I spent the evening building 3D elements to make up the 'machine' from the previous moodboard as reference. I grabbed a few bits from www.turbosquid.com to save time such as the computer and keyboard - While these things are very simple to model they would be time consuming to create (ie. getting a similar keyboard layout would be very laborious) and I'd like to spend more time on the animation and post production/design.

Elements from the steam engine blueprints - wheel arches, wooden wheels, riveted funnel. Not precisely modelled but referenced.

Spline with 'hair' dyamics. Can create realistic dynamic cables that sway and move with the objects they are joined to. This will be the last step as once you start moving the set points the dynamics behave erratically (because the start point would move a large distance in 0 frames). This will add a really ncie subtle sense of reality and weight to the scene.

Illustrator path imported as spline and lather nurbs to make a circular object with the outline of jack lead. Simple way to add detail quickly without modeling

Gramophone - tube is subdived and simple bevels/point tweaks, then a taper deformer is used to bend the original geometry outward in the flower shape:

Old box style camera can unfold and concertina out (faked using scale and anchor point at back of box)

Illustrator splines extruded to make quick cogs.

I want to make a few more elements such as a photo tripod and another camera (with multiple lenses) then I will move on to creating the large machine made up from all these elements. Duplication and adding lots of detail such as cogs and tubes/wires will make it look very complex even though there aren't that many orginal elements.

I'm really excited to texture/shade everything and see how the render looks set on the 5th floor.