Oldham Central Masjid

The Oldham Central Masjid needed to raise funds from the local community to finance construction of the new mosque. A model was required to demonstrate the design and location.  The model was constructed at 1:200 scale and included lighting inside and at the top of the minaret.

 

I build models from polystyrene sheet of varying thicknesses. Whilst this is a great medium for this purpose it can not be painted directly to represent brickwork. I overcome this by bonding paper to the surface of the plastic. This is then scribed to represent brick courses and given washes of water colour until the right tone is achieved. I often pick out a number of individual bricks in a varied shades to break the uniformity. This is more relevant when a brick such as a multi is specified.

 

Components are assembled using a plastic solvent. This gives a clean, strong join.

 

Because of it's design, the dome had to be fashioned by hand. A cylindrical block of solid plastic was carved, scraped and sanded to achieve the correct profile. The vertical sides with windows cut out were fashioned from sheet plastic cuved to shape. 

 

The smaller domes were fashioned in a similar way. The crescents were fashioned from small pieces of thin styrene.

 

The model is illuminated by a number of tiny low voltage bulbs. A few cars and people add a finishing touch

Construction of the Mosque is now well advanced and progress can be followed on the gallery section of their website : http://oldhamcentralmasjid.org.uk/index.htm