Nottingham Shire Hall Build
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About the Project
An experimental project quick and done and recorded here. Its an attempt at a 3D print project from scratch to recreate a building from the past.
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Completed
Inspiration
Nottinghams Shire Hall was the main legal site for the County and included the courts and gaol. The building dated back to the middle ages and was expanded in the 16 hundreds but by the middle of the 18th century the building had seen better days. A couple of artists sketched the building in the Georgian period showing how dilapidated it had become. In 1724 during a trial the floor collapsed sending people into the cellar bellow. One man had all the skin scraped off his leg down to the bone as he went through the floor. The Judge thought someone was trying to kill him and people leaped out of the windows to safety. The Judge later sued the county and they struggled to raise funds to rebuild. There was a competition to find an architect who could come up with a new design and in the 1770s it was demolished and the new building which still stands today was constructed. What I wanted to do was recreate that original façade from the lost building. My plan was to 3D print it after recreating it as a computer file. I have done that in the past but it wasnt designed for 3D printing so I've gone back to have another go. Computer design and first attempt
I used sketch up which is used for architectural design to recreate the building. Im not the best at this sort of thing and I struggled with scale so I know not all the bricks are the right size. Looking at the original illustration I tried to work out what parts of the building were brick and what was stone. There are holes in the walls and roof showing its going to ruin. Because this is for a 3D print I had to obviously make things more three dimensional than if it was for an architectural plan and extrude individual stone work to create texture. You can also see where original doorways had been bricked up. 
I then put it in the slicer and attempted to print it at a small scale to fit on the printer in one go.
This first attempt created a small model where some of the features werent visible and as you can see the print failed near the top. But it did kind of work so I went back to the slicer.Printing bigger
What I really wanted was to print it to scale with my minis which meant printing it in sections. I had a few holes in the print so I got to work with some green stuff.
All the parts together
I then rummaged through the bits box to create the wooden door ways ito the hall that should look like they are falling down. The beauty is the building was a wreck so it hides a lot of sins on my build.
Research
When it comes to painting the model I went down into the oldest surviving parts of the gaol that still stands at the back of the Shire Hall. Some of these parts date back to the 18th century and remained in use after the original façade that Im making was pulled down. There is a mix of red brick and sandstone which seems evident on the original drawings. I once read a description of Georgian Nottingham and it mentioned the predominant red tiled rooftops so I went for this which gives the building a red crimson appearance with the brick and sand. 
Painting it up
First coat and it looks so poppy. Lots of dry brushing required and the bricks need to be more orange.
Whats next?
Now that I have completed the original building Im looking at what to do next. James Gandon was the architect that won the competition with his new Georgian design for the Shire Hall. It was the only building in England that he worked on. He later moved to Dublin and was responsible for similar government buildings such as the courts and customs house in Dublin.
I would like to attempt to recreate the next phase of the building when executions took place on the front steps. Bit more of a challenge if I include the gallows. But thats for the future.
