[Tim Casey]

Last night, I noticed how full my kitchen table was of tiny books - it was really ridiculous! Since I was so inspired looking at Universalrocks' work-in-progress of the Moebius Bride, I thought you all might like seeing these photos.

These are the books I had to make out of balsafoam:

Here are the bookcases I made out of balsawood (I'm waiting for trim in the mail):

Here's the figure, from Sassy's Satellite:

A close-up of the head:

And kind of what the final product will look like:

I'm losing my mind doing those books!

Balsafoam is great! I cut it into strips and then make shallow separations between the books using a mitre box and an xacto saw:

Then I enlarge the separations with a carving tool:

Here's what they come out like. I trim the heights and then cut out a few and re-glue them at a different depth:

 

[mcdougall]

Great stuff!!
This is going to be a very Cooool project...
Look forward to more WIPs
Denis

 

[Cro-Magnon Man]

Great idea

 

[Tim Casey]

I finished the books. Here's what they look like placed on the shelves. When the bookcases are finished, I'll be gluing them into place and they'll be more uniform-looking; right now they're a bit crooked.

Also, I scoffed a dollhouse rug off of amazon. I need to grey it up a bit.

 

[Cro-Magnon Man]

Looking great!

 

[frankenstyrene]

...wowwwwwww...!

 

[Tim Casey]

Actually, it's getting wower, but no pictures today

After I finished the head, I realized that this sculpt is amazing. I went and put the movie on again (the current KINO DVD is gorgeous), and now I really appreciate how good they sculpted the Cat.

I also dirtied up the dollhouse persian rug. (Fill a casserole dish with 1/2" of warm water, squirt some acrylic greys and blacks into it and stir well until it looks uniformly dark, lay the rug under the water, and let it sit for a few minutes. Remove the rug, squeeze the water out, and let it dry on the back porch. Presto! Old rug! $9.99!)

Also, I have this cool acrylic stain gel in craft paint bottles. You mix it 50/50 with whatever color you want (like burnt umber), and when you brush it on to balsa wood and wipe, it looks like a perfect wood stain. I did the floor and it came out great; tomorrow I tackle the bookshelves (which, like most bookshelves, will take all day).

P.S. the balsa wood trim for the bookcases arrived today. WOW!

 

[spideydroogy]

Looks awesome! Very creative. The books look great.

 

[John P]

When my wife does books, it's little blocks of wood with pre-printed covers glued onto them. It's amazing what's available for dollhouse builders!
http://www.inpayne.com/dollhouse/room032.html

 

[Tim Casey]

When my wife does books, it's little blocks of wood with pre-printed covers glued onto them. It's amazing what's available for dollhouse builders!
http://www.inpayne.com/dollhouse/room032.html

WOW! That's so cool! Where does she get her stuff?

I like the pic of Mortimer being bad.

 

[spideydroogy]

Here are some links to a couple of miniature printables sites. Jim's Dollhouse even has a handy scale converter calculator.

http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/usim4531/default.htm

http://www.printmini.com/printables/printables.shtml

 

[Spockr]

Great looking stuff! It'll be a beauty when its done. Nice work :thumbsup:

 

[deadmanincfan]

Fantastic work, Tim! I salute you!

 

[Tim Casey]

Almost done! Well, at least for now - we're going away for a week tomorrow, and my wife strongly suggested a brick wall in the corridor behind the Cat. Who am I to argue? I'll be doing it with balsafoam and putting a black ceiling over the back. I'm also going to try to figure out how to put a light in the corridor (!).

One more thing - there's a nameplate on the second to top right bookshelf, but it's all black right now, hence the gaping black hole.

So here, without much fanfare or lighting, is the full figure:

Here's a shot from on high so you can see the rug, which is much darker now:

And here's a bit of a close up of the head:

And other than that, I have to put it down and go read a book on the beach. I'll have the finished product on another thread in September.

 

[rkoenn]

It is really looking good, rather amazing to see that you did that pretty much on your own and not from a kit. I'm not familiar with the figure or scene but it is still very cool looking.

 

[deadmanincfan]

FANTASTIC work, Tim! Take yer bows, fella! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[John P]

WOW! That's so cool! Where does she get her stuff?

Apparently many dollhouse magazines print whole pages of things like bottle labels, book covers, paintings...