Update on 346 – The “Room” is taking shape

In my last post I wrote I was going to use foamboard after finishing a first rough model with wood board. The main reason for that choice was that it is what the writer of my book “making scale models” prefers. So I ordered in a couple of foamboard sheets, cut 2 pieces of foamboard for the floor(s), and a total of eight pieces for walls; printed and cut the paper flooring, glued it to the foamboard floors. But then the material caused me all kind of headaches: I didn’t really like the glossy white finish of the board, and thought about making wallpaper. Would it hold on with paste? How would I glue the boards together, i.e. what glue would I use? Since the core is synthetic foam I didn’t trust paste, but the foam is not stable with solvent based glues either. Nevertheless I started with the cut-outs for the first window. And they turned out completely awful. Due to the foam core I found it hard to make precise, perpendicular cuts. And so I started over again. This time with matt-board in a creme tone. – Much better! The making and remaking of the main box with ordering in new materials in between took a lot of time. But now I feel like I am finally getting somewhere. And while I was pondering my options for walls and flooring, I got to work on a bunch of other details.

The Bedlinen

 

 

 

Tiled walls for the wet-area of the room

Radiators

After deciding on teh general size of the radiators, I cut a lot of these pieces from matt board and, slightly bigger from Bristol board. Then I sandwiched them with Bristol board in the middle. Like this:

Next I brough forward my trusty Crop-a-dile and punched two holes into each, one at the top, and one at the bottom, and threaded the sandwiches onto wooden dowels. Then I gave them a generous coat in gesso:

After that had thoroughly dried turning knobs were added, and a bit of acrylic paint to indicate where screws and valves are.

Below a picutre of one of them, sitting in the recess in the wall where it is going to get mounted soon.

The box/room itself

Only when the radiators were attached to the back panel, I started to assemble the room. After the glue dried, I decided to strengthen all seams with a bit of Japanese batik paper. Of course that wouldn’t suffice for the box if it would end up the only means of holding everything in place. But I plan to build another, properly fabric covered book board box around it. And the paper will ensure that the pieces stay together while I am working on them. I was especially worried about the little boxes that form the recess for the window and radiator.

Furniture

For furniture I have several plans but have not come very far yet. I have played with building boxes from matt board or foamboard and cladding it in veneer. Then I painted it with watercolours to improve the colour. But I am not yet happy with my experiments. I shall see how to make a wardrobe, a chair, a stool and a table.

Bedframe of the hopsital bed

The hospital bed cost me a lot of time and resources so far. I studied what online resources there are to understand how they look like and work. I was lying in a bed that I could manipulate, raise and lower the backrest, and so on by a control. And I would like this bed to look similar. The next question was from what material to construct it. I first thought I wanted to use metal. But wire that is thick enough to look convinving is hard to manipulate with enough precision. Next I tried cardboard, but anything I can cut well enough, like wood or cardboard soon looks – erm – in lack of a different word – boxy. I am not good enough with polymer clay to make a convincing bedframe of this size from it. Plastic tubes and rods I bought were either can’t hold their shape well enough or are too hard or impossible to bend.

But then I had an idea, and it is ridiculous that I didn’t think of it before: I shall make the bedframe from the same plasic which I used for the first part of the bed as well. This is a mouldable plastic, which can be manipulated when hot and gets rigid when cool.

the material is clearn when it is hot and develops a haze when cooling. Finally it is completely white when hard.

The end of today: I am pretty happy with the progress: Each bedframe needs two of the larger bend pieces, and two of the smaller ones, additionally four rods to connect them all.

Making evenly round rods from the plastic was more difficult than I first thought, but after two days or so of intensive training, I feel like I am getting better. The plastic can then be painted with acrylics, right now a test piece in “silver” is drying in my studio.

Further Plans

That was a long read. Thank you for hanging on! Well, my plans include making many small things to put into the rooms, of course, including the books I had with me, so there will be some minature bookbinding to show of some time soon, I hope. But I should also put some more thoughts into the construction of the scroll and the main box.