Research
Looking for information on a particular prototype is very rewarding but it can also be very time consuming. Records available on line are often limited and many historic drawings and photographs still only exist in physical form in collections. Interpretation of information can also be difficult especially where historical information is fragmentary; understanding a Victorian technical drawing is not always straightforward!
We love researching prototype information and as we have experience in both mechanical design and buildings design we are well placed to interpret historical information and fill in technical and design gaps where they exist. We feel that providing a research service is really valuable to our customers and can give a solid historical basis to models, as well as incidentally adding to the historical record.
Sometimes research also involves investigating physical objects – rolling stock, buildings and structures and creating CAD models and drawings that can then be used to develop scale models for model railway or diorama use. We have a lot of experience in reliably surveying these objects and have two main approaches to this:
- A manual measured survey where we physically photograph and measure the object then manually reconstruct a 3D CAD model which in turn is rationalised into manufacturing information for production.
- 3D scanning, where we use state-of-the-art scanning to capture the object in three dimensions and then build a computer model from those scans.
And of course, this surveying can be carried out regardless of real physical scale; we can equally well survey and reproduce a railway viaduct or a narrow gauge axle box. Similarly we can adapt the final survey result for reproduction in any model scale making, full allowance for the level of detail that can reasonably be reproduced (or even seen) at a particular scale.