Thursday, February 28, 2013

Abandoned Dollhouse, Three Storeys!

Here's where we got to today. I broke up a ton of old pieces and Frankensteined them together into this monster. The next step will be fill any holes where brick needs to go and then build two staircases and place them. It looks like hell right now but in time that may change.
A.Shay Hahn

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Dollar Store Abandoned Factory


Here's the old factory entrance, I'll have more to say about this later, I just wanted to get some pictures up for you to see and admire. All materials are from the Dollar Store.
A.Shay Hahn

Meanwhile in the back "yard"


You don't need me to tell you that it's a slush pit out there. One of the very first things I built when I began goofing around with model building was a pretty simple row boat, I took a photo of it with these same two pigs, it was almost four years ago, maybe five. Here are those same pigs in the "Hitchcock" lifeboat, adrift in our backyard.
A.Shay Hahn


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Popsicle Stick Warehouse, playing with staging



Here are some shots of the warehouse "set", it's coming along really nicely, I just have to build the doors, connect the girder to the walls and maybe add a few more items to make the place seem just a little more full than it currently is.
I am very happy with how this is turning out.
Next week I'll be back in the AHT books working on Books Two and Three and returning to the game of getting an agent but for now I have to get this out of my system.
Head on over to the mad craft shoppe blog, I'm having a sale on my work at the Press Club!
A.Shay Hahn
 


Monday, February 25, 2013

Popsicle Stick Warehouse

Here's the fifth (is it five already?) large scale piece (1:18 scale) that I'm working on. It's coming together pretty quickly, still lots of steps but I'm pretty confident in the shape of it so far.
The floor was made using the same technique as the "wall texture" tutorial that I posted about a little while ago, it's glue, sand and then base coating. The brick walls were done by placing and pre painting the "stretched canvas" wooden bits and then covering them with glue and paper towel. Once that's dry you can base and dry brush and you'll have a nice looking old wall.
I'm still debating whether or not to build a center post with a span that runs across the middle, we'll see. I'm also as you can see by the top photo messing around with the placement of the crates and etc. that will make up the background of the piece.
hope you had a fun Oscar party.
A.Shay Hahn


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Popsicle Stick Prison

Instead of finishing one or two pieces like I should I just keep tearing up old diorama pieces and "frankensteining" them into large ones. This piece is going to be the interior courtyard of a prison or some kind of factory. Expect much rock and iron.
It's also a little boring showing the work in this state, it looks like crap if you're new here and expecting to see something incredible right off the get go, just bear with me, this things will be very impressive once I get through the one hundred small steps that it will take to really sell these images.
I'd also like to send a thanks to Atomic Age comics on Pape for always having the figures I need for these builds and also for having them at a price that is within my budget. If you don't know figures are very expensive these days and since I'm going to be repainting and roughing them up I don't want to pay what I consider "collector" prices for them. That's why I love ebay and Atomic and Winners, if it wasn't for the sale on G.I.Joe Retaliation figures I would have never taken the project this far. I probably would've started just throwing out the things I'd built before instead of making these larger more detailed pieces.
have a lovely Oscar night,
A.Shay Hahn

Friday, February 22, 2013

Popsicle Stick Mansions II


Here's where I am with the second build which is an abandoned beach house, I want the photos for this series to echo a lot of the amazing shot's in "Road to Perdition" which is one of my favourite films. If you've never bothered to see it because you don't buy Tom Hanks as a hitman get over yourself. It's a wonderful looking film.
A.Shay Hahn


Popsicle Stick Mansion


So here's a tip, if you're going to commit to building something this large, you have to go all the way. When I look at this photo I don't see what I've done, I see what I still need to do. To really sell the creation it has to be complete, I have to finish the whole railing on the stair bannister, it has to be there, if not, where did it go? Did bannister thieves take it and run off? You can't fake it, you can't go half way, you have to build the whole thing.
It's a pain in the buns, I thought I'd been finished at least one of these by now - nope, not even close.
I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm really looking forward to next week and doing some transcribing.
Also head over to the "mad craft shoppe" and see that we're having a SALE on work at the Press Club.
ain't you lucky,
A.Shay Hahn
 


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Abandoned Dollhouses

I've had these fancy dolls for about six years and I always wanted to build a small (1:18 scale) four post bed but never really committed to it. Now since I have decided to take these models to a level worthy of being shown publicly (which I call "The Abandoned Dollhouse Project") I figured it was time to commit and do a good job of it.
The bed itself is made of mini dowels, popsicle sticks and a piece of luon for the base. The mattress and pillows are an old dish sponge cut up and covered with the fabric from an old shirt. Once the glue had dried I dipped the whole thins in dirty brush water and let it dry and then I lightly dry brushed the extra white on the pillow and mattress to get the tones to pop.
I think this turned out pretty fine.
I'm currently building two abandoned doll houses one is beach house and the other is the foyer of a mansion (see posts below).
Why two at once?
Because there are so many small details to build, change, add, base coat etc. that otherwise I'd be sitting around going loopy.
I'll be working on these until Monday and then switch back to working on Book Two of the AHT series and looking for a literary agent as the most recent contact has not gotten back to me.
have a great day,
A.Shay Hahn


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Popsicle Stick Hardwood Floor


Had to make some changes to the project and tore out the wall (photo right) and rebuilt it with a stair case wall from another build that I'd done. I didn't want to do one from scratch and I also wanted a two tiered staircase from some height variations in the piece.
Then I laid in about one hundred popsicle sticks for the floor and the rest will be going to "bricking" in the top corner of the piece. I decided to base coat before doing the "bricking" I have lots of base mix left over and I needed a change so the bottom photo is the basecoat so far. Of course I'll be painting this THREE times 1) Base 2) Paint 3) Age that's right I have to age the whole thing down so I've been looking at tonnes of photos of abandoned houses to get the tones right.
Thank the Lord people on the Internet love posting pictures of abandoned homes.
Think of this as an abandoned doll house.
Someone out there send me a message,
A.Shay Hahn
 


Monday, February 18, 2013

Dr.Frankenstein Hard at Work



In an effort to clear space in the studio and get these models under control I've been breaking up all of the small buildings and assembling the large builds out of the pieces.
This is going to be a decaying old mansion, the perfect setting for some staged photographs.
Enjoy the process,
A.Shay Hahn
 
 

Large Scale Dioramas, Staging and Cursing


Here's a couple of photos of the garage, just screwing around right now, getting a sense of placement, none of these are finished but I am enjoying seeing the garage piece come together.
It's HUGE, as big as the Modern Times build.
I'd like to also sincerely thank Puppethaze over on deviant art who notified me that a shop on Etsy, (which is no doubt a huge company in China) stole my "Captain America Deep Sea Diver" image and was using it as a design on a flask, they have been contacted and have removed the item maybe you too should check "suzidressroom" on Etsy to see if any of your artwork is being used by someone else.
Hope you have a lovely family day,
A.Shay Hahn
 
 
 


Friday, February 15, 2013

"Popsicle Stick" Garage WIP Details





Here's the progress on the build so far, you can see each area is starting to develop nicely. Once I get the doors on and dress them up I think the lockers (bottom photo) are going to be a nice addition.
I'm just going to keep sticking stuff onto this one until it has that really crowded feel that a well used Garage workshop has.
A.Shay Hahn
 


Popsicle Stick Garage Workshop Build

This looks like a complete shambles right now, here's our work in progress view of a large scale garage/workshop. There are a ton of details to add in this piece, there will be a working garage door, a normal working door and some mechanical doodads that will swivel, pivot, crank etc.
There are also many small details that I'll have to add to this piece to really sell it, papers, tools, posters, all kinds of bric-a-brac will be glued in to really bring it to life.
I used hard cardboard as the tile to knit the different sections together, it's an easy way to add some interesting texture to a build.
More to come once this is under control.
The Lords of Space have spoken! Free Pussy Riot!
A.Shay Hahn


Thursday, February 14, 2013

"Popsicle Stick" Excavator and Patience and Stuff

Here's the painted up and finished excavator, it turned out pretty boss. And almost all the materials come from kits purchased at the Dollar Store! Once again I'd like to thank the folks over at Deviant art who take the time to comment on the work that I post. This month, more than any I've been pretty much on my own with my projects. Yes, I have my beautiful wife and ridiculous dog but other than that I've had very little contact with other creative or friends.
This month in particular is a waiting game, played out at home in front of the laptop transcribing the second book in the Any How Town series and waiting to hear back from the lit. agent that I contacted, I'm glad I have this project to work on as I wait, but the waiting does take up a certain percentage of my concentration.
I have more to say but maybe I'll get another post up later of some more kit work, because I really can't handle any more typing.
Happy Valentines Day to my wonderful wife,
A.Shay Hahn


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Five Wheeled Hot Rods and the Peril of Sharing


I've so far transcribed 146pages of the 210 pages of the second book, about 32,000 words and it's driving me batty. During this painful task I am not editing, I'm making some notes, but mostly I am just typing away while in the back ground David Caruso mumbles away on CSI Miami, I don't even have time to finish these cool builds which were made from the Empire State Building wooden kits (see posts below). I'm going to turn them into wheeled Hot Rod racers and there is a secret  thing that they'll be able to do that will blow your mind.
Unfortunately you'll have to wait awhile before finding out the secret.
Which leads me to another thing that's making me nuts.
Book Two of the series is even more fun than Book One, I want each book to up the ante, things get harder for our heroes, there are new challenges, puzzles, environments and enemies. One of the plans that I used when plotting the Four Books was that the AHT series is like a video game, each success opens up new challenges, new skills are developed by our heroes, it's a great template if you can think about how a video game is designed and it really keeps me on track for advancing the story. Someday when I give an interview about this process I'll talk about it with more depth but right now I have to be purposefully vague.
There are things that are unique in these books, some of them I have published here, but most of those things are buried way back in this blog, you'd have to read the early posts to know what I'm talking about and by my Google Stats I can tell you that no one is doing that.
So I soldier on typing and griping until the task is done.
A.Shay Hahn
 


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Andrew Shay Hahn, this ain't no ordinary town.

So I've transcribed over 20,000 words of the second book, only about one hundred more pages to go to get this draft ready for another few rounds of rewrites and let me tell you folks my eyes are fried. I'm not even sure why I'm typing right now, tried to get to Level 42 with my Borderlands 2 character but couldn't concentrate so I figured I'd post a quick update on my progress and then watch Tin Tin.
Tin Tin has the spirit of the Any How Town series, he's a good touch stone character and the stories have a kinship but I think mine are more exciting, no offence Monsieur Herge.
The only thing that really bothered me about the film Tin Tin is the use of alcohol in the film, I don't approve and I think that it probably made the movie confusing for kids, if you've seen it you may have noticed.
The other thing I was thinking about today as I plipped and plapped away on the keyboard was the word, "town". I think the word has a very pastoral association and believe me AHT is anything but pastoral. There are pirates, soldiers, rock n roll bands, bandits, comic book artists, murderers, chemists, and all stripes of folks in my town. The truth is AHT is too big to be a town anymore, but that is the name and the name AHT actually figures prominently in the first story arc, in fact, it's actually a clue to solve the riddle that our young heroes are trying to solve.
That's all for now I have to rest my eyes if I'm going to get another fifty pages into the laptop by Friday evening.
cheers,
A.Shay Hahn


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Steam Shovels and Typing, Typing, Typing

Hope you enjoyed the history of the project, thought it would be of use to anyone who finds their way to the blog. I've transcribed 16,000 words so far of Book Two, there sure is a lot going on as our heroes dig even deeper into the mystery of the first story arc.
It's probably no secret that transcribing is boring, to relieve that boredom I'm taking short breaks to build this bad boy.
The crane can turn on the base, the arm can turn independently of the chair and the arm itself has two functioning elbow joints, pretty cool, can't wait to paint it up and I'll be posting a tutorial later of how to build pivot joints and the like.
until next time,
A.Shay Hahn


Monday, February 4, 2013

Adventure Fiction for Kids

Reposted from "the mad craft shoppe" blog
Hey all, just wanted to post a process shot of the "Modern Times" inspired diorama, you can head over to the Any How Town blog to see the build in progress, read the tutorials on how it was built and also track the progress of my book series, "Any How Town".
Here's a bit of a history of the books.
It all began about five years ago when I wanted to produce a graphic novel, I had created a cast of teenaged characters who lived in a port town who were former soldiers. The era the GN was to be set in was somewhere in the1920's -1940's but with a steam punk approach, but I don't really like all of the associations with steam punk, it's not me, so I call it "farm punk", there are  no poofy blouses, these are soldiers, brawlers, farmers and sailors, they get their hands dirty.
I started writing and sketching for a good few months and posting character profiles as each player in the story was created. I wrote some short pieces and began mapping the history of the wars, the town itself and was happy with the backstory that I had created.
After a year of solid creation (while painting commissions, doing designs etc.) I was kind of stuck, I liked all the characters but I found that the tone was too dark, it was a little inaccessible, the dystopic stew was too thick. I let the stories rest for a while and went back to painting.
During this time I also began building the models that you can see at the AHT blog.
Since the vehicles and animals of AHT are different than ours I figured it would be helpful that when I had to draw the comic that I had the models to use, this was great fun and also very relaxing. I started to comb through Dollar Stores and assembling the three dimensional world of AHT.
One day while working I realized what I truly wanted to do with the series, I knew that writing, drawing and inking the books would be too large an undertaking for one guy and I would just write the books themselves.
The strongest realization came from the characters, there are many large clans and families in AHT and all the characters had younger brothers and sisters, so instead of focusing on the teens I switched to the younger citizens of AHT and a door opened in my head.
Any How Town is a crazy place full of eccentric characters and it was far more fun to introduce them through the eyes of kids - things really picked up steam for me. I started plotting the first series of four books and I got it down quick, it just poured out of me, I was beyond excited to start writing the books.
Last summer  I wrote the first book and most of the second and a third of the third book. I just sat down in the backyard of our house and I wrote them, I was shocked that all the work just lined up and spilled out for me. I sat under the shade of a tree (that tree has since died, long live the tree) and just wrote straight through the day and into dinner time.
Any How Town is a fun place, it's full of adventure, non stop discovery, ancient mysteries, chases, mutated animals, you name it, we've got it here. I want the series to be devoured, I want you to feel like you did when you first saw Indiana Jones, they are adventures made for the young, they are page turners, I am sure of it.  I've since plotted the fifth and sixth book which is a whole new story for our young heroes, I can't wait to get to it and see how our heroes have changed since we first meet them in Book One.
I have now finished the fourth draft of the first book and have begun searching for an agent, currently I am writing the second draft of the Second book and WILL have it finished in a third draft form by the end of February and hope to have secured an agent by that time.
I realized a few weeks ago that I am actually in the fifth year of the Five Year plan of Any How Town, it doesn't feel like it's been a long time that I've been creating the world, it feels right and that gives me great confidence.
so head on over to Any How Town and pay the folks a visit
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com
 

Popsicle Stick Building, adding texture


Here's a quick and easy way to make your builds really pop and all it takes is some fine sand and glue. Most Dollar Store's sell fine sand in their craft sections, get a bag, store it safely in a jar or something so it doesn't spill everywhere and get to work on this simple technique.
First lay down some glue on your wall, floor, vehicle, whatever it is you're building, then take a paintbrush (a crappy one you don't mind ruining) and dip it in your water. Spread the glue around evenly on the wall and then sprinkle the fine sand over top of the wet glue. You can also take your brush and spread the sand around evenly. Once that's done you can leave it to dry.
Move onto base coating (yes, you hate it, we all do) and when the base coat is dry take a colour that's just a tone darker than your basecoat and lightly, oh so lightly, dry brush over the wall and the paint will stick to the sand giving your build depth and texture.
A.Shay Hahn


A.Shay Hahn into Book Two



 Here are some photos of the Modern Times diorama, if you'd asked me two years ago if I'd ever build something as large as this I would've laughed out loud, but once I got this idea in my head I just couldn't shake it.
It's really coming along but the trick is going to be lighting, I saw some diorama photos online while I was doing research and I could not believe the quality of light some folks out there were getting for their images. check out "scruffyronin" on deviant art if you want to see lighting and "bilking" if you want to see crazy detail, I've got a lot to learn - actually that's not true, what I have to do is really push it and make sure that all the details are there. I'll post a couple of tutorials that are simple and easy that help add a lot of depth and detail to your builds so you can see what I mean.
I will be working on the second draft of the second book of the Any How Town Book Series this week, I would like to get into the third draft by the end of the month and have my representation with an agency secured, I like my query letter but what is difficult to communicate is the size of the world of Any How Town, the different races and cultures, the sports, the slang, the other languages and the history, the fact that I have created about seventy characters for the books, it's all there.
I don't write a lot about those things here are the blog, they're my ideas and I don't want to give them away on the Internet, if you follow this blog you'll notice I keep everything about the world and the books really vague, I've been doing this on purpose - it's my world and my property, when the first book comes out you'll be able to see just how much there is, but for now it has to be a secret. It would be better revealed in a conversation with an agent.
Alright these pages are staring at me, time to get to work.
A.Shay Hahn