Architectural Models
by David Mobley
Our scale model construction firm was founded in 1990 af-
We start our models by cutting 1” or 2” polyisocyanate foam
ter 9 years of moonlighting for architectural clients. We build
blocks with a ceiling-suspended drill press head and ½” mill bit
form study and museum-quality presentation models in air-
to form our topographic (land form) bases.
brushed foam, plastics and etched brass. All of our work is
accomplished without the use of CNC or laser-cutting equip-
ment, “old-school” style on select projects using Olfa box cut-
ters, steel straight edges, drafting and layout tables, custom-
built compressors and Paasche VL airbrushes. One of our
compressors is shown below:
Styrene sheet road beds, building pads, retaining walls, stairs,
sidewalks and curbs are cut and glued down to the prepared
poly base prior to painting.
We save money on equipment by using recycled parts, in this
case, an old refrigerator compressor, 8” diameter PVC pipe
and end caps, as well as new regulator, pressure valve, gauges
and fittings. With everything laid out and bolted to an oak plat-
form, the assembly works extremely well, very quietly and is
well suited for the addition of a manifold to power several ad-
ditional airbrushes.
We’ve found over the years that the Paasche VL is best suited
to our application. This airbrush takes an unbelievable beating
and its simplicity allows us to clean the kind of junk we shoot
through it without failing to perform its assigned duties. Our
models are painted using mostly diluted interior latex and Tes-
tors enamel, sometimes and repeatedly through the same
airbrush with minimal cleaning in between media. The latex is
We then usually crank up our Paasche VL, and load diluted
used because it allows us to match perfectly our architectural
latex for application of asphalt-colored road paint followed by
clients’ specifications, for example, a Sherwin-Williams flat fin-
careful masking and two or three coats of concrete-colored
ish or ICI semi-gloss on any given surface. latex articulating sidewalks and building pads
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