Read the previous post - where to begin - here.

The concept of the two floors is fairly simple: the top one is the one the audience sees, and is therefore the one covered with materials and painted according to the area of the city. There are also slots and ‘tracks’ cut into the floor. A ) to provide a space for rods to move around, and B ) to slot the buildings into place (imagine a ‘Fit flap B into Slot A’ concept).

The bottom or second floor is the one that the audience doesn’t see. This one also has slots and tracks cut into it, but only for the use of rods, and to rest the circular floor piece (or ‘donut’ as I called it) for the rotating people. There’s also holes cut into both floors to allow the insertion of the lights for the urban area.

The floors are actually made up in four halves; two for each floor. Because I was using some photographers’ card (the very thick designer cardboard), it didn’t come 80cm wide, so I had to join the floors together using some cream material scraps and glue.

At the left you can see the box with the top floors sitting in place. You can see the holes for the track for the loving couple, as well as the holes for the flowers - at far left.

As you can see from the pics, the slots and cuts work out nicely. I sketched the pond on, and decided the size of the slots for the buildings - taking measurements as I went. The slots of the buildings are actually 1cm smaller in width than the buildings themselves. The buildings would have what I named a ‘lip’ (or a tab if you are used to model making), which would fit into the slot. The overhang of the building meant that the way the building slots into the floor would be almost imperceptible.

Once I cut out and measured the floors, I attached the second floor to the balsa blocks (and the sides of the box). It worked out beautifully, because the height of the balsa blocks meant that the bottom floor was sitting lower than the top of the sides of the box (this will make sense in a minute). I had some small thin balsa pieces, and I glued a couple of these to the top of the floor. This would allow the first floor to sit on top of the second, but leaving a gap between both - allowing the buildings to slot into the top floor, and rest on the bottom. This meant the buildings would be more stable when I attached them.

But I didn’t attach the top floor yet. That would come much later, once I had covered it with materials and painted it.

Here you can see, from left to right: at far left, the other half of the top floor. At left, the bottom floor, prepared with the track for the loving couple, two holes for the ‘vein’ tubes, and the balsa pieces ready to accept the top floor. In the middle you can just make out the cream materials that make up the join for the bottom floor. At the right you can see the top floor (the second floor hidden, although you can just make it out in the top right corner, in the hole), with the circular ‘donut’ for the rotating people. All the other slits are the holes/’slots’ for the buildings and trees. The bottom left slit is the track for the cop.

Read the next post - buying the Lego - here.