How I 'condensed' Portmeirion..
Welcome to this, my first blog following the design and construction of my 'condensed' version of the Campanile or Bell Tower at Portmeirion.
As this site is dedicated to showing Portmeirion at it's best but in 1:82nd scale I decided that I would record the building of the model at key stages to give readers the knowledge and courage to 'have a go' themselves.
All buildings must start with plan drawings, even if they are constructed in 1:82nd scale and here are mine, created from published drawings of Sir Clough's own plans for the Bell Tower back in the 1920's.
As you can see they are somewhat battered as they were meant to be the template from which the various materials used in the construction were fashioned to scale.
The brown marks are from the modelling clay when the plan drawings were literally overlaid onto the clay when I was creating the stonework (more photos and detail about this part of the build in later blogs).
You can also see where parts of the tracing paper which the plans were drawn onto have been cut through - the quickest way to transfer the scale drawings to the materials was by 'pricking out' - literally laying the trace drawings over the top of the material to be cut to shape then using a sharp knife to prick through the tracing paper to the material below. The prick marks can then be joined up in pencil on the material being worked then cut to shape - hence the rough and ready nature of the plans which have now served their purpose!
Stay tuned for the next installment where I show the beginning of the building process...