Model Building employment

I don't mean to throw cold water on everything here, but I once interviewed for a job with a pattern and mold making shop. While touring the shop, I couldn't help but notice the stoic expressions on the workers faces. Compared to my previous gig building display models, this place had all the allure of the children mineworkers scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. For someone who was used to flexing their creative talents producing beautiful objects for display, this was a downshift into drudgery. Even though I was offered the job, I declined. I know work is work and maybe any job in this field might seem desirable, but this place was little more than menial labor.

Do you work in wood and metal? How about sand or plaster? Reason I ask is that another profession is pattern and mold making. I have done dratfing and detail work for many pattern shops and have been intrigued with the amount of detail that is involved in making mold patterns. And there is a pattern shop in every town. Some may be looking to train.

Quickest way to suck the joy out of your model building is to make it a business. Never do what you enjoy as a hobby as a living. As the guys have said most of your work will be prototyping and architectural. Most firms will bid out unless they have a sole source that they keep feeding work to, but its easy to become overwhelmed. This means you'll have to bid against 2 or three other firms or builders for the job. Low man gets the job. While not always the case because you do get what you pay for, it is pretty common.
Toughen up. I mean really toughen up. Heart of ice and skin of steel. There is nothing more crushing than to have your hard earned work trashed by a client because his wife hates the color scheme (why they would be interested in the color of a water recyclng plant is beyond me) or the technical director of a theatre or film project has umpteen changes and your build doesn't match his vision. Wait till your first client meeting and they tell you, "boy this sucks, my 3 year old son did better than this with his tinkertoys and leggos" despite what your compatriots, other modelbuilders and artists have lavished praise upon. Modelbuilding is likened to vanity work. Someone elses vanity and vision of their project, despite that you may have built it from whatever plans they gave you.

Other problems will be firms that subcontracted you lost their bid, and the money to pay you with. The project managers wife wants a change made, and you still have to make the deadline. How to get it to the site, office, museum, movie set. etc. A guy I worked with sat on a huge model for a production company for a month waiting for them to pick it up, they were waiting for him to deliver it. It was 8' wide and he had no way to get it the 300 miles to the studio. Hadn't included it in his bid and they hadn't included it in the rfb.

I'm not trying to disuade you from your desire, just letting you in on the secret handshake stuff that no one tells you and you normally have to find out by yourself.

My advice would be to hire on with a model shop and work with them for a while and see if its something you really want to do. While you're taking fabrication classes, or industrial design classes see if they offer an intern program with a shop. You'll learn more that way than you would 10 years of school.

Good luck with it. The payoff is that you will be doing what you want to do, when you want to do it and look forward to going to work in the morning rather than enduring your workday till you get home.

As previously mentioned, show your work. Put up a web page or merely submit photos to any and all that will post them. I do not build for an architectural firm but do mostly comissioned work for model railroad guys. After seeing my stuff and inquiring about me they actually started coming to me without any solicitation. I find being paid for something that I would be doing anyway is a fantastic way to pick up cash. I don't do it as a primary source of income but have come to rely on it heavily. If you can't wait, find a market and advertise.

WOW...didn't think of anything that you guys' s have mentioned !!!! I guess I will need to start doing some homework and investigate this much closer. Thanks for all you help.

As Scott has stated, CAD and rapid prototyping machines have taken over a lot of the traditional work of model makers. I think there will always be a need for architectural models, since no machine in the near future will be able to perform all the tasks of a model maker and people seem to prefer looking at a hard model more than a computer rendition, at least for something which will be on display. I have worked for 2 firms building models and I can say that everything written above is true. Long hours, ridiculous deadlines, fixing your's and other peoples mistakes, short-changed on pay and the really cool feeling you get when you finish a project! Outside of architectural models, prototyping and Hollywood, there are always museum displays to be built. It wouldn't hurt to make sure your diorama making skills are in order too. The Forest Service, Park Service and natural history museums all make use of dioramas in their displays. Good luck in your quest!

Another possibility: Hollywood. Even though many entertainment companies are going more and more into CGI, there is still a demand for model builders to build sets and props for the various movies and TV shows coming out. Many of those sets and props are cars, planes, helicopters and even Armor sometimes.

Of course that would mean moving to LA.

Just a thought....

Like Lee has said, do you have a portfolio? You should make one with professional photo's of your work, works in progress, any commission you have done in the past, shows you have done, awards you may have one, etc.

Evaluate yourself and see what skills you may need to work on in order to fullfill the needs of the market. Start scratchbuilding. Check your colleges for classes in 3D design. Many community colleges offer classes in blueprinting that are not hard. In other words, you may not be ready right now to go out and get a model building job, but you can start really working on it. I was lucky in that I found a career that used my model building skills. I chose engineering because I got to take classes that required us to build models. However, in the structural steel building industry, we now use 99.9% computer solid models, and now have gone to the level of using rapid prototype machines to actually build the non-virtural model of the building.

Also, consider a business and marketing plan, almost all jobs are contract or commission based, meaning you will be your own contractor.

Also, there is another avenue which I have been doing for years, and that is working with interrior designers. I have build numerous ships and other objects for private houses to match a special decor. Again, you need to understand floor plans and blueprints, color, and design concepts since they work off of them as well.

Scott

QUOTE: Originally posted by leemitcheltree Try a search for "architectural models". Good luck, mate.

or architectural companies/firms
Good luck to ya jp

Try a search for "architectural models".
I've done this work before, and The Good Doctor is right - you must be able to accurately read floor and elevation plans, think VERY laterally about the use of materials, construct simply everything from scratch, get next to no sleep (16-18 hour days),and work to totally ridiculous deadlines. Oh, yeah - and get paid for about 50% of the actual hours worked.
Other than that, it's really very rewarding work. I'm sure you'll have no problems. What might help is to find a company that builds these models, and present them with examples of your work - the more diverse your portfolio, the better your chances. If you show them that you can only do one thing (like tanks or cars) then that won't help. Build the bare frame of a suburban house - an apartment building - a park with trees, fountains and benches - an office building - the structure of a pedestrian freeway overpass bridge - all these things will show your flexibility with design and materials.
Remember, they will need someone who, when thrown a really nasty curve ball, will catch it and run with it.
Good luck, mate.

I used to build architectural models for a business and can tell you that being in a big city is a great help. The developers are the ones spending the money on the models, not necessarily the architectural firms.
You've got to be able to read floorplans, elevation plans, and site plans, then accurately construct what you see completely from scratch. If you're lucky, you might find trees that are the right size and shape. Chances are that you will make everything from nothing, so you had better be good.
I found many model shops in areas like San Jose, Sacramento, San Franciso and Los Angeles which are huge in population. Unfortunately, this is where the work is and not in a small community where I am now.
If you are serious about pursuing architectural model building, grab the yellow pages for a big city and start knocking on doors. Expect to make trees, or sidewalks when you first go to work for someone. It isn't glamorous and you'll work long hours, but it's quite rewarding!