Tiny things: dollhouses and miniatures and such

Well, turns out because of all the customizing I did and wanted to show, I gotta split this thing into at least two videos but here's the first...

 

dude this is SO COOL

i dont need another hobby but this sure looks fun and tempting to try!

 

The great thing about it is that it's a lot of work but like... work that can be done in commercial break-sized chunks if that's all the time you have. A lot of it is like 5-10 minutes of actual work and then you go off and do something else while your glue or paint or whatever is drying.

 

Part 2, in which I make the rest of the stuff that goes on the yellow shelves and put it on, put the blue cabinet together, and make books and other assorted bits.

 

...and Part 3, in which I finish the thing.

 

http://decadent-dollhouse.tumblr.com/post/111193769099/miniature-coffin-shadow-box-dr-westlys

i saw this and instantly thought of this thread

there's a spooky tag on that blog that i'm immediately going to go delving through as well, hopefully it'll all be quality C:

 

Held off on watching your videos until all the parts were up and it was a nice way to chill out this evening. It was really neat to get to watch all the bits going together and the little clip of it in the dark! Very atmosphere.

 

That was actually the first time I'd turned it on facing me! I turned it on facing away when I hooked up the battery box just to make sure there was in fact light when the light was turned on, but that was the first time I got to see it in all its creepy-ass glory. :D

 

Back over in Mayor Hereford's office... here's his desk with a helpful book for mayors who don't know what the h*ck they're doing, plus unfinished laptop and coffee mug.

You can see a bit on the left where the stain didn't take, that's because glue went where it ought not to have went. It's OK for this project because Scrub Village is pretty run down and town hall and the mayor's office are pretty shabby and there are more pressing issues than a coat of paint or a PIKEA run. Buuuuut it's something I'll have to watch in the future.

The desk is mostly basswood with the corner post bits being square dowels of ...unidentified wood (they come in a package at Michael's, maybe pine? they smelled kind of piney), jumbo popsicle stick for the drawer fronts, and bits of toothpick painted gold for drawer handles. The drawers don't work on this one. Next time they will. The main reason the drawers don't work on this one is that I cut all this shit by hand just to see if I could and cutting drawer holes with an X-Acto knife was just No. But I have a laser engraver/cutter at my disposal and next time I'm using that.

 

Almost done, just need to put coffee in the cup and make some pens and stuff.

Next time I make a laptop I will definitely laser cut that shit and maybe use chipboard or MDF or plastic or ANYTHING but popsicle stick and basswood scrap, but considering it started out as some scraps and "hey I wonder if this will work" I guess it turned out pretty good!

 

Coffee is poured, also here's the back of the laptop. Yes, that's a mushroom. :D

 

It are done, here's the video!

In other news my Japanese grocery store kit came in and... hey, neat, it comes with paint (which I actually am not using because I'm not in love with the colors) and brushes and a little utility knife and a metric ruler and some tweezers and scissors, that's pretty cool! But you know what it DIDN'T come with? THE PLEXIGLASS COVER IT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME WITH. It's even marked on the box as the one with the cover. Which... no, this isn't worth sending it back or asking for a refund or anything, the price difference between the one that comes with the cover and the one that doesn't is like $4 and given my access to a) pennies-a-piece plexiglass and b) a laser cutter I can make my own cheap and easy but STILL. >:(

...also this time the instructions are 100% in Chinese. Which is okay, they're illustrated and besides there are multiple YouTube videos of this exact kit being assembled that I can reference if I just get completely discombobulated.

 

Started on the grocery store--this one's actually going a lot faster, probably because I'm not customizing the absolute shit out of it...



The building's done, I'm working on all the bits that go in it and the counter and stuff now.

Two amusing things:

1. The instructions are 100% Chinese, but there's some amusing Engrish on some of the labels/posters/etc. One of the canned-goods labels literally says "SQUEEZE ME PLEEZE ME"
2. One of the little posters is an actual Pokemon X/Y poster. They didn't even try to file the serial numbers off it. I am reasonably sure The Pokemon Company did not approve this. At any rate I'm replacing it with something more period-appropriate. ...and maybe saving it for a future project.

 

Moving the goods in. As I mentioned, some of the wee posters that come with the kit are kind of, uh... period inappropriate. So I hit up Google for some real Showa era movie posters and beer ads and stuff to replace them.

I'm now about 97% sure this kit was produced by Cuteroom or whoever as a knockoff of the more expensive Japanese Billy Showa Series kits. The tobacco shop and the dagashiya in particular. Which is fine for me right now, since I'm new to this and all we can just think of the knockoff as practice. :)

 

I bought a cheapo Chinese room kit. Cute little bedroom dealie. Gon be a good reason to crack out the clays cause I want to make some small props.

I think my goal will be cute kids room with some paranormal haunted house movie vibes.


Also one day I really want that cuteroom caravan thing. I loev

 

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO can't want to see it :D

And yeah, the little trailer is the cutest thing

 

OK, I was a little worried about how the counter was going to turn out because I kinda hecked up cutting the clear plastic and there wasn't enough left to cut another piece, but it came out fine!

Instead of the supplied foamboard I used actual wood for the counters. The new laser engraver at work came with a sample pack of assorted engraveable bits including a really nice little piece of wood and, well, we did need to test the vector cutting on it...

The skirt of the counter is what I'm really happy with, though. It's coffee-stirrer-type craft sticks, stained with gloss medium + tiny drops of acrylic paint to match the counters. :D

 

I've been camping out watching you make this stuff. Is really cool! Sadly my hands are too fucky to work on such a small scale so much but it's really cool to see some of the stuff you improvise, how you did some of the horror stuff from non-horror stuff, the way you make craft sticks NOT look like a kindergarten art project.

How sturdy are the house things? The base buildings and stuff.

 

Pretty darn sturdy, if you use a good glue! Wood glue seems to be the strongest thing going when there's, well, wood involved. On this kit, with all four sides and the roof on the building and the building glued to the base, nothing wiggles or wobbles one bit. And this is one of the cheap Chinese kits. The Billy kits from Japan are all what looks like 1/4" MDF all the way around, so I imagine they're even sturdier.

 

That is way better than I initially thought, I thought accidentally Hulk Smash!ing them could be a problem. The Warm Dawn/Silent Hill room especially.