The Wintergarden Project by Marc Weston | History Museum

The Wintergarden Project by Marc Weston

Phone: +61 427 793 098

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22.01.2022 Staining the wooden floor boards for the stage and main floor (stalls). Made from wooden coffee stirrers with the ends chopped off and trimmed to the same length. Had to custom build a Chopper to get the job done.

22.01.2022 Now that I have my heat press I can make as many Wintergarden Project t-shirts as I want.

21.01.2022 During the late 1980's I paid many visits to the Wintergarden, on one such occasion I was accompanied by one of my oldest friends. We explored every nook and cranny we could find, and in what was the main switch room, behind a small cabinet on the wall my friend spied the smallest sliver of card poking out. When he fished it out it was this small poster for the film Little Nellie Kelly (1940) starring Judy Garland. He claimed it as his own and refused to give it up. Even when I started my mad project he still wouldn't part with it, but he did send me this scan. Thank you, John Lougheed. When you are ready to get rid of it, you know where I am!!!

18.01.2022 My project has to take a bit of a break as we are moving house and are in the process of packing everything away. In the mean time I have this blast from the past.This old Ice Cream tub was unearthed during the demolition in 1991 and ended up in the possession of Justin Morgan and his family. I was lucky enough to meet the Morgan family in 2007 where I took some photos of the memorabilia they managed to acquire and copies of some photos they had taken themselves. I am extremely grateful to Justin for reaching out to me back then, the pictures have been invaluable in helping me to develop my project.

18.01.2022 This is a test fit of the stage and main floor. The blue is the back wall of the orchestra pit. Will soon be adding the internal support structure and refitting the proscenium.

15.01.2022 Still settling in to new address, so it might be some time before I can post any real updates. But here is another pic from the archives. It was dated 1926 but I believe that must be an error as opening night was June 4th, 1927. The theatre was officially opened by the Mayor of Townsville, the Hon. W.J. Heatley and the opening attraction was a live performance of Henry VIII by the Allan Wilkie company featuring Miss Hunter Watts.

10.01.2022 Been busy working on floor and stage. Behold the wonder that is the underside of the stage. Attaching the support structure before installation. Apparently coffee stirrers and balsa wood warp a bit when they get wet. Who knew?

09.01.2022 3D printing the Dress Circle. The creation of this model seemed to take forever, as I needed to create the tiers above, and a smooth curved under, with a gap for the stairwells that connect the DC to the Mezzanine level. These all had to join seamlessly and fit in the required space. This is relatively easy when creating for a visual representation like a picture or a walkthrough (game), as you can hide many sins and shortcuts, not so much when modeling for 3D print purposes.... Due to its size, I have to print it in 2 halves, even though I have a beautiful BIG printer now. Printing time is estimated at 38 hours per half. I got out of bed this morning to discover that the printer had run out of filament during the night (24 hours in)!!! So very happy that it is "SMART" enough to stop, move the hot end out of the way, and wait for me to load more filament. At which point printing restarted without a hitch. YAYYY Technology, my old printer could not do that. See more

09.01.2022 Okay, I went this way colourwise. It’s gonna be a real bitch doing this 1500 times, but hey, it’s what I do!

07.01.2022 This is a lighting test of the Dome Ceiling. It needs to be painted and properly glued into place so this is a pale representation of what the finished Dome will look like. My initial setup was a magnificent failure, almost 2 days of soldering tiny little multi-coloured LED's in the bin. 2nd attempt with "el-cheapo" white LED's and transparent coloured paint worked a treat.

05.01.2022 Lighting test number 2. A coat of paint makes a world of difference, even if it isn't apparent in the photo. The hanging lights measure a massive 25mm (1 inch) from top to bottom, each one is lit by a T0603 Pre-wired micro litz Bright White SMD LED. Each LED measures 0.6 x 0.3mm, the wires are like hair. A real nerve-wracking experience installing and soldering them in place, too tired to calculate how many more I'll have to do....

04.01.2022 1930's to 1980's.

02.01.2022 I would like to post more frequent photos but unfortunately a lot of the work is trial and error. I’m not, by any means, a professional model builder and I need to take my time to try to minimise the number of screw ups. The pit wall for example was a millimeter too high at the top and a millimeter to low at the sides, this set me back over 3 1/2 hours to reprint. The 3D printer is great, but the process is slow. When working on a scale of 1:43 a millimeter is a big mistake. If you don’t mind waiting the end result will be worth it. I hope! If you like what I’ve done so far give me a thumbs up, and if you aren’t already, hit the follow button and I’ll post my progress as quickly as I’m able. Oh, and tell all your friends.