Finally Finished!

I have now completed my model of the Velocity Mobile Phone designed by David Turpin.
After taking apart my model mocked up. I resprayed the screen section black with a little bit less matting agents so that it matched the shine of the actual acrylic screen. I then applied black marker to the edges of my acrylic screen. I tacked the screen in place with 4 tiny dots of super glue so that It could be removed with a scapal knife if needed for any reason. I then decided to apply black permanent marker to the loops either side of the keyboard. This worked very well with the exception of one minor smudge, which I removed with small amounts of t cut. I then check my drawings for where the screen should be placed and measured it out. I then tacked it down with some super glue, which worked very well.
I am very pleased with how the model looks with some minor exceptions, such as the paint job. I wish I had produced another colour for the keyboard section. I dont think the black of the screen section and the colour of the keyboard section work too well with each other.

There were some setbacks at the start of the this project with size issues etc. But I think I have built this model very successfully if not a little too slow.
There are some things that I can do to make this model look better, such as having a variety of photos including models in hands to show size and detail.

I think this model would have been a much quicker build If I had planned less and sorted out the size issues before the project even began. I need to stop over planning and drawing and just produce sketch models and small sketches. This seems to work better than using rhino and trying to visualise things rather than actually making and thiking about making.

Anyway!

Overall If I had spent less time planning and more time making this model would have been done much much quicker! I am happy with the final outcome and I have spoken to my designer David Turpin and he seems to be very happy with the outcome. I will talk with him further to see whether he wants the model or is interested in further work together with hopefully oppurtunities of freelance work.

Mock Up photograph

With help from my tutor who has very good knowledge of photography I used an digital SLR with a lighting kit to take some photographs of my model temporarily mocked up. My tutor then helped me on photoshop to give it simple but effective lighting effects. I am very pleased with the photo and I hope it looks even better when completely finished.

I will now finish my model and post the end results with an evaluation.

Mock Up!

I have now applied my printed screen onto the chemiwood screen section and the keyboard has been painted. I have taken some photos today with it temporarily stuck together. There are still things to do such as paint the loops on either side of the phone black and also to respray the screen section black. And in the photos i have noticed that the acrylic screens edges can be seen, so I am planning to apply permanent black marker on all four sides of the 0.5mm acrylic.

Keyboard!

I have now applied a solution of watered down black acrylic paint into the laser cut engravings on the keyboard. It was a very long and tricky process, I used a very fine paint brush and applied a small blob of paint per letter. Sometimes the paint would overflow out of the engraved area but using tiny bits of tissue to dab and wipe the excess paint worked very well. I let it dry for a full day as it was very watered down. I think it was a great success and looks fantastic. Although next time I do something similar to this I will make sure I use an even higher engrave setting to create a deeper cut line, I think this would make it much easier to apply paint into the required areas.

Screen

I am going to use a perfectly sized high quality print of a windows screen saver, which will fit behind a clear piece of 0.5mm acrylic plastic. This will create the effect of having a working screen. I will be using an original windows start up screen with bright colours to add to the effect of a working screen.

Keyboard, base and screen

I now have the keyboard and screen sections painted and ready for detail, such as painting the two side rings black, painting in the black acrylic paint detail into the lettering and symbols on the keyboard, I have decided not to use Plastisol as it would take far too long to dry and fitting the high quality printed screen behind a 0.5mm acrylic screen.

I will then need to fit the screen section onto the keyboard section at a good radius for viewing.
I will also produce a simple yet attractive baseboard for the model to sit on.

Keyboard

I have now applied my laser cut keyboard base to the model. Due to slight changes to size when laser cut, I decided to add 0.2mm larger offset so that I could just sand the acrylic slightly till it fits, which worked very well. I will now work out how to produce the keys and lettering marks.

Update!!>>

I have been looking at the best way to produce the keys for the keyboard and how the letters will be done. I looked into rub-on decals, such as http://www.decal-paper.com/rubon.html but as my model may be picked up and played with by prospective clients I have decided to get each key laser engraved and cut. Then once they have been stuck in and painted, I will be able to paint into the engraved letters using a watered down solution of black acrylic paint. Or use Plastisol (ink used for screen printing) ink to rub over the engraved parts.

Update!>>


Here is a photo of my Adobe illustrator file used on the laser cutter. I had to experiment with the engrave power to produce an engrave deep enough to apply the black acrylic paint for the lettering and symbols.

Update!>>>



With the keyboard finally cut with a high power of 80, I applied it to the base of my model. A dab of superglue per key was perfect for keeping the buttons in place. I used fine polyfiller to seal the gaps between the base and acrylic keyboard area and sanded down. With some final fine sanding i applied two fine layers of white primer and proceeded with one final fine sand. I then applied my final 2 coats of my chosen colour. Due to not having any colour swatches given by the designer I had to make the colour as close as possible from images I have. I think I was quite successful, but I may add a fine gloss coat to add the aesthetics.

Screen

I had a chat with my tutor today about certain aspects of my model. The screen being the most important. I have now decided to mark off a 44mm by 77mm screen which matches my drawings. I will mill 0.5mm into the chemiwood so that a 0.5mm piece of acrylic will be able to fit into it. I will use a high quality print of a simple but eye catching windows screen saver behind the 0.5 acrylic to give the affect of a working screen.

Update!!>>

Filler!

I have now stuck the mouth and ear piece onto the base of the model. I have used body filler to seal small gaps, being very sparing so not to over fill thus more time spent sanding.

As you can see I have also milled in to the keyboard area of the keyboard section. I will now be able to draw out the keyboard with letters on rhino and transfer to illustrator ready for lasercutting.

Materials!

I chose to use Chemiwood for this model as it has similar characteristics as wood but I dont have to sand seal the model, which will save me a fair amount of sealing and sanding. I also used it due to the fact that I can Mill the material and fill and sand without any issues.
I will be using 1mm and 0.5mm laser cut acrylic for the keyboard and detail on the top and bottom of the mobile phone.

I am still waiting for information on what materials the actual mobile phone uses. After I have heard back from my designer, I will be able to sort out what paint will be used.

One problem that I have not yet solved is how to do the screen. I will be having a talk with my tutors soon and will work out what I will have to do to produce a screen that looks as high standards as possible.

Correct Size!

Size issues have now been corrected and the model now looks alot smaller and more like a mobile phone. At the moment my time planning has been very poor due to complications at home and complication with my designer. I have been putting in more and more hours everyday to get this model finished to a high standard. I am pleased with my progress this week and have produced a smooth chemi wood model of the Velocity Mobile Phone, which I will be able to add detail and finish during the next couple of weeks.

Materials!

I have used Chemi-wood for the keyboard and screen section of my model as it can be finished to a very smooth standard and will not need sand sealing, which will take up a fair amount of time. I find Chemi wood is a great material, as it sands well and machines even better.

Contact with designer - Extremely Important

I have chosen my design from David Turpin - http://davidturpin.fr/
I was given drawings from David, that didnt seem to be right due to the model being far too large for a mobile phone. After several e-mails, David finally realised he has sent me the wrong drawings, which frustrating as it is, I had to face the fact that this happens in industry occasionally. My tutor Emily assured me that this wasnt my fault and that if I was being paid for this David would be paying out his own pocket for this unfortunate mistake.
I have now been given the right size and scaled down my drawings to match them.
I must make sure that from now on I check all drawings through with the client before making a start on the project.

SIZE ISSUESSSS!

I have had a response from David Turpin and am very frustrated to find that he has actually sent me the wrong drawings even after he assured me they were 1:1 scale. He has sent me new simple, length, width and thickness dimensions, which I have used to scale my Rhino drawings down. I am very frustrated as I am now 4 Weeks in to my project and am having to start again. I had a talk with one of our tutors Emily and she assured me that this is David's fault and in industry, David would be paying out of his own pocket for this mistake.

The model is much smaller and looks much cooler now. I think I will be able to produce the new model much much quicker due to knowing exactly what I need to do.

Size Issues again!

Here is the rough version of the Velocity Mobile Phone and talking to classmates and tutors I am now 100% sure that my designer David Turpin has supplied me with wrong size drawings. I am going to email these photos to David with simple, length, width and thickness dimensions so that he can admit to sending me wrongly sized drawings.

Size Issues

I have finalised all my drawings given to me by my designer, David Turpin and I am worried that he has sent me drawings that have been scaled up. I made a simple foam model, which seems overly big for a mobile phone. I have e-mailed him and he assures me that the drawings are 1:1 scale. Here are my finalised Rhino Drawings.

Technical Drawing

Using rhino I have produced an accurate technical drawing from looking at my 3D drawing. It took some time but will be very much worth it tomorrow when i start to produce some sketch models. I still need to produce drawings for the hidden keyboard underneath the movable screen, which I will be able to complete tomorrow once I have a foam sketch model to work from. I will post some photos of my sketch model tomorrow.

Drawing problems

I have now recieved my drawings from Designer, David Turpin. Unfortunately he has sent me more of a 3D model rather than a set of technical drawings, this means I cannot work out the size of the mobile phone without spending quite a lot of times manually creating points to work from. I e-mailed him earlier today and he has sent me a list of formats he has the drawing in. I will be having a meeting with my tutor tomorrow to work out what format will give me the most information on size and shape.
I will update my blog as soon as I have obtained more useful drawings.

I have decided to produce a prototype model of a mobile phone designed by David Turpin - http://www.davidturpin.fr/. This will account of half of my FMP, I chose this design due to its fantastic, ergonomic shape. It fits well into todays sophisticated technology and will look great at our end of year exhibition in London. I will be producing the model at 1:1 scale and feel this will promote my skills and understanding of the modelmaking industry.