This weekend I also worked on a new Fiendish Device and the Spymaster’s vintage/steampunk computing center. Continue reading A new Fiendish Device and a vintage/steampunk computing center in progress

I used a cardboard box, art papers [for lining box], electrical tape [for covering raw edges of box], balsa wood [for shelves], hot glue [to secure shelves], and picture nails [to secure shelves to counter] to make some shelves for the back of one of my counter units. Look! More storage/display space! Continue reading I built some shelves over one of my counters.

On the positive side of things, someone decided to repurpose it in his world domination schemes. Oh wait…that’s probably another negative, huh? 😛

Continue reading On the negative side of things, one of my full-spectrum LED bulbs burned out.

Behold my latest magnificent creation, which I have designed especially to achieve my devious plans. It may appear to be the underside of a record player turntable, but the ignorant masses clearly know nothing of such cutting-edge technology as mine. This is an audiovibratory physiomolecular transport device!

“You mean…he’s gonna send us to another planet?!”

“Planet schmanet, Janet!”

Continue reading Another Fiendish Device or several

Back about a decade or so ago, I lived in an apartment on the third floor of a house. The landlord collected stuff. I got the innards of an old record player, as well as some vacuum tubes, from him. These, along with a circuit board from a calculator, as well as the halves of some plastic Easter eggs, some ball-headed pins, and some pipe cleaners, became a 1:6 scale Fiendish Device.

I originally thought I’d use it as a piece of equipment for my Frankenstein-like scientist Janet. However, the Device took up too much desk space to be a truly usable background element. Also it was really heavy, so I eventually ditched it before moving.

I’ve always missed the Fiendish Device. Sadly, though, the only record I have of it survives in this small photo of crappy quality in which Will, dressed up as Frank in prep for a midnight showing of RHPS, pretends it’s a sonic transducer.

I should remake it. It was the best vaguely ominous, sort of scientific-looking thing ever. Continue reading The Fiendish Device: a 1:6 scale piece that I wish I still had

Since Chapter 7 [and some of Chapter 8] of Zombieville centers on Isabel’s visit to Doctor Z, I decided a long time ago that I needed to make an exam room set. I started sometime last year with research. I had the opportunity to sit around in an actual exam room for about 45 minutes, waiting for a doctor, so I took the time to observe the layout and contents of the room. I sketched a diagram, which I then transferred into Photoshop. Continue reading Recent projects #4: doctor’s exam room set

As the next ep of Zombieville will be set in Isabel’s bedroom, I needed to complete the interior decoration thereof. Isabel, because she dislikes her grey hair, shaves it short and wears a variety of meretricious wigs. In a natural extension of her interest in dolls, she has customized her wig stands by repainting them, renaming them and giving them personalities.

Continue reading Wig stands for Isabel

Sure, I have a wonderful little Rement gumball machine that I could use on the counter of Peter’s resale shop, Rumpy Pumpy. However, as much as I love Rement, I love even more the satisfaction of finding a Valentine’s candy dispenser for 88 cents the day after Valentine’s and quickly repurposing it into a gumball machine that I customized by my very own self.

Continue reading Peter’s gumball machine

Last night I took a class in making polymer clay foods with Melissa Cook, a local miniaturist. I really enjoyed myself as she taught us how to make jack-o-lanterns, apples, bananas and bread. She was teaching in 1:12 scale, but she provided enough clay for me to make fewer items, but larger ones.

Jack-o-lantern: formed, carved and baked around a core of loosely wadded tin foil.

Apples: lime green dusted with bright red pastel.

Bananas: bright yellow flattened to make four "ribs," brushed with lime green along top, bottom and ribs. Top to be colored with black Sharpie. Spots to be added with brown marker.

Bread: very pale tan with most color added via pastels: red, orange, brown, yellow, ochre. Red and dark brown look good for the toasted parts. Ochre gives the cooked parts a nice depth.

Continue reading 1:6 scale food I made last night

One Zombieville set that I will greatly enjoy making is Isabel’s room, including her mess where she customizes dolls. The accessories for this set will be easy to furnish since I can use many of my own supplies for Isabel’s. See:
Continue reading Stocking Isabel’s mess: art supplies

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1543869.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Following the principles in my June 12th entry, I made more 1:6 scale plants for the Figurvore Custom Challenge. Here’s the whole set:

Continue reading More E-Z Cacti [tm] and other plants

Figurvore’s first custom challenge is to make a 1:6 scale plant. I toyed with the idea of making a bonsai tree with some of my various wire for a skeleton and possibly some fauxliage as leaves, but that looked like it would require hours, rather than minutes, of effort, so I scaled back. I made an E-Z Cactus, as previously mentioned in an entry in December, 2012, but with some improvements.

I made the cactus by twisting together two shades of green pipe cleaners. Then I formed the pipe cleaners into a club shape with a projection on the bottom to stick into the soil unit. To help the cactus stand upright, I rammed a slender piece of bronze wire up inside it.

To make the soil unit, I filled a 1.5" diameter terra cotta pot with Aves Apoxie Sculpt most of the way. I snipped off small shreds of brown crinkle paper and stuck them to the top of the Aves Apoxie Sculpt to look like wood chips. Then I stuck the wire on the bottom of the cactus into the soil unit. When the Aves Apoxie Sculpt dried, I used hot glue and more "wood chips" to cover the areas where the soil unit showed.
Continue reading E-Z Cacti [TM]

I have recently developed the useful and somewhat surprising facility for making my own serviceable 1:6 scale stuff. I go through the following process, demonstrated for example’s sake with an electric wheelchair:

1. I want a 1:6 scale electric wheelchair.
2. Let me search for a commercially produced one.
3. There are no commercially produced ones, or they are too expensive.
4. I’ll have to make one.
5. Let’s break down the electric wheelchair into its simplest components, which I may be more likely to find in 1:6 scale.
6. An electric wheelchair looks like an office chair on top of a lawn mower.
7. I have procured an office chair, but I can’t find a lawn mower.
8. I will have to use a 1:18 scale ForTwo Smart Car instead.
9. [Construction ensues.]

The key steps, I think, are 5 and 6. I’m currently planning to scratch-build two 1:6 scale things, not necessarily because I need them, but because I want to see if I can.

The first is a tape dispenser, which is basically a block with a channel down the center and a roll of tape half-submerged in the channel. I know exactly how I want to make this; I just need to sit down and actually do it.

The second is a grandfather clock. I started coveting a functioning 1:6 scale grandfather clock on the Doll Page Show and Sell site, but $33.00 for something I don’t really neeeeeeed seemed too rich to me. Even when I got the idea that the dead version of Isabel could come and go in Isabel’s room through the door in the clock, I still couldn’t bring myself to spend north of $30.00 for one.

I’m perfectly willing to make one, however. A grandfather clock is basically a clock face on top of a locker, so, once I find the appropriate 1:6 scale locker/narrow cupboard with working door, I have the base for a modern grandfather clock!

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1521675.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

New things since last time, going L to R, top shelf to bottom: Rement mushroom container with frog, 1:6 scale Vermont bicentennial license plate [scanned from personal collection], Rement vase of flowers, Rement orange pen [below vase], Mattel watch, Rement magnetic paperclip holder, Kitchen Littles mug with Rement utensil sticking out.

Continue reading Latest bookshelf

I’ve gone off on a bookcase tangent. I’m trying to make its contents a little more interesting than just books, but generic enough so that the bookcase can be used as a general backdrop. I added three things today:Continue reading Continuing to work on the bookcase

As I’ve mentioned before, bamboo drawer organizers make wonderful bookcases with little to no modification.

Make page blocks for dummy books by hot-gluing together "signatures" of balsa, foamcore or craft foam cut to size.

Don’t forget to vary the dimensions of the dummy books. No one’s library contains uniform volumes of all the same size.

Use scraps of paper sticking out from between "signatures" for bookmarks.

Create the impression of a diverse library by binding your dummy books in a variety of papers. Magazine pages and origami paper provide aesthetically pleasing patterns. Used cheap self-adhesive gift tags for trim, stripes and further differentiation.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to distribute colors and patterns randomly amongt the stacks. Very few people shelve according to the color spectrum. :p

For added realism, make it messy. [Tip for the lazy: Falling-over books take up more room than neatly stuffed shelves!] Have some books stick out further than others. A pile of books can act as a makeshift bookend. Try shelving some books on top of other books.

Use some sort of adhesive to keep the books on the shelves, particularly those that are falling over or leaning precariously.

See these principles in practice below.

Continue reading Thoughts on filling a 1:6 scale bookcase

I acquired a few gunmetal satin drawstring bags in a recent purchase of 1:6 scale doll heads. You can easily find such bags in a variety of sizes in craft supply stores or online shops in the category for weddings. I guess people often put favors [Jordan almonds BLECH!] in them.Continue reading Easy 1:6 scale pillows

There’s a thread on Figurvore about one’s first attempts at set pieces compared to one’s current efforts. It got me thinking about how I used to make sets.

When I first started in 1:6 scale, I built movable sets on my desktop or more permanent ones in bookshelves. I had very few backdrops and/or set pieces, so I mostly made do by repurposing commonly available items. One of my favorite examples of such reuse was the jelly bean seat.

To make the jelly bean seat, I started off using a short cylindrical container for binder clips. I brought it home from the office because it looked about the right size to serve as a table or ottoman or something.

When I got it home, I discovered that it was, in fact, the right height. However, the flexible plastic bowed under the weight of a doll, so I needed something to balance, solidify and add support.

It being in the vicinity of Easter, I hit upon the idea of filling the container with jelly beans. Hey, why not? I reasoned that they were attractively colored and also unspoilable [being made mostly of wax :p ]. I filled the container with a pleasing series of jelly beans, then glued the top on with my best friend ever, hot glue.Continue reading Set pieces from the depths of time, part 1, 03/24/04: the jelly bean seat

After suffering many years with a 1:6 scale bed made from a saggy, undersize cracker box covered with a piece of fabric from a pillow case, I improved my 1:6 scale bed tonight. This one is a sturdy, NON-saggy doll box, also covered with another pillow case. Isabel enjoys a book on it. I need some throw pillows that DO NOT have monkeys on them.
Continue reading Bed

Like most kitchens I have experience with, it has very little counter space. :pContinue reading Finished kitchen

I made a bathroom today. From left to right we have a wooden box [once held gift condiments] supporting DripClips paperclip holder sink, various Rements [soap dispensers and tissues], some Barbie bottle, Japanese t.p. erasers by Itasho, unknown trash can [helpfully labeled RUBBISH BIN!] and a squirting novelty toilet with the squirt removed.
Continue reading Lazy bathroom finished and lazy kitchen in progress

In case you haven’t noticed, Peter has been modeling most of my recent 1:6 scale accessories and set pieces. That’s because he’s the only finished Zombieville denizen of average height that I can stand. Both of these qualifiers are important, because Béatrice is finished, but she has dwarfism, so she’s not as easy a reference as a Zombieville denizen of average height. Theophany is finished, but her personality annoys me too much to let her in pictures frequently.

Other Zombieville denizens exist, but they are not ready for modeling:

• Anna needs her hair finished. I’m having an epic fight with it, to be detailed later.
• Carter needs a headback, a custom body constructed [fat doll!], faceup, eyes, hair and clothes.
• Chaz needs faceup and hair.
• Isabel needs a custom body constructed [fat doll!], faceup, eyes, hair and clothes.
• Novella needs faceup, eyes and hair.

Okay…anyway…here’s Peter showing off the blender that I got from stupid.com. It started off as an Xmas ornament, hence the little metal loop at the top. It’s a solid piece of painted resin, 2 inches high, which scales out to 1 foot in 1:6 scale. There are no removable parts, but it’s well sculpted. I also may be biased toward it because its design reminds me of the blender in my kitchen growing up. Continue reading Peter shows blender and lazy cacti.

I finished shelving books on my 1:6 bookcase made from a repurposed drawer organizer. A shipment of premade dummies in two sizes arrived today from Factory Direct Crafts, so I spent from about 1:30  to 9:00 PM [with a break for an appointment, a brief trip to the grocery store and dinner] completing the project.

I’m not the sort of person who feels the need to scan actual books and print out their covers in 1:6 scale for a library appropriate to each character. However, I was dissatisfied with the plain, undifferentiated spines in the earlier iteration of the bookcase. I spent most of those hours creating unique dummies with the help of solid origami paper, patterened origami paper and gift tag stickers with vaguely Xmas- and winter-related patterns.

I also endeavored to arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing fashion, representing a variety of heights and colors, as real bookshelves do. Then I glued them into blocks of several books, but these blocks are not glued to the shelves. Instead they are kept in there by the fact that everything is wedged so tightly. I’m sure there’s a technical term for that, but it escapes me at the moment.

Anyway, behold the bookcase! Though it’s currently displaying Peter’s interest [flora], this bookcase, like pretty much in my collection of 1:6 scale set pieces, will be used wherever a full, well-used library is needed. In fact, the shelves with the flowers and lava lamp I have intentionally left open so that their contents can reflect the bookcase’s current owner: cacti for Peter [have to make some of those], 1:6 scale figures for Ellery or Isabel, zombie dolls for Theophany, mementos mori for Lucian, etc.

Continue reading Lazy bookcase finished

I’m in the process of shelving things on a lazy 1:6 scale bookcase. It’s a lightly customized bamboo drawer organizer [$10.68 from Walmart].

Continue reading Lazy bookcase

Jennifer shows off Lucian's castle wall with tapestries. I don't want to hear anything about unconvincing fabrics or obvious tacks. This works for me.Continue reading Lucian’s castle walls