Last weld on Viking ship structure!

Just before quitting time today we did the last weld on the second Viking ship. It’s been nine weeks of cutting, fitting, welding and grinding to get the structures of this project done. There’s still little bits of welding on the dragon keel for the front plus some stands and pallets for shipping but that won’t take long. We still have to send the rest of the pieces to the galvanizer but one half of the first ship is now ready for sculpting and the rest won’t be far behind.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

It’s looking like the movie now!

It is always interesting to watch the steps of each piece we create. First, there’s the development of the idea on paper and on the screen, sometimes with small scale models. Then the piece goes through the engineering stage, to make sure the structure underneath fits inside and holds everything up securely. Then it’s out to the shop to begin construction. Steel tubing is cut to length and the welding starts. For most of our pieces the plasma cut steel is designed as we go through the build process. Measurements are taken and then its back to the office to design the pieces in EnRoute. They are sent to the MultiCam CNC plasma cutter to create the piece and then it is welded into place to begin the process anew. And so it goes for weeks.

Once the structure is complete we attach the lath and then trowel on the concrete. this is carefully hand sculpted. After the concrete cures it is time for the painting crew to do their magic. As with all of our projects we do not skimp on the paint. A minimum of three coats of base colours are applied before we begin a series of glazes, and dry brushing to gradually bring the piece to life. After many weeks of hard work the piece suddenly comes to life. Our skillful crew of talented painters blend the warm colours on the wood and cool colours on the metals and rocks to create absolute magic. It’s now looking like the movie, ‘How to train your dragon’.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Big visual progress

Work continues on the Viking ship project for Motiongate Park in Dubai. With the deadline quickly approaching the entire crew is working hard to finish off the features.The piece closest to finish is the large target. The last coats of the base colours were painted on yesterday.

That meant we could apply the glazes today. The painting crew worked in teams, liberally applying the brown and dark grey glazes and then judiciously wiping them off. This process takes advantage of and highlights the textures and cracks. The plain grey instantly turned into believable rock.
Certain areas were left very dark or even second coated to make them look deeper.
Once the glazes were done and dry it was time to go back and apply even more magic. Lighter colours were dry brushed on highlighting the tops of the rocks and the deep texture. Then we sponged on various shades of greens, greys, tans and oranges to create believable looking moss. More dark glazes were brushed on to create streaking and aging. And some various colours were flung on with wet brushes to create more texture. The process looks pretty random but it takes a lot of practice  and skill to get it all looking right.
 
As soon as the rockwork was dry it was time to take off the upper sections. We have to build stands for all the pieces. Next week they will be stuffed into containers and sent off to sea for their journey to the middle east.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Viking ship progress

There hasn’t been a lot of routing done in the shop over the last weeks as we concentrate on the extremely large Viking ships and target features for Motiongate theme park in Dubai. We are making great progress however. Both ships are now out of the shop getting their final framework welded into place. They are just too large to do inside the shop building. The two big mast assemblies head off to the galvanizers today. The large target feature is also out in the parking lot getting it’s final paint. We continue to create cutting files and the MultiCam CNC plasma cutter is busy churning out little bits and pieces of brackets and lifting lugs to finish things off. We hope to send off the first pieces of the first ship off next week to the galvanizers and then the push to complete the sculpted concrete will begin.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

MultiCam plasma magic

Today, using our MultiCam CNC plasma cutter we cut the last large piece for theViking ships designed for Motiongate in Dubai. Over the last weeks Peter has created more than 60 precise files using EnRoute software. Hundreds of pieces have been cut from heavy steel plate. This complicated project would have been much, much harder to do any other way. We love our Multicam!

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.