While the right hand was creating a tutorial

The left hand was using pretty much all the techniques I've described here so far to build this piece to add to the growing collection of Any How Town set pieces. I will note that I used the Titan All Purpose glue to glue the skulls in place and then glued the wooden cubes onto them once they were very secure. I may add a couple more items to this "set" just to give it some more colour. Also the "stone" pieces on the ground and bridge are the ends of the popsicle sticks from the tutorial to apply just put down some glue, spread it about with a wetted paintbrush and sprinkle the pieces over the surface.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick House, Final Steps before painting

So it's time for the trickiest part of building a wee house - attaching the roof. In the post below you can see the beginings of the roof, it's longer than your average popsicle stick, I staggered the pieces to fit across the runners and then added other pieces to fill in the gaps (See Photo #5, last post). Once this is dry you can lean it against the two notched posts that are above the door and back wall, if you need to add another popsicle stick for support go ahead. Once you have the roof glued into place add some more glue to make sure it's secure. I think of using glue like a welder does, add to spots that need more support, once it's dry and secure move onto the next step which you can see in the first photo - filling in the gap between the notched support and the roof, just break off angled bits of popsicle sticks and fit them into the spaces, as you can see it took about four pieces to fill this space in.
 Final Steps - Attaching the door, I used my screwgun with a 1/16 bit to drill two holes in the door and two corresponding holes in the door frame. I took some skinny picture wire and threaded it through the holes then twisted it off with the leaterman to secure it.
 Final Steps - Do another quick tour around your popsicle stick house. Are there any loose spots ? If there are feel free to reinforce these parts with either some more glue or glue another popsicle stick into place to add support.
 It looks like your house is now ready to paint!
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick House, The Next Steps

Okay while those two walls are drying move on and build your Third wall and set it with the others
 What Step is this Step 7 ?
Step 7 Fit your door (see photo) see how I dotted the line, you can either just eyeball it and shorten the door sticks or wait til it dries and snap them off later, it's up to you.
Step 8 Make the floor and side supports, the floor is pretty straightforward, the two side supports are very important for gluing the three walls together so don't forget about them.
Step 9 Attach the Three walls with the two supports. Make sure everything is dry before standing it all up to do this. Add some supports to hold the walls in place, here I was using some of my paints pots. When it's all dry and secure...
Step 10 Secure it to the floor with some glue and let it dry! Also in this photo you can see the two notched pieces of popsicle stick that are going to hold the rood in place. The roof is the trickiest part and that will be the next and last step in the tutorial.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick House, The First Steps.

Step 1: Head to Dollar Store get one (or two why not) bags of Popsicle sticks, here they are called, "Wooden Craft Sticks" which means they have never been touched by the frozen sugary treat commonly known as a posicle. Get your handy dandy Leatherman, you have to own of these, they are indispensable for building popsicle stick anything.
Step 2: Remove the Heads and Tails of the Popsicle sticks, this can be a little tedious, but don't forget you can hold onto the bits that are left over and use them for texture on grounds, they make great little pebbles.
Step 3: DOOR Here's an easy layout for a door and you can move right to Step 4 and lay down your "boards" and build the door frame - set this aside to dry and move onto
Step 5: Window Wall, here's the simple layout for a two window wall, Step 6: It's easy to build window sills for the two window wall just glue in a stick at the top and at the bottom.
 Set this aside to dry, great we have two walls already. (to be continued)
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick House, Examples

Alot of traffic comes to the Any How Town blog site looking for instructions on how to build Popsicle stick houses, above you can see several that I've done in the past. The next couple (few? I don't know) posts are going to be a tutorial on how to make your own. I hope you enjoy it.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Garage, Popsicle Stick Process

Here's a Sputterjack garage and all the steps it took to build, it was really pretty easy to do. In photos #2 and #3 you can see the various bulldog clips used to keep things in place while they dry, these are indispensable and cut down on your frustration level like you wouldn't believe. It's also important to use things to hold the walls up as they dry, I use my brush cup for support. This model was built in two separate pieces and that adds alot of flexibility for storage. The Basecoat in photo #4 was a little too light so I did add a simple black wash ( black acrylic paint thinned down with water) to add more depth. Remember to always put down newspaper where you're working, sometimes it sticks to the bottom of the model, just peel it off when it's dry.
 I can't wait for 2012 when I take the 600+ pages I've written and the 200 pages of notes to finally put together the first FOUR books of the Any How Town series.
have a great holiday,
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com
 also head over to my other blog "the mad craft shoppe" to see my paintings and where they are hanging in Toronto.

WHAT IF? Admiral Ackbar, Sorcerer Supreme

Admiral Ackbar, Sorcerer Supreme

ink,pencil, acrylic on 8x10 Vellum

Admiral Ackbar Sorcerer Supreme

Apparently there are some folks who actually like magic based heroes, I decided I should try and keep them happy and render good ol' Doctor Strange. He wears this mystical Mr.T amulet that gives him his powers (I think, I don't know, I didn't do any research) I imagine at other points in History other people have worn this amulet. Some of them even from a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

WHAT IF? Namor Joins KISS

Namor

ink,bluepencil, acrylic on 8x10 hardcard

NAMOR Joins KISS

Namor (aka The Submariner) lost his memory in the early 1960's and was discovered by Johnny Storm living as an amnesiac transient. It was recently discovered that Namor also briefly lost his memory in the early 1970's and joined up with some aspiring musicians named Gene, Paul, Ace and Chris to form the band Kiss where his character was named, "The Starfish". Paul "the Star Child" insisted the name was too similar and had Namor kicked out of the band.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

WHAT IF? Ghost Rider joined the X-MEN?

The Ghost Rider as an X-Man

ink, acrylic, pencil on 8x10 Hard Card

Ghost Rider joins the X-MEN!

I hate magic based heroes, I couldn't stand the Defenders, but I guess you weren't aware that for awhile Johnny Blaze was tracked down by Professor Xavier and recruited to join the earliest X-Men team. Well the allegiance didn't last long and did nothing to help the X-Men's portrayal in the media of being monsters. The Ghost Rider left the X-Men and went off to be a lone weirdo. This idea was inspired by a very funny Art Adams drawn story arc in the Fantastic Four when Wolverine, the Hulk, Spiderman and the Ghost Rider had to team up to save the Fantastic Four
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

WHAT IF? Beast wore the Iron Man suit ?

Beast in Old Stark Tech

ink, acrylic, pencil on 8x10 hard card

BEAST borrowing some old Stark Tech.

Back around Avengers 187 the crew travelled to Wundagore Mountain and the Beast, who back in these days was portrayed as a more groovy genius ended up wearing a suit of High Tech Armour borrowed from the nights of Wundagore Mountain. I always thought it would be a good idea if he kept a suit of tech armour handy since he was always getting burnt by laser blasts or dropped in the water. So here's the Beast wearing Tony Stark's first suit of Iron Man armour.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

WHAT IF? Captain America Military Police Man!

Captain America

Ink, pencil, acrylic paint and White Out

8x10 Hard Card

CAPTAIN AMERICA Military Policeman!

Back in the Early Days of WW II Steve Rogers the idealistic American underwent the transformation into the Star Spangled Hero known as Captain America. His first job was to improve morale among the troops by arresting any soldiers he felt weren't patriotic enough. He was so good at his job that a vote was passed and he was shipped overseas to fight Hitler.

I gave Capt. America an Eagle named Liberty, I always found it strange that the Falcon had a Falcon and Capt. America ran around with a teenage boy, so I changed that up.
This image was inspired after reading "Fallen Son TPB" some touching writing by Jeph Loeb and of course by the Battlefield Captain America action figure, which is awesome.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Unknown Sport, "Clank Ball"

I've been trying to come up with a sport for the Any How Town series, something that is like hockey or football but I'm having a hard time doing it. I thought building this model would help get me started. It did not, but it did make me smile. The only note I have says, "Clank Ball" and that really is of no use.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Jewelry Box Diorama, "the Brave Crossing"

Here's another one, love this guy, click on the bottom image to see all the bits, have to still do some touch ups on the lighting in the swamp and add some hanging plastic leaves. I might even start adding the titles on a placard that hangs at the top of the diorama., we'll see each is it's own little beast right now. Nice to be trying new things and learning as I go.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Working Titles: The Cat's Tea Party I & II

I'll be back to write about the construction of these two pieces a little later, I'll probably reshoot the finished pieces outdoors as these photos are pretty poor, but humour me and click on them anyway, they may make you smile.
cheers,
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

"Where Tin Men Are Made" Jewelry Box Dioramas

Here are some of the steps for building a Jewelry Box Diorama, I've taken a break from building "sets" for Any How Town to do some of these. I just needed a change of pace, a new thing to keep my  hands busy before I set to the task of finishing the first two books in the series. I've also been in the studio doing a lot of commissioned work which you can read about at the "mad craft shoppe" blog (see links, right). I currently have work hanging at Cowbell Bistro (photos at the mad craft shoppe) and of course my beloved wall at the Press Club.
expect to see some more dioramas soon, hey build your own email me a photo of one.
best,
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Doing What They Do Best

I do hereby promise to return to writing the first books of the Any How Town series as soon as these Christmas commissions are finished. I promise I will finish the first two books by the end of January and will get them submitted to a publisher. I have been away from Oliver and Eaglet for way too long and its time to get them back in action.
 A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Wall of Fame and some new buddies

Hey there hope everyone is having a great Hallowe'en weekend, in the spirit of the event I build this fun wall of skulls, don't know if it will figure into any of Oliver and Eaglet's adventures, but it sure turned out looking cool for such a simple project. Again, all items available at your local Dollararma and other dollar stores, remember to stock up on skulls so you'll always have them around. I also got these three dudes, not quite sure what to do with them yet, but check back in a few days and we'll see what happened to them.
cheers,
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com