test sample of our new circus super-model

Yesterday (22nd January), Trust volunteer Shirley brought her test sample of the new super-model of Colchester’s Roman circus to show to everyone here at Roman Circus House. Shirley has volunteered to make the new circus model, by hand, at a scale of 1:100. So it will be 4.5 metres long… The new circus model is going to be made of wood. Shirley’s test sample is of part of the seating-stand (cavea) and it is very well made; she produced it to check the technique, profile and scale. We are all very pleased with it. Shirley will start on the real thing as soon as the final plan is ready, which will be very soon.

Shirley is working from the 3-d computer-generated image of the seating-stand which local designer Roger Massey Ryan recently produced for the Trust. This was based on the plan of the circus which Trust director Philip reconstructed from the evidence from our investigations on the site of the circus. Philip has had to work out how the building was designed in Roman feet and then express all the various elements which make up the building this way, in drawings. As the new model is to be built at a scale of 1:100, this means that one Roman foot is equal to a convenient 3mm. Roger is going to model and then 3-d print the fiddly parts of the circus model like the two entrance arches, the lap-counters, and the 7,500 tiny spectators who are to occupy the seats of the circus model. There will also be a complete 3-d computer-generated model of the circus, to match Shirley’s wooden model, and both will be displayed in the circus centre.

With many thanks to Shirley.

The image shows the sample of the new circus model being held in place by Shirley, next to our existing circus model, yesterday.

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