The buildings of Ranuska

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of Ranuska will be the bizarre architecture, all of it based on real life examples of Communist-era architecture.

Psirtskha tunnel portals

One of the most striking thing to me about the Psirtskha railway station is the bizarre tunnel portals that it features. I have no idea why they are so large and ornate, but they are very striking:

(Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/16701862)

So I decided Ranuska should have one.

I designed the master in a CAD program, then converted it into G Code for my CNC machine and left it to do its business.

It took a long time to complete, partly due to the size of the item, and partly due to the very high quality settings I was using – 0.1mm steps, with a 1mm end mill and milled in both X & Y directions. End result however was a very smart looking mold:

I mixed up a large quantity of resin and poured it in, then put it into my pressure pot and waited. The next day I extracted the casting:

Not half bad at all! There is barely any surface texture, everything is square and true, no bubbles. Now I just need to give it an old peeling paint job.

New Athos railway station

The next station down the line from Psirtskha is equally amazing, being very ornate, and very run down.

I decided that this would be the perfect station for Ranuska, so have started building one. It's going to be quite a challenge, and I'm not sure exactly I'll make most of it, but I figured the dome was the most important part to start with, so I tackled that first.

I considered many different ways of building it, before my eyes settled on a globe-shaped novelty toy with zero practical value. A few minutes later and I was prising it apart. Luckily it had a threaded tube to screw the two parts together, and I was able to chuck this in the drill and sand the surface smooth.

Underneath its fake chrome paint it was just regular old smelly plastic. Now that I have a dome I just have to make all the rest! I will design most of it on the computer and CNC many of the assemblies, which should reduce the amount of fiddling somewhat.

Druzhba Sanatorium

Forgive the name, this building is actually a beachfront hotel in Yalta, Ukraine.

Built during the communist era, it somehow looks like nothing else from that era and I knew I needed one of these in Ranuska. With its repeating regular structure I figured it would be an idea candidate for casting.

I designed the master on the computer to ensure the angles were correct, then printed out a plan and made up a pair of masters.

These I turned into a small mold and then filled with silicone.

24 hours later and I had my master:

Over the next few days I took a 5 minute break every hour and cast up another pair, letting them set in the pressure pot over the next hour.

Soon I had quite a pile of castings, although many of them had small bubbles that needed filling. I can only assume this is due to the resin reducing in volume while its curing.

Getting the angles right was complicated, but that is the beauty of CAD. By setting up a few geometric constraints and entering just 3 dimensions, I was able to come up with the exact final arrangement of each window assembly.

Each casting will attach to its neighbour, creating a sawtooth pattern spanning around in a circle. Behind each casting I will print out a window pattern on clear plastic and attach that, creating the doors and windows in one easy step. Ditto for the hand railings on the front of each balcony. I'm looking forward to seeing this building take shape!