It was a busy week and the crew worked hard to finish the sculpting of the Viking target features. The two masts and last shield were done today. On Monday the painting process will begin! Out in the driveway the first Viking ship skeleton is taking shape nicely. Peter has begun welding in the plumbing for the water guns and other water toys. Once that is finished we'll begin buttoning up the last of the framework before disassembling and sending the pieces off to be galvanized. We also began reassembly of the second Viking boat today.
Final concrete on large target feature
I remember watching the first 'How to train your dragon" movie with a huge smile on my face. While the story was fabulous the design of the Viking world made me laugh out loud. It was awesome with wonderful textures and colours. Every single piece they created digitally helped to visually tell the story. As I watched the movie I thought how cool it would be to actually build some of this world. When we were approached to do just that for Motiongate in Dubai we jumped at the chance.
It started with two Viking ships, and then grew to include the targets and the dock features. We first built the scale study models which went very quickly. Then came the design for the tricky structures underneath which took a little longer. Building these same structures took longer yet as we cut and welded together many hundreds of pieces of steel. At long last we came to the fun part - sculpting all those fun surfaces and textures. The last of the sculpted concrete was finished on the large target feature today. One last shield on the small target and the two masts will be complete tomorrow. Then we begin layering on the rich colours to make it all look just like it did in that most magical of movies. The crew is as excited as me. It's going to be fun!
First Viking load down the road
It is always with mixed feelings that we load up something we have built into a truck and then send it on it's way. Today, we hoisted the barrels and boxes for the Viking project in Dubai onto the flat deck truck and tied them down firmly. The pieces we created were joined with the deck panels for the two ships. Then we sent them on their way - just as we have done with pretty much everything we have built through the years. As we watched the freight truck drive away we already appreciated the extra space in our parking lot. It will soon be filled with new pieces which are currently in progress in the shop.
