rovex Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Many of you won't have heard of the Yorkshire Post, but before it moved to its concrete brutalist building in the 1970s, it occupied a collection of buildings in Leeds city centre. I have for a long time had a copy of the plans for the front elevation, but as the building was quite complicated I had thought I was never going to be able toi do it justice. Anyway just over a week ago I set about drawing out the facade in 3d (I use sketchup - its not the best design tool in the box but its free). The plans were to an unusual scale of 4ft to the inch and so I drew it out to this scale. I'll reduce it down when I come to print it. Here is a 2d export of the work so far. Its almost finished just a few finishing touches to do. I've reduced it down and uploaded it to Shapeways and whilst there are some glitches in the upload to sort out (some of the decorative tracery disappears - for reasons best known to itself), I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cost of printing it would be between £50 and £70 depending on how much I reduce it. The sides roof and back walls I'd make in the old fashioned way with plasticard. One annoying point - a picture of the original I recently rediscovered shows it to have been brick with stone dressings. I am still deciding whether to inset the wall panels so that brick plasticard can be overlaid over the plain wall sections, or whether I should just go for the stone look. If the latter I don't propose to put the joints in the stonework in, the last time I tried this with 3D printing the result was somewhat underwhelming. Thanks for reading and if anyone has any bright ideas about how I can reduce the scale and upload to shapewys without detail disappearing I'd be delighted to hear it. Dean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamperman36 Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 I'm not sure if this lovely looking building still exists (despite growing up in Leeds), however the 1970's concrete "icon" has recently been reduced to a pile of rubble. The only bit to be left is the clock tower which will be kept and used as part of the new building project to be constructed on the site. Much of Leeds city centre has changed in a dramatic way over the last 10 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Unfortunately this building along with the rest of the old print works were demolished in the seventies to be replaced by the typical tower block and multistorey of the period :-( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Last week I took the plunge and ordered this design from Shapeways. There were a few problems whilst they kept pointing out thin walls, but in the end they accepted the order. The result arrived this morning. I've given it spray of "light stone" to help bring out the details. Let me know what you think Dean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamperman36 Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 WOW !! Looks very good, look forward to seeing the finished building, will it be finished in the weathered black stone like most of the old Leeds buildings ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Thanks, I'll certainly be weathering up with a black wash, but it won't be the absolute black that everything in Leeds ended up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rue_d_etropal Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 impressive. what scale did you do it in the end as it still looks pretty big? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 From memory I think I finally scaled it to about HO. Most Victorian plans I come across tend to be 8 ft to the inch, or more precisely 1:96. As most Victorian buildings are BIG I usually keep them to this size and stretch the ground floors to increase door heights. This one I decided to do slightly bigger but even so its still under scale. The first picture includes a white metal figure to give an idea of the size. Dean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 That is very nice....hmmm I know a layout that could do with a 'large Leeds building' on its next phase..... On that one it would be black, when I clicked on the thread I thought it was going to be that 70s monstrosity seeing as that has now gone too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonzack Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Most of it, they're keeping the clock tower ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 Thanks, Red Devil. I've recently contacted Andy Y, who has confirmed that I can promote some things I am thinking of making available on Shapeways. I hadn't planned on selling whole building fronts, but if they will print and people are interested I don't see why not. MY idea is to create some scratchbuilding aids. For example I have long been dis-satisfied with the church windows available to the modeller. I know of only one white metal church window, which is a very unhappy affair. Lazer cut versions are available but they always seem rather flat to me. Another thought is Georgain detailing items (door case and window surrounds etc) - The only range I know about is very architecturally inaccurate. I'll be opening a separate thread to post ideas so far and so RMwebbers can see the results of any printing and can post ideas. regards Dean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rue_d_etropal Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 sounds interesting. If it is 1/87th scale that is one big building. It would not look out of place in 1/76 or 1/55. Anyway, as someone who also is designing items for 3D printing, and only making the odd comment to that effect, I can't find any contact info for Andy, as I would like to officially talk about my models. Scrub that question, just found his email address in BRM magazine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovex Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 sounds interesting. If it is 1/87th scale that is one big building. It would not look out of place in 1/76 or 1/55. Anyway, as someone who also is designing items for 3D printing, and only making the odd comment to that effect, I can't find any contact info for Andy, as I would like to officially talk about my models. Scrub that question, just found his email address in BRM magazine. Hi I just PM him on here regards Dean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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