BACKGROUND

How did you get into model making?

Nigel: After spending many years (my first film was “The Dark Crystal) in the business working on various creature/fantasy type films, I, along with a friend of mine, Jez Harris, set up a company in Oxford producing the same type of work, but from a different perspective. This allowed us to explore those areas, other than animatronics and make up, such as props and model making etc. So when I left Crawley creatures 5 years later, to become freelance again, I found myself gravitating towards miniatures, an aspect of the same business, but one that I hadn't really been involved with that closely before, and I wanted to be.

Has visual effects changed the model side of film work?

Nigel: There have been great technological advances in recent years, with stunning things being achieved on computers, but, along with all change come positives as well as some negatives. As a model maker, I am keenly aware of the decline in the amount of models being made for films. A lot of what could be made in a workshop by a team of model makers, can now be achieved on a computer, with inevitable consequences. For my own point of view, a well made, well lit and well shot miniature and in this instance, well blown up, is by far the better option.

What other films have you worked on?

Nigel: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the last film we did, we've also done the last three Harry Potter films. Enigma, starring Kate Winslet, was a good one to work on. We built an ocean going U boat, submarine, which dived and surfaced, we filmed that off the south coast. That was a big miniature.

Have you worked on a Big Ben model before?

Nigel: We did blow up Big Ben once before on The Avengers. It was a much smaller model, so this will be much more effective.

THE MODELS

When you're given the brief for these miniatures, how do you start?

Nigel: For Big Ben we got plans and drawings from the art department, which gave us the basic dimensions. We got the detail for Big Ben from very good digital photographs. We get as much information as we possibly can and we make the models work with that information. The better the information we get, the better we can build it.

Did you have to weaken areas of the models as you're building so they'd break apart as you would like?

Nigel: No, not for Big Ben or the Houses of Parliament. The model's weak areas are what would be its weak areas in real life, so around the windows are the areas that are going to fracture the easiest. To recreate the stone color we mixed up a dye with the plaster, so that when it breaks you don't see white plaster. We got as close as we felt we could get to the stone colour that's used in the real building.

How large is the V For Vendetta model unit, and how many models have been built?

Nigel: Off the top of my head, at our busiest time, I think we had something like 20 people on the crew. The main models are: two 30 foot tall Big Bens, two 24 foot tall Old Baileys, and one 42 foot long, tenth scale model of the Houses of Parliament. All in all they took about 10 weeks to build. The models are not complete on all sides - there are only two faces to each model for shooting purposes. On this film everything we have built is being blown up.

Do you approach building the models differently because of the explosions?

Nigel: Yes. Most of these buildings are solid plaster, just because it behaves like masonry when it explodes. The Old Bailey was the most difficult to produce because it was designed to break apart very easily, so the build was quite complicated, it was very unstable, we had to leave the supports in place until the last minute. One Big Ben model had a steel internal frame all the way through, and the other one was built half steel frame, and half timber because we were going to blow the whole of the top off, and it's easier for charges to break through the timber.

Is there a crew assigned to building each model?

Nigel: Yes there is, with the exception of Nick Davis and the rest of the team assigned to molding and casting. They took care of processing the patterns form all the models.

Did you do explosive tests on the plaster before you actually decided on the thickness?

Nigel: Yes, we did. It took a couple days to set up and to go through the different types: the actual amount of the powder that was used, the strength of the detonators, the plaster mix, just so it blew apart as they would like it. All that was done before we went full steam ahead into creating anything else. Jose [Granell], the Model Unit Supervisor, is looking after all the pyrotechnics, and Nik Cooper, the Senior Special Effects technician, works with Jose to make sure it's absolutely right.

How big are the crews for each model to finish it?

Nigel: The crew size is determined by the nature of the model, generally, if someone has finished his/her bit on a particular section, they'll go and help to finish another model, we're one big team and all pitch in. All the models were made in one of our workshops here at Shepperton Studios.

Due to the models being blown up, are you using different paints?

Nigel: No, none at all, it's exactly the same paint finish as we would normally apply to any other architectural stone faced model. We're using the same technique, the same washes, the same way of recreating the ageing etc.

Do you have painters who specialize in miniatures?

Nigel: Yes, although most good painters could do it, but there are certain techniques that we use for small scale work that those that have spent a lot of time working on that sort of small scale can achieve. Most of the guys that we use will also work on full production sets and do backdrops and everything else, it's just that they have spent quite a lot of time doing miniatures as well.

Is there a sense of having to make it bolder for the cameras because of the strength of the lights?

Nigel: No, we'll do it as we as we feel is the right depth of colour and the right amount of aging to the eye. Then if it needs to be added to or darkened down or changed in any way, we can do that to camera. We're going to do it on Big Ben in a minute because there's a little bit of masonry round the front which is slightly pale from that angle, and it needs to be darkened just a little bit more.

PARLIAMENT

Could you walk us through the process for the Houses of Parliament?

Nigel: A pattern can be made from whatever is most suitable, we've used MDF (particle board) for the main base, with added architectural details that have been modeled in plastiline moulded and cast for repeats. The whole is then moulded and cast in pre-dyed plaster. 24 sections were made in all. The parapet wall is made in solid plaster, like the rest, topped by 12 working lamps, but you know, one of the most time consuming aspects of the process was the assembly and installation of the windows, which were individually paned with real glass.

Wouldn't the glass break differently as a miniature?

Nigel: Yes, it does. It's actually very strong at that scale; a lot of the glass has survived shots completely intact. On film it looks fabulous because you see the glass flying through the air, but it wouldn't fracture in quite the same way as real glass. When you're talking about something that's an inch by three quarters of an inch, it's actually quite tough piece of glass. Quite a bit did shatter though. However, amongst all the masonry and other bits, it works extremely well. You wouldn't really get that with cellophane or acetates, they fly around and curl up and burn, and don't have weight. Each set of panes are very carefully super glued together, so it's incredibly fragile. If you pick one up, it's quite likely to fall apart, so we had to be extremely careful how we put them in.

THE OLD BAILEY

Is it true that no glue was used in the building of the Old Bailey?

Nigel: Yes, the bricks were all dry fitted together. To travel from the workshop, where it was built, to the sound stage we had to support it extremely well, otherwise it would have fallen apart on the way up here. It came up in four sections. There is the base section, which is [fake] brick work and a plaque, the level upon which the columns and the pillars stand. Then you have the middle section, and then you have the roof and, lastly, the statue that goes on the very top.

Why did you make Madame Justice split down the middle?

Nigel: The reason she splits is because of the explosion. As it starts to ripple through the building, she fractures with the stress of the explosion. So just prior to the Old Bailey completely blowing up she splits, and the scales drop off, her arm cracks and then in the next cut the whole thing just goes off.

What scales has Madame Justice been built at?

Nigel: The one on top of the Old Bailey is seventh scale. The larger model with the split is something like three and a half scale. We made different scales because the closer you get, the more like the real thing a model appears. We build models as big as we can get away with because sometimes you have to get up very, very close. A small scale model just wouldn't hold the illusion.

Is it tricky recreating something large to detail like the words on the Old Bailey?

Nigel: No, not at all. You're just using a different scale. In many respects, the larger you go, the easier it can be. Dealing with little tiny fiddly sections can take quite a lot of time.

What were the bricks that made up the Old Bailey made out of?

Nigel: They were made out of dense, rigid foam. You buy the foam in blocks and then it's all cut up into the thousand or so blocks. It all had to be painted individually and dried, and then re-boxed again in the right order so they didn't get muddled up for re-assembly.

Have you found it difficult to have so many weeks of work destroyed?

Nigel: I don't have a problem with that at all. We're all confident that the pyro work on this is going to be spectacular, and the whole point of this job is to blow the models up. We can make the best possible looking models that will break in the best possible way, but at the end of the day the explosions are the dynamic element; to blow it up is not a problem because that's part of it.

BIG BEN

What materials were used n the Big Ben clock face?

Nigel: The clock face is made out of toughened glass because of the way it shatters. Toughened glass, as you probably know, crystallizes when it breaks, which was the effect they wanted. The glass was given an opalescent look, because that's what Big Ben has Basically we've recreated it as closely as we could. The numerals, hands and the rest of the face details, were made from a very brittle plastic material, so the installation had to be achieved with very great care.

Why did you decide to use pewter?

Nigel: Because it behaves like copper or lead at that scale. When it flies through the air it bends in just the right way.

How many mold sections are in the Big Ben model?

Nigel: I should think there are about 20 or so sections, varying in complexity and weight, the main base unit pieces are very heavy.

Have the materials you use for building models changed over the years?

Nigel: No, not really. Different materials come through, different types of silicones, plastics, pourable casting urethanes, they're getting better and better. Products improve because the suppliers work very closely with us and they know what we want, and part of the development process over the years has been to help us get what we want, so you know in that respect things have changed for the better. But essentially we use the same materials: plaster, wood and paints.

Thank you for your time Nigel.