milliput and the clear perspex screen sanded into shape,
complete with rounded corners and then polished with a metal polish to remove
any scratches. Just inside the monitor, I placed a sheet of white perspex, took
a screen shot of a popular game of the time, 'REVS' to be precise and glued
this transparency into place on the white pespex. A small pea bulb was inserted
through the back of the monitor and connected to a transformer. When plugged
into the mains, the screen burst in to life and added so much more realism to
the model.
Geoff Crammond wrote this motor racing simulation for the BBC Computer and has
now gone on to write Grand Prix 1 and 2 for the PC. His follow up game to Revs
however was a very strange 3D strategy game called The Sentinel. This inspired
me to create another model based on this game.
