Bird Table

For Christmas this year I have decided to make a bird table for my mum. I have always helped my dad with DIY around the house but this is my first sole project on a large scale ( or large in comparison to my set/prop models).

From researching different types of bird tables I decided to buy a wooden post to give a good strong central support, which I have decided to securely fasten to a wooden square flower pot, to make it more of a feature in the garden. Instead of just having some brackets sticking out to make it sturdy.

Using exterior plywood I cut the base and middle support. Using a glass and quick cardboard roof mock up I decided upon the height of the bird table, which I thought looked correct in relation to the post. 

I then measured and marked out where the posts would sit before drilling out a hole for each. These posts will be glued and screwed into place before using a waterproof wood sealant to seal them into place preventing any water getting into the wood at the joins. 

The Roof:

For the roof I used the template roof to measure and cut out the triangles to make up the octagon shape. As you can see from the photo I arranged them all together and placed up the poles to make sure it all worked as I wanted it. 

The gluing of these triangles was very difficult, trying to make them stay in the correct place while trying to glue them was impossible until I thought about using plasticine to prevent them from sliding away. With the help of brown tape I was able to glue them together successfully with some wood weatherproof glue. By using a popcorn tub I was able to also glue them in the inside too, to make sure they were securely held in place. 

To make sure the rain wouldn't get into the wood I painted it with a waterproof undercoat. After applying 2 layers on the inside/outside I then covered it with plastic to act as another barrier for the water.  

The next stage was to attach the horizontal slats on each triangle side of the roof. Once I had cut the pieces of wood for one side and sat them in the correct place, I decided that to make it look more aesthetically pleasing I would round the edges to make the seperation between each piece clearer. When I was happy I painted the underside of each piece with weather proof paint before gluing them in place with a waterproof glue. I then added vertical pieces of wood to finish it off and hide the rough edges.

I then went back to the main body of the birdhouse by adding a strip of wood around the base edge to make it neater and added little fence bits for the birds to perch upon. I also decided to add a central support to give it as much strength as possible especially with it going outside. Finally I painted it all in a weather proof undercoat paint and sealed all the edges with waterproof glue.

I screwed 4 brackets onto the post / base of birdhouse and made sure it was securely fastened before adding brackets to attach the roof.

Below is a photo of the semi finished birdhouse. As you can see I still need to paint it with exterior paint of which mum is going to choose the colour and put some treatment on the post to prevent it rotting in the weather. On Christmas Eve I quickly wrapped it up ready for mum to open it the following day .... she loves it and cant wait to get it all painted and placed in the garden. 

"Highrise Christmas" - Prop Modeller

'Highrise Christmas' is a short film idea by Ruth Ducker, a story about the challenges Santa encounters while delivering presents to good children of the world.    

By Ruth Ducker

Please press this link to find out more information about this great short film idea: http://highrisechristmas.blogspot.co.uk/                                              

Ruth asked me if I would be interested in making the props for this short film, to which I was thrilled to have been asked and couldn't wait to get stuck in.  

The Sofa:

The first prop I was asked to make was a sofa. I started by cutting 2 pieces of thin plywood to give it a strong, but lightweight base to build upon. To achieve the desired shape of the sofa that was needed I added pieces of foam board, cut to the required shape to get a curve. The final base structure of the sofa can be seen below:   

The next stage was to bulk it out a bit and create nice curves/surface for the final covering to be placed over. For this I used a thin sheet of polyester material, attaching it to the base using pins. 

The legs for the sofa, which can be seen below, will be added once I have covered the model in its final material. 

                                       

To cover the sofa using the linen bag, I started by wrapping the cushion first before moving on to the main section. I cut a pattern for the middle section, using the sown edge of the bag in the centre where I knew it would be hidden. Next I focused on an arm, which I sowed to the first piece along the bottom and around the curve of the arm. The hardest part was neatening the section on the back corner. I then added the end piece to the arm by sowing it on around the curve. I was pleased with how this arm turned out as I'm not the best sower. I think some more padding needs adding and maybe some more sowing to tighten it in more to the shape of the sofa. The tricky bit now is to achieved exactly the same look on the other same. 

To have a break from sowing I made a variety of cardboard boxes. I started by drawing the net of the boxes before cutting out and gluing together. To make it look more like an actual cardboard box I added extra pieces to the lid sections to show the woven layer within cardboard. I also added pieces of brown tape, cellotape, logos, scribbles and torn labels to indicate that had been used before. I want to continue adding a few more details to these especially to the ones that will be on show more, as well as creating some more plain ones for in the background. 

Windmill

For my next model I decided to make a windmill. To get the overall shape of the windmill building I used a polystyrene cone and cut the top off; this gave me a sturdy accurate curve to work on as well as not adding any extra weight to the overall model. After planning where I wanted the door/ windows I cut them out of the polystyrene.

For the stone walls I used air drying clay, which I cut into different sized stones then pressed the end of piece of wood into them to add  a bit of texture. I glued them into place using Impact glue. I'm pleased with how these stones have sat on the curved shape of the polystyrene, giving an old rustic appearance. 

  

For the roof I started with a polystyrene sphere that I cut in half, added 4 wooden beams before wrapping paper around. I also added a little side roof, this is where the pole for the windmill panels will be. 

I then started adding roof tiles by cutting up bites of cardboard and arranging them around the cone of the roof. I cut bits off and glued some on a bit wonky just to make it a bit more realistic and old. 

This project is on hold at the moment due to freelance work, Hopefully will be back on it soon! =) 

Wooden Fruit/Veg Cart

I got inspiration for this cart from Laika's Boxtrolls film, where they have a man pushing a cart like this through the market trying to sell vegetables etc. I started by creating the planks of wood for the base of the cart out of air drying clay. While drying I put bits of wood underneath corners of the planks to make it dry with uneven sections, making it look more realistic, warped and aged. Once dry I carved in the wood grain, which I will later enhance with paint.

For the wheels I used a cookie cutter to get a perfect circle shape, which I then made a bit wonky to give it the character I wanted. To enhance the homemade appearance I added sections in the wheels that weren't straight or perfectly arranged.

I then started to add the uprights for the fence around the edge of the cart, which are also made to look like knobbly, wonky bits of wood. Once set into place I added the top section, which I lay on top enabling it to dry exactly how I needed it too.

Once I added the handles/legs and was happy with the overall appearance of the cart, I started to add some colour to bring it to life. I started by adding a base coat of brown acrylic paint, once this had partly dried I rubbed sections with my finger to remove some of the paint giving it a more natural/old/worn appearance. I then added a darker shade of paint to enhance the grain in the wood I had carved in previously.

I then added more details to the wooden cart by using chalk, which enabled me to give the impression of dust and dirt upon the surface and within the grain of the wood.

I then repeated this process on the wooden wheels before gluing them to the pivoting pole.

To completely finish the cart I thought some nail heads needed to be visible to show how the wooden cart would have been constructed in real life. For this I cut the tops off some nails and glued them into wholes I made earlier. I then added the appearance of rust by using scrapings off chalk with some water, giving the water wash to show how it would have run when the cart got wet. Also by using the scrapings a bit of rusty textures was enabled to be incorporated, which I feel makes it more realistic.

Below are some photos of the finished Wooden Cart:

I then started to create the vegetables/fruit that would go upon the cart. I wanted to have a variety of colours ranging from the pale to the vibrant making it more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Firstly I made some apples from air drying clay, painted with acrylic paint with some glossy red enamel paint over sections to make them shiny. Finally for the stalks I used the bristles from a hard brush.

 I also made the carrots from clay using lichen for the green tops. I then made a balsa wood basket for them to be displayed in.

 For the potato sack I used plaster of paris bandage, which I then painted to give it a sack look. The potatoes were made from clay with chalk scrapings for the soil.

I didn't want to just make wooden crates/boxes for the food, so decided to create some wicker baskets. For this I hammered nails into wood to create the shape needed before gluing into place to make sure they were securely fastened. I then had some garden string which I wound in between the nails to give a wicker appearance. I then plated the string to create strips for top/bottom to finish them off.

 Below are some photos of the finished food items:

This is the final wooden cart:

Adding Foliage

Once painted I was able to start adding more realistic details to the walls and pillars, such as soil and moss. I really enjoyed doing this as its enabled me to visualize in more detail what the final environment is going to look like.

Adding Soil and Moss to the Walls

Pile of Stones from the broken Wall

Adding Ivy to the Pillar

Adding Foliage growing in between the Stones

Painting the Pillars and Walls

 For the pillars and walls I used acrylic paint to create a stone effect with added weathering, using a mixture of paintbrushes and sponges.  

As you can see from the photos above I also added some brown paint in between the stones, which is a base coat for underneath soil which I will add later, giving it more depth and making it more believable that it is an old dry stone wall with earth within.

Iron Gate model with basic painting added

The Gate

Once I was happy with the design of the gate I decided to use different thicknesses of brass rods to construct it – 0.3mm for the overall framing, 0.2mm for the inner supports and finally 0.1mm rods for the intricate swirls. Firstly I made the outer framing of the gates, to make sure I made it perfectly square I drew the frame on a spare piece of MDF; this with a square enabled me to solder the pieces together accurately. To make the top curve of the gate I found a bowl with exactly the right circumference that was needed, however as I was using a 0.3mm piece of rod I had to heat the rod with a flame torch to soften the metal making it a lot easier to bend into shape. 

For the soldering procedure I did the following:

-          I cleaned the sections of rod that were going to be soldered with a fibre glass pen (wearing gloves in a ventilated room)

-          Applied some flux to the joins

-          Then soldered the pieces together making sure the solder went right through the join to completely seal/join the pieces together.

-          I finally filed the solder to neaten up the joins.

 

For the outer frames of the gate I decided to make a holder due to the amount of little pieces it contains. I used odd bits of balsa wood to create the template, which worked perfectly making sure the rods didn’t move and were perfectly square/straight. 

This shows the overall framing of the gate all soldered

Before adding the verticals to the gate side supports I made sure they fitted into the side of the pillars correctly are were sturdy enough to with stand the weight of the gates. Once happy with the positioning on the pillars I added the verticals and soldered into place. 

The next stage was to create the intricate swirls contained within the gate design. I started by making a template swirl by hand, using jewellery rounded pliers etc. I found it very hard to make a smooth flowing curve on this first swirl so there was no chance of making other identical ones. I therefore came up with the idea of creating a template that I could bend the rods around. This worked perfectly creating smooth curves that all look identical. 

Once I was happy with the main swirls I soldered them in place before adding the verticals and smaller swirls. Below shows the main swirls all in place.

Below you can see the gate with all the little intricate swirls soldered into place.

Before painting I wanted to add a few last little details to the gate to finish it off. Using miliput I added little balls to the ends of the swirls to neaten up the rough edges as well as the horizontal sections to hide some of the joins. 

 Below you can see the gate with the pillars and walls, giving an idea of scale and positioning.The next job is to start painting.