Building A Large Scale Popsicle Stick Diorama II

Here's the beginning stages of the second large scale piece, the back alleys of Any How Town a place of gambling, shady deals and leisure.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com 

Details from Large Scale Popsicle Stick Diorama

Here are some detail shots from the waterfront diorama, having taken a break from it for a couple of days I think I'm going to add more figures to the mix and really give it more a sense of the busy hullaballoo of the Lower Market. Also adding some foreground figures is important, levels and depth are everything when trying to give a piece a real sense of life.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Large Scale Popsicle Stick Diorama II

Come back tomorrow and I'll have written all the tips and techniques used to put this piece together
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Large Scale Popsicle Stick Diorama

NOTE: I'll be back to do this entry, just want to get more of the piece finished.

Big Box of Bits, the end of an era

All of the frames that I've built for my paintings (see "the madcraftshoppe" blog, sidebar) and all of the luon, masonite etc. that I use for the models come from the workshop at Theatre Passe Muraille. Every couple of months I head down and cut up the old 1x3 and whatever else I think I can reuse and I save it from the junkyard. I've been doing this for about three years and that time may be coming to an end. I don't really want to build frames for my paintings anymore I'm just moving on in my head and don't really see frames on the work.

I was down in the shop yesterday and filled a grocery bag with bits this size that I cut down, the pieces range from 1" to 4" and it will be a huge help when I start building the FOUR large scale box dioramas that I plan to make over the next few months. So I'd like to take this time to thank R.McDougall, A.McKim and Theatre Passe Muraille for the oppurtunity that they gave me.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick Wheelbarrow

This one is a little trickier, only because you'll be using your drill to make very small holes, so be patient and keep a few extra pieces around in case the wood splits.

PHOTO ONE AND TWO- I had this wheelbarrow that I picked up at a dollar store and new that I needed more of them. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on them so I figured out a breakdown of how to build one. The base is a little square of masonite that I had a from another wooden kit, I glued down three Pre Stretched Canvas corner pieces (There's that reference again) to make the sides of the wheelbarrow. I then measured two matchsticks and lined them up and drilled a hole for the wheel pin to fit through, this took a couple of tries once I got the hole I then reinforced it with some glue after placing the wheel.

PHOTO THREE - The only mistake I made was that I didn't drill the holes for the handles in advance, so make sure you do that first. Once everything was dry I built the front of the wheel barrows with two popsicle sticks and a coffee stirrer. Once everything was dry I went over it again with glue just to reinforce the areas that looked a little weak.

 I think they turned out pretty well, but I probaby should've built four of them, I've said it before and I'll tell myself this time, multiples are everything, the more you have the more real the diorama will look, it's all about the details.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building A Popsicle Stick Push Cart!

These are really easy to make, I suggest  you build four at one go, provided you have enough wheels, it's always about the wheels, ain't it?

PHOTO ONE - Here is the finished product, painted, you can see it is a very simple matter of taking Deserre's Prestretched Canvas corner pieces (If you just said, "What?" You must be new here.) and laying them down, then attach two coffee stirrers to either side. While that dries glue together three popsicle sticks cut to size, this will be the chassis that supports the tip and that the wheels go through.

PHOTO TWO- Here's a view of everything you'll need.

PHOTO THREE- When the popsicle sticks are dry, drill two holes for the axles, cut your mini dowels to size and fit through the holes. Drill another hole in the top piece of your cart, this is where you'll be building the handle. Once everything is dry, just assemble, attach the wheels and then glue them into place.

Now they are ready to paint!
A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Building A Popsicle Stick Diorama, Large Scale

Okay, I've decided to go for it, in November I'm going to take all the bits and pieces that you've seen me post over the past few couple of years and buils one large scale diorama piece. I'm heading into the carp shop next week to figure out if I should build it as a box or if there are any better options. So stay tuned

in November and watch the tutorials come together.

Also in Research and Development I bought a few of the dinosaur kits and have started a few crazy builds, these should be fun.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Building Popsicle Stick Vehicles, Research and Development

You never want to get stuck in a rut and just build the same stuff over and over again, sometimes while I'm working on a painting (see madcraftshoppe bog, sidebar) I just glue some pieces together and try to make something new. I had the wheel from the first photo hanging around forever - when I found that the spacing of the pipes matched the holes in the piece that is attached to the undercarriage I knew I had something cool that I could build that I've never done before.

In the second photo you see the cross piece at the front of the vehicle has two separate wheel "arms", this was a real breakthrough and I can't wait to finish this guy. I feel the same about the last photo, when I was building the "Karzas" (scroll down a few posts) I wanted to get to adding a side car to a couple of the vehicles, but I was stuck in my ways and never got around to it - now I have and just look at the results! I haven't quite finished this guy yet, but I'm really glad I pushed the envelope on the design and ended up with a "side car" that shares duties as the front wheel.

Keep experimenting!

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Building Popsicle Stick Cages, even more options

Okay, okay these aren't popsicle sticks, they're coffee stirrers and I use them alot for details on things when I'm doing these models. I neglected to take a photo of step one so I'll just tell you-

STEP ONE (no photo) Lay out a grid of coffee stirrers, maybe sixteen by sixteen glue them down and let them dry (okay, fine I'll do a photo next week). Once they are dry cut them up into sections - make sure all sections are the same size. You'll need two for the front and back of the cage and two for the sides.

STEP TWO (photo one) I used some cut up match sticks as interior supports for the cage and let them dry, the photo should make it pretty obviou.s

STEP THREE (photo two) just basecoat in grey and then stipple on some red oxde/burnt umber mix to give it a rusted quality, then find some raffia or other bits to glue into the bottom to make it look like hay.

See ? Super simple.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com