The Abandoned Popsicle Stick Warehouse (1:18 scale, WIP)

 

 All items purchases at the Dollar Store, so yes you too can build one. This piece is made of coffee stirrers, popsicle sticks, wooden dowels and a dismantled wooden dish rack. The windows are covered with thick plastic and the wall treatment is layered on paper towels to add texture.

The build is coming along really quickly, there's lots to do but the Batman films are really helping to fill in time while I wait for the glue to set.

Once again here is the announcement of the reception for my paintings that are currently hanging at the Press Club (850 Dundas West, Toronto) on Saturday, May 4th from 6:30-9:30 to see the work head over to my other blog (see links) the mad craft shoppe.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



A Two Storey Abandoned Popsicle Warehouse (1:18 Scale WIP)

 

This is the second day of the abandoned warehouse build, and to get through the boring parts I had to watch the Batman movies, because how can you not think about Batman when building an abandoned warehouse? The window slats are coffee stirrers, the back windows have been covered with thick plastic (backside) soon to be aged. The debris on the base coated ground are popsicle stick odds and ends. The base boards are popsicle sticks and the wall treatments are paper towels.

Feel free to ask any questions about the builds

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Do we dare?

So now between working on paintings for the Anniversary show at the Press Club (reception is Sat. May 4th, from 6:30-9:30 see the mad craft shoppe blog in links) I am looking for new challenges. I'm currently converting the two acrylic bottles into some kind of boiler/fuel tank apparatus but then out of the corner of my eye I spotted our empty Folgers can. I believe this will be my next challenge. It may get cut in half, it may get turned into a vehicle but whatever happens it will be interesting.

The top pic happened quite by accident, but I think it does a good job of describing how I feel when I'm building stuff for Any How Town and the Abandoned Dollhouse Project.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Matchstick container conversion

Here's a quick post of some matchstick containers that I converted into these "bombs". I don't really like posting bombs given the current state of the world, I may even change them into something less deadly, but they look good in this set.

If you're enjoying the large scale diorama work I've been doing please support it by heading to the Press Club (850 Dundas West, Toronto) and checking out my paintings all proceeds go to building these large scale pieces and the writing of my book series, Any How Town.

Head over to "the mad craft shoppe" blog (see links) to see the work.

cheers, I'm off to Giant Tiger to go hog wild in the craft section.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Water Bottle Furnaces

Continuing my new project of converting packaging into new things are these two water bottles that I turned into these cool furnaces. The only difficulty I had was the thickness of the plastic, as you know water bottles are made of pretty flimsy stuff so I had to really cover them with a few passes of paper towel to get them sturdy, they turned out great.

Inspiration is everywhere folks!

I'm also working on some toothpick containers and egg cartons.

Please head over to "the mad craft shoppe" blog to see the paintings that I have hanging at the Press Club (850 Dundas West, Toronto) there's great work at great prices (lower than usual) as I'm trying to raise the funds to take the next two months off to finish writing the first two books in the Any How Town series and secure an agent. Why not head on by tonight and see Jimmy Byron play, he starts at around 10 pm.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Reduce, Reuse and Make Super Cool Fuel Tanks

If you want some variation in your dioramas it always helps to look for different objects to incorporate into the backgrounds etc. Often things can end up looking quite the same and you may feel that you're in a rut. I hadn't built anything "new" in awhile and had to find a new approach to the large scale builds that I'm currently doing.

My wife eats these probiotic yogurts and I really like the cool shape of the container so instead of throwing them out or recycling them I saved a few and made these cool fuel tanks. The first step was to cover them in paper towels, these gave them a unique texture and the green paint really pops when it's drybrushed on, after that I glued on some buttons and bits and here ya go!

Can't wait to incorporate them into the model.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

I

It came to me in a dream!

Most Dollar Stores sell the Time For Crafts( or whatever the name of the company is, I've given up on sponsorship) dowels but none of them sell anything square, besides those great little building cubes. I'm not kidding I had a dream that they did and I purchased arm loads for building Any How Town and other dioramas.

When I was walking the dog the other day it hit me, those wooden dish drying racks would be perfect as long as I could get them apart easily enough without destroying them. Lo and behold on our walk I found one (yes it was in the garbage, but was in perfect shape, no bugs or anything) so I took it home and took it apart and here is the yield of wood that you get from one.

The other thing I learned is that they aren't expensive (the price was still on this one) so I'll start combing the kitchen aisles of dollar stores to see if I can find a couple more.

If you like what I've been doing here please head over to my other blog "the mad craft shoppe" and have a look at my show of paintings that is hanging at the Press Club (850 Dundas West, Toronto) all of the work and priced to sell. All sales go towards finishing the second book in the Any How Town book series and continuing my oh so cool diorama builds and tutorials.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com