Types of Models

Trade Show Models Attract Attention

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trade show model

A trade show booth should draw potential customers in to explore, interact with, learn about and bond with your product. What better way to meet these goals than with a scale model of your product? A trade show model can represent your design with the utmost accuracy while drawing attention to the features you want to emphasize.

Considerations:

    • It’s often easier to transport a scale model than the product itself, and costs less.
    • Your scale model can be touched and examined close up to see how it functions.
    • A demonstration of your working model draws customers in to interact personally with your product.
    • A 3D model is vision friendly – not everyone can imagine 2D objects in space.
    • Cutaways, see-through design, high impact colors and working parts draw attention to your product’s special features.
    • Custom cases are provided to house and transport your model safely to various shows.

Everyone loves models, making them natural magnets at trade shows. Customers are drawn to these replicas more than the actual product, sparking curiosity and interest in what you have to offer. Interacting with a scale trade show model creates a lasting impression that can translate into more sales.

Scale Model Projects

ITT Tactical Airport Surveillance Radar Model

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military model

Our model makers built a Tactical Airport Surveillance Radar model series for ITT. This particular design is called the TASR-2020.  Using  photo-like images for reference, the majority of the pieces were made out of brass for strength, beauty and longevity. The CNC mill was used  to cut the brass parts which were then soddered together.  The fixed location unit was built mostly of styrene, which is a more flexible, durable material than plexiglass.   The radar dishes were motorized to attract attention at trade shows.

Model Making Process

CNC Milling in a Model Shop

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The CNC mill is churning out pieces for our latestmodel shop  project. Parts were drawn in AutoCAD or Rhino for a model radar, then processed through VisualMILL. The professional model maker needs to play the role of machinist at times and this program translates rough data about a part, telling the mill how to handle the material. Our vertical mill is digitally automated via computer numerical control (CNC) and while it is capable of 3D cutting, this particular project asked for 2D brass and aluminum parts. This hardier material was used to allow for soldering and screwing parts together, making the model durable enough for repeated trade show use.

 

Shop News

Model Shop Furniture – Boring?

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KiwiMill’s model shop recently acquired additional office furniture for their expanding needs. Chairs, tables, desks etc… A fairly straightforward approach was used to outfit the office space .

But when it comes to the workshop area, creativity reigns. Why buy a table when a model maker  is capable of making his own? Looking around the shop space, a too large table was not being utilized enough. Solution? Cut it down into two tables, lower the height, reweld it together – and you have two “new” tables that serve a better purpose.

Inventiveness in the model making profession does not always result in highly exciting end projects. Sometimes it’s used to solve everyday, mundane problems.

Scale Model Projects

Trade Show Display – automating a slot machine

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For the final trade show display at CES , our model makers purchased a collection of real casino props to create this vingette of a Las Vegas casino including felt table tops, a working roulette wheel, authentic poker chips and professional card decks. The chips were stacked on a rod and mounted permanently to the display with the playing cards and roulette wheel. The highlight of this display was the refurbished slot machine. The guts of the slot machine were dissembled and  extensive electronic reengineering applied to the interior parts in order to fully automate the game. Details on this rebuild can be found at our how-to tutorial: http://ammodel.com/Default.aspx?tabid=439&Article=245.

 

 

 

 

Scale Model Projects

Trade Show Display – lights, music, mixed drinks

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Our model makers designed a trade show display that evokes the atmosphere of a night club for the Kodak trade show booth at CES 2011. Laser cut acrylic formed the shelving to hold 3 lava lamps with custom built bases and off-the-shelf bubbling towers. A small turn table rotated a tray of mixed drinks made of hand poured and tinted silicone. A martini glass was constructed from slumped plexiglass with a turned ren board olive. Christmas string lights were rewired and installed underneath a milky plex floor to simulate dancing floor lights. Two custom ipods were installed into a mixing board with moving lights.

 

 

Scale Model Projects

Cutaway Scale Models Start with Off-the-Shelf Parts

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Model maker Mike built these cutaway scale models of  MedClean sanitizing systems. Used as a sales tool, they were created from off-the-shelf Peterbilt trucks. A cutaway design shows the sanitizing components mounted to the trailer floor. The components were made from a rubber molded resin material. Using ready-made models as a basis for a custom job can be appealing to our customers who are looking to save money and/or time with their scale models.

Scale Model Projects

Server Facility Cooling System- first industrial model of the year

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The shop has been busy in the New Year building an industrial model  of a cooling system for a server facility. It will be used as a sales model by our client, APC.

Update: Check out the last 4 pictures.

Rarely will a model be damaged in transit. They are packed with extreme care. While shipping companies vary in their reliability, regardless of using UPS, USPS or Fed Ex, occasionally a model does arrive to the client with problems, no matter how well packed. It’s a frustrating part of the business, but model makers know how to fix their creations. Short of handling the delivery personally, which can be done in some instances, this is just another challenge in a model maker’s day.

Here is the model fixed and shipped out again!

Scale Model Projects

Display Model Showcases Burton Snowboarding and Kodak

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Tasked with creating a sports themed display model for Kodak and Burton Snowboards, KiwiMill model makers sculpted 15 lb foam into a mountain. Off-the-shelf snowboard figures from Freestyle Max were animated using imbedded cams and levers to simulate sliding and twisting motions, as well as chain and gears to create the effect of grinding on a rail. Computer muffin fans were used to blow chrome ribbon in tubes to suggest wind and snow. A small fan placed inside a model of a snow gun provided breeze to blow decorative flags.

Scale Model Projects, Shop News

Model Displays For Trade Show Exhibit

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KiwiMill created 4 distinct model displays for our client, MSM, designers of the Kodak  trade show exhibit at CES 2011. The purpose of the displays were to highlight the motion capture abilities of newly introduced cameras. Trade show participants could explore highly visual scenes through the camera’s lens while visiting the Kodak booth.

Our model makers were given the task of designing four separate model displays incorporating motion, color,  lights and intriguing visuals. The themes were the following:

  • a realistic miniature scale model of Times Square
  • a vignette of real objects in a Las Vegas casino
  • a stylistic sculpture evoking the atmosphere of a night club
  • a  whimsical display capturing a  snowboarding sports scene

Check out this Kodak video of the 4 models in action at CES 2011:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeSjuggYASI

In the coming weeks we will look at each project more closely as it was assembled in-shop.

Shop News

CES 2011- Check out our Display Models

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In two days Las Vegas will be descended upon by the biggest names in consumer  technology.  January 6-9 marks the 45th year of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Hosted by CEA, it’s the biggest trade show event of the consumer electronics industry, with companies typically introducing new products and technology over a 4 day period. Past products and technologies debuted at this event include: Blu-Ray discs, HDTV – 3D, DVR, HD radio, Plasma TV, Xbox, NES, DVD,  CD, Camcorder, Laserdisc, and VCR.

KiwiMill made several display models for our client, Mirror Show Management, to be displayed in the Kodak trade show booth at CES this weekend. (Booth 31400, South Hall Upper level). Check back here in the coming weeks for in-shop pictures and tutorials of the models we provided for MSM’s Exhibit Greatness ™.

Model Making Process

Model Making Materials

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While plastic is the raw medium of choice in model making, KiwiMill uses a wide variety of materials to construct theirscale models. Depending on the needs of the client – portability, durability, cost, time constraints or ability to reproduce in volume, or the specifics of the project itself – how the model maker visualizes the object being constructed.

Materials may include:

  • Styrene
  • Metal
  • MDF
  • Acetate
  • Foam board
  • Acrylic
  • Wood
  • Tooling Board
  • Plaster
  • Silicone
  • Latex
  • Laminate
  • Fabric

Raw materials for model building

Model Making Process

KiwiMill Model Makers All Have Computer Work Stations

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A professional model maker understands the creative and judicious use of available technology in the workplace. While nothing can substitute for inborn talent, classical training and years of experience, a master model maker uses modern techniques to make the finished product more accurate, detailed or available in a shorter time frame for a client, without sacrificing quality and craftsmanship.

Computers are an essential technological tool for building models. From reading CAD files at the start of a project and researching additional or missing information, to creating drawings and applying CAM software to the creation of parts, computer work stations are kept busy at KiwiMill.

Three major steps involve the latest computer software and online resources:

  1. Model makers receive and read the various types of files that clients use to convey their ideas. An architect may send AutoCad files, an engineer might use Rhino, or an artist could have Adobe Illustrator designs that need deciphering. Knowing what you are looking at in the various programs, including Revit, Inventor or Corel, and figuring out what needs to be built is an early step in a model’s design.
  2. If all you are given is a photograph to work with the internet becomes an invaluable research tool to find additional photo angles, renderings or drawings – as much information as possible about the object being created. Even a common shape might be found in TurboSquid to assist in making a particular part.
  3. Computer software is then used to draw parts. Researched dimensions of an actual object may be used to create a part drawing. Drawings are either used as patterns to be built by hand or sent to the laser engraver or CNC milling machine for cutting, or the 3D printer.

In the end, nothing substitutes for a model maker’s ability to think inventively throughout a project, determining the best approach for each process and applying hands-on expertise at each step. An experienced model maker embraces modern technology, but also knows that high tech solutions are not always the best answer.