This week an amazing artist from Cheshire, UK, combining the art of sculpture and automobiles…

Peter Brock with the Daytona Sculpture

Having spent over twenty years in engineering, Kevin decided to retrain and teach Design and Technology to pupils in secondary schools. 10 years later he was the head of department at a one of the top schools in the country, with well equipped workshops and even a small foundry setup. A new Head Master came to the school who then ultimately shut down the department as he believed “there was no future for children designing and making in schools” At this point he decided to set up his own business creating the Polished Aluminium Streamliner Designs Sculptures, utilising many of the skills that he taught the pupils.

“I have produced a range of sculptures, but also have been commissioned to create work not just within the UK, but also for many international clients. Most of my work does tend to go overseas”, Kevin explains.

One example of his work was the creation of the Lotus 79 for Lotus’ Paris Motorshow. He also created the Motorclassica Concours d’Elegance awards and from 2010 to 2015 he produced the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Class awards and Special Awards.

Many of his sculptures are cast in aluminium, using either sand casting, or loss wax casting, depending on the level of detail needed in the final piece. This entails creating a master pattern to be cast from, which he has always created himself, but a couple of years ago, he met a master model-maker at The Goodwood Revival, called Jason Brumby and he decided to collaborate on some new projects with him.

Their first joint project was the Daytona Cobra Coupe. They now have a other projects in production.

The casting processes can pull up many issues, so over the years Kevin has worked closely with a number of foundries to produce the best castings possible.

He also looked in to Computer Aided Design and Manufacture CAD/CAM systems as he wanted to design pieces utilising these processes. He designed the Motorclassica trophy on CAD and ultimately 3D printed the masters to then create foundry patterns from, but he wanted to look at taking this to the next level and machine directly from solid aluminium.

So the latest designs are designed with this end process in mind, using programs such as Alias. One of the first pieces he produced for machining was the Ferrari 599 GTO, for a client who had his own GTO. This design is over 1.4m in total length, so a few days of machining, before many days of polishing. Only 5 of these will ever be produced.

Still having an interest in teaching and encouraging young designers, he has been looking at ways that Streamliner Designs could become a portal for young designers to give them the opportunity to develop their CAD skills, whilst getting their work to a wider audience. Having met many interesting people in the automotive industry, it was often mentioned that many young CAD designers may be brilliant at creating three dimensional forms in isolation and they often never get to see the final designs as finished physical products.

Working with a tutor from one of the top UK University Automotive Design Courses, Kevin was introduced to a young designer called James Langton.

“Working to my design brief, James then produced these first machinable models, being the Porsche 917, the 356 Gmund Coupe and then the E Type Jaguar” Kevin explained. “James has since been able to show case these designs in interviews to further his career” he continued.

Kevins is interested to also offer this opportunity to collaborate with other young designers, where together they can then create further designs.

With the three latest designs being created on CAD specifically to then be machined, this entailed stripping the cars back to their purest forms, to reduce the machining time, to make them viable.

Even with just these pure forms, each piece takes over 10 hours to machine at the 200mm scale. Once he receives each machined piece, he then start the careful process of removing the machining marks and then carefully polishing each piece.

“There are currently a number of projects in the pipeline, but i’m always happy to discuss new projects for individuals or corporate needs.” He added.

Well, we know you’ve enjoyed this feature, so do keep an eye on Kevin’s work on his website and do like and follow him on Facebook here.

He has kindly sent us some images from his work which we share with you below. As always, please respect copyright.

Pebble Beach Class Trophy

Cooper Streamliners

Amelia Island Special award for Bill Warner
Bluebird Award
Motorclassica award
Porsche 917
Healey Streamliner CNC machined limited edition
Daytona, specially detailed to match the clients’ car
E Type CNC machined
356 Gmund Coupe CNC Machined
Each of these limited to 100 pieces each
Porsche 917