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

School For Villains

If I'm posting infrequently it's because there's lots of building going on here and lots of commissions for paintings so bear with me, I think this little scene should tide you over for awhile.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Any How Town salutes Stan Munro

As featured in today's Toronto Star the toothpick constructions of world famous landmarks by Stan Munro, here's a link to the image gallery and article.

http://www.thestar.com/searchresults?AssetType=image&stype=genSearch&q=stan%20munro&r=all:1

Stan, I salute you

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Build Your Own GOBBLERS! Part Two

 The next step is to base coat your GOBBLERS! I used a mix of green and black just to give them a little more depth, sometimes just basecoating in black makes them look flat. Brush on the paint all over, but not too much you don't want to fill in all the details of the feathers and scales.

 After that dries your GOBBLERS! are ready to be painted any colour you like, I used bright red, yellow ochre and two shades of green on the scales and feathers. I also carefully painted the teeth in white (with a bit of yellow ochre mixed in) to show off their chompers. After that I put some white glue (or carpenter's glue) down on the bases and added the moss. This mossy stuff can be bought in the craft section of most Dollarama's but it is messy so only use a bit out of the bag at a time. Let everything dry.

 So here's my collection of GOBBLER'S! so far, I think I count 13 so far.

 have a great day,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Build Your Own GOBBLERS!

 These Dinosaurs are easily purchased at any Dollarama, but don't stick your nose in the bag it reeks of plasic/petroleum. Really love the thrilled expression on the faces of the Velociraptor (pictured above) and the T-Rex.

 These may be a little harder to find I grabbed a few bags because c'mon, how often do you come across a toy plastic turkey, the detailing on the feathers is really nice too. These guys have a hard time standing up on their bases/tiny legs so I TITAN ALL PURPOSE glue them to little masonite bases, saves alot of frustration.

 To chop the heads off the dinos I use my leatherman saw, easy to hold and position, sometimes the heads have a simple seam where they're glued that you can cut. If you're too young to be doing this ask a parent or elder sibling to help you out. Once the heads are off (see above) they usually fit right onto the birds without having to cut the bird's heads off, but you might have to, depends on what makes you happiest.

Here are three GOBBLERS! attached to their bases and with heads glued on, they're drying right now but will soon be ready for basecoating, final  paint and application of moss!
see you soon!
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Diorama of the Day :From us Gobblers to you Gobblers

From all us Gobblers to you Gobblers a very Happy Thanksgiving, we have much to be grateful for.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Tools of the Trade

Here's a look at some of the products that pile up when I'm doing the builds
PHOTO ONE These Build Your Own kits are a must, so many cool pieces to add on to machinery and walls to give the appearance of panels, gearboxes etc.
PHOTO TWO I picked up this Jenga Knockoff for $3.50 it didn't have enough pieces to play Jenga properly but it did have enough for Any How Town, in the photo you can see FIVE new Sputterjacks that are going to be painted for the Gardan State Sputterjack Team. Yes even the enemy Sputterjack but their rules are a little more dangerous.
PHOTO THREE More wooden cubes! You just can't have enough of these lying around
PHOTO FOUR These TIME CRAFTS kits are awesome to have as a stock for all kinds of different pieces.
PHOTO FIVE DecoArt acrylic can be found in most dollar stores, great for basecoating in colour, the Gardan Sputterjacks are a darker green than the one shown at right, but both these colours will be great for highlights.
cheers!
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Daily Diorama "Time to Make the Donuts"

Your Daily Diorama Fix as supplied to you by A.Shay Hahn, have a great day

madcraftshoppe@live.com

The Lonely Guardsman II

I just keep building stuff and building stuff, I may as well make a little scene and post it. There are some models that will be exclusively for AHT but really it's a waste to have so much of this stuff and not show it to you. So here's the continuing study in existentialism about the life of the lonely guardsman.
 A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

The Lonely Guardsman

"The Lonely  Guardsman"

I think I'm starting to get into that Hallowe'en spirit.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Ya Gotta Be Prepared, must have items for a Rainy Sunday

Since I've been talking more about the builds for Any How Town than the writing I figured I'd post some pictures of stuff I always have lying around and never want to be without if the urge to amuse myself kicks in.
TOP PHOTO I love doing the animal mods,it's not hard, there's a tutorial for making Cliff Hoppers if you scan down the blog. The Rule of Thumb for any Dollar Store mod purchase is ALWAYS BUY AT LEAST TWO, so the afternoon I'm going to swap these heads around for fun, it's always cooler to do multiples. The Titan All Purpose is a good glue for this, but be warned, IT IS RUNNY so use a little stick or a brush you're prepared to throw away to spread it about. This stuff will glue anything and like everything in the photo, it only costs a buck.
BOTTOM PHOTO I buy the  Krafty Kids Wood Craft Cubes in lots of four, they are amazing for builds, I can honestly say they are my favourite recent discovery, I've made so many cool sets with them (photos yet to be posted) never just buy one bag because they aren't often stocked, so buy lots. I use tons of the Titan Carpenter's Glue at least three or four bottles a week, a great product and it's washable. These Krafy Kids Wood Craft Dowels are great for building Jail cell bars and for architectural details like pipes, very easy to cut into smaller sizes too.
So there's today's lesson, please let me know if you're enjoying these notes and I'll try to get a couple of Dragon Pigs ready for later today, but I'll only do that if someone emails me and asks for them, so if you're curious drop me a line.
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Givin' Good Wreckage

Awhile back I was writing about my obsession with the Battlefield Captain America figure not only how cool it was, but also how expensive and as I surf about on ebay, he really isn't any cheaper there so I had to move on and I found this guy Red Hulk, isn't he great ? I do follow some Marvel comics but I honestly have no idea why the Hulk is red, or if he's a different Hulk and the Green one is still around, I just couldn't tell ya. But when I get this guy I'm just going to paint him anyways. But first I may pose him in a diorama of some wreckage which I've been wanting to build for awhile. I did build the abandoned town "set" that the gobblers were running around in (see posts below) but I have never build any good wreckage so using the above source photo I'm going to come up with some. I've also decided I have to get back to drawing so I picked up some brush pens and a bristol pad, expect some AHT sketches to show up here, they may even be for sale!
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com
p.s be sure to head to the Wilson 96 for Nuit Blanche and see my work there! (see post at "the mad craft shoppe" blog)
UPDATE Here's the wikipedia link so you can read about who the Red Hulk is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_Ross and yes, it may be confusing.