Aardman Week – A brief making of: The Thrill-O-Matic
Wallace and Gromit’s Thrill-o-Matic is the slipper driven ride through the adventures of the cheese loving Lancastrian and his faithful pooch. Opening at Blackpool Pleasure beech the ride is a must for all fans of the pairs adventures and pays delightful homage to the films.
In June 2012 I was a member of a small group of Prop Makers, scenic artists and set builders who began creating the many hundreds of props needed for the Wallace & Gromit Thrill-o-Matic at Blackpool Pleasure beach.
The challenge was this; to create the Wallace and Gromit world, larger than life, whilst keeping the handmade, fingerprint covered feel of the original. This then meant there was a lengthy research and development stage for us, making sure that everything we made was as loyal as possible to the films. This was an iconic project for me, I have been a lifelong fan of Aardmans work, so I was very excited to be studying and re-making all the elements of the films.
The animatronic characters were the responsibility of another company, KD Decorative. They were machined from a giant block of polystyrene with a five axis cutter, and then sprayed with a hard, smooth coating so that they are durable.
We (Paragon creative) made anything that they come into contact with, so this meant background props, furniture, wallpaper, brickwork…the list goes on. This meant that I spent around three weeks making fiberglass cheese, and another three weeks making fiberglass bread loaves . . . they were slow weeks!
The majority of the smaller props were created by sculpting them in polystyrene, then coating them in fiberglass tissue to make them more resilient. We then painted them with a texture compound, which we can sand down to make them easier to paint. Anything larger, for example chairs or tables were constructed from Plywood, then covered in a thin layer of polystyrene that we could sculpt to give everything a more rounded quality.
Here is Chris; prop maker working on the 525 Crackervac, and Claire & Sam; scenic artists painting countless bread loaves.
There is a lot of brickwork as you make your way through the ride, ninety two 8” x 4” sheets to be exact. I, along with one of my colleagues Rachel, prepped, primed, and painted each panel in our workshop with around four layers of paint and washes to create a realistic imitation of brickwork.
We also built a miniature village, which consisted of a church, a farm house, and a little row of shops. The paint team even included the billboard for Mrs Tweedys chicken pies in there! You do fly past fairly quickly on the ride, and I’m not sure how much you get to see, so I have included some images from the build here.
One of my favourite aspects of working on this project was working on site at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Paragon Creative worked together with the crew at the Pleasure Beach, along with KD Decorative and Farmer Attraction Developments to bring all of our different elements together to function as a ride, and give everyone a great experience.
