IBM z15

Commissionned work

The IBM z15 is a current generation enterprise mainframe computer.

This "one of" miniature is a 1:12 scale model and was commissionned by IBM. It was used for social media outreach on Twitter and Instagram. Extreme care was taken to replicate the original and keep as much details as was possible at that scale, including the side logo using different varnish to reflect light the same way the full size z15 does.

The model was build using mainly polystyrene sheets but also many homemade copper etched parts. This technique gave incredibly fine details for the many vents found on the model.

The front vent pyramids of the model were first recreated in a 3D environment to be able to calculate the exact dimensions and angles. The precision needed to cut the polystyrene sheets to get the angles right on these parts were one tenth of a millimeter.

The lighting and composition inspired from original photo by Jon Simon