Wrenwood Hall: more considerations!

 1:6 Props & Miscellany, photostory stuff, Wrenwood Hall  5 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

So, you know if you want to make a medieval themed/ fantasy themed diorama  in 1/12 scale you can easily pick up the pieces—from furniture to props to lighting. It’s out there and–if you have the money–you can buy it. Sadly, the same isn’t really true about 1/6 scale.

The closest you can get within 1:6 is to buy the various action figures from the Ignite line of figures, or possibly the ones from that other series (Timeline? I forget what it’s called except there’s a girl in it?And I think time-travel?)

Of course, you’re still left hanging on a lot of things.  Occasionally you’re lucky and can find small bits & pieces that could be worked into it because scale on some things is varied. But I haven’t exactly got much on hand that will make the crossover from modern day use to fantasy/ medieval use.

If you can’t beg, borrow or steal it–that leaves you with Making it! So that’s what I’m left to do! (Darn it!) Ideally I’d like to be able to switch pieces between the two sets *partially so I don’t have to make more than the minimum right now; and because I really want to get these stories off the ground ASAP and not get too held up by making furniture and props!*

What’s on my list of things to make?

  • Benches & Chairs (2-4 of each) also 2 window seat benches
  • Chests (probably 2 will be enough)
  • Scribal desk/table (1)
  • Bed  (1)
  • Soft furnishings: banners/ tapestries, cushions, etc.

Of course I still need to make things like the doors & windows that go into the sets themselves. *sigh* so much work but I really do think it’ll be worthwhile when I’m done.

Anyway this weekend I’ll take some time and photograph how the roomsets (bases & walls have come along so far.) :)

 

 Posted by corset_kitten at 11:48 am

Takara CG Electra gets a makeover: part 1

 1:6 scale Dolls & Action Figures, Customs & Re-stylings, photostory stuff, Wrenwood Hall  4 Responses »
Jan 092012
 

It’s been a while since I pulled any of my Cy Girls / CGs out to do some work on (or to take photos of). The good news is that I decided that one of them will be cast as one of the actresses in the Wrenwood Hall photostories/ Quinlan Confidential photostories. It’s going to be a kind of strange mix of dolls & figures but at the end of the day it’s what makes me happy, so why not? Right?

I sorted through my remaining CG heads and bodies to decide who I’d use.  I have a fondness for the Ice headsculpt but I wanted to have some variety.  I narrowed it down to a re-rooted AJ, Catwoman 2.0 (with the prussian blue hair), Midori (in need of a re-root), or Electra who I’d gotten off feebay a few years ago.  It was a toss up between Electra & Midori and I chose Electra because I don’t have any other characters currently using that sculpt.

Well this is how she’s looking now.

Since I got her off feebay, used and out of package with only a smattering of her original accessories  she wasn’t in the best of shape and her hair was pretty awful. D’oh! I didn’t remember to take any photos of her before starting the re-root process!

I’ve started re-rooting her with some saran from Restoredoll.

I’m rooting it in long and planning on giving her wavy or even curly hair when I’m done. At least that’s the plan! It might change as I go along.  If I manage to get her rooted & styled to my satisfaction I’ll repaint her this week.

 Posted by corset_kitten at 7:13 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Wrenwood Hall: 1:6 diorama planning & creation part 1

 dioramas, Making Stuff, Wrenwood Hall  11 Responses »
Jan 082012
 

It’s been an unaccountably busy couple of days (some real life things cropped up and ate into craft time) but it’s ok. I’m still making some progress!

Wrenwood Hall is the name of the fictional Costume Drama that the actresses work on. It’s also the reason I’m making the pseudo-medieval / fantasy dioramas. I’m hoping to have a lot of fun with it and weirdly enough I’m looking forward to the amount of work I’ll need to put into making costumes, props and furniture for the sets. Just call me weird, ok? :P   I mentioned in my last post that I’d made a paper model (very rough) so that I could get a better idea of how I wanted the set to be laid out. It is not done to scale just off the cuff for my brain to play with. Here are a couple of pics. It’s nothing fantastic but you get the idea. (This is only the one set, I haven’t done the 2nd, smaller one yet.)

No, those aren’t really round colums–I just didn’t want to be bothered to make 1/4 columns) for the mock-up. The walls won’t be bare either. I had thought of doing them ala rendered plaster (like you see in some tudor homes) but I think it might be better to do them as stone.

It’s not as large as I’d like but you have to make do with what you can manage. And for now it’ll be using the large roomset base (which means it’s 22inches Wide x 30 inches Long).

You can see there’s a large alcove and of course that there’s a wall missing. I may, or may not add a second door into there. Not too sure at this point. Maybe I should add a window or two on that wall instead?

Main consideration of the alcove is that one of the side-walls comes off (the rest will likely be  permanently attached) to allow for better camera angles & ease of access for arranging figures. I’m thinking the alcove area will be approximately 12x12ish.

On my To DO list for the diorama this weekend (and into Monday/Tuesday):

  • Make additional base for the alcove area (modular).
  • Scrounge mark’s wood scraps for pieces I can use for the flooring. (I was going to do flagstone look, but since I decided that I am going to do the walls as semi-dressed stone I thought that with the stone floor it might be overkill.)
  • Cut the remaining MDF for the walls. Cut out the apertures for the door & alcove.
  • Cut the MDF pieces for the alcove walls & cut out window apertures in them.

I’d like to get a lot more than that done but I need to be realistic–after all I have to do cleaning, laundry, try to take care of the garden which at the moment is in a state because we’ve been hit with some awfully harsh winds. (Yesterday Mark & I were picking the garden fence off of the ground and trying our best to reinforce it–it’s not the best stuff for dealing with gale force winds.)

Now here’s a question for the rest of you—do you want me to take any pictures as I’m going through the process of making the diorama set? Or do you all just want to see it when it’s constructed (but empty)?

 Posted by corset_kitten at 12:44 pm

More talk about Dioramas and Dolls

 1:6 scale Dolls & Action Figures, dioramas, Making Stuff, Something to share, Wrenwood Hall  2 Responses »
Jan 052012
 

It’s taken me a few days to really think through what I want to do. I have a couple of different projects on the burners (yes all concurrently!) and my brain is certainly working overtime even if my fingers aren’t!

So, as I mentioned in the last post I am starting work on the dioramas for The Actresses. I Really need another tag to call them by since it doesn’t truly define all they do or what all of their stories will be about. Anyway, I should also mention that I am also working on the diorama  for the pseudo-medieval costume drama (Wrenwood Hall).

So far I’ve managed to:

  • Realize that I should indeed still use the old living room base for the Actresses’ living room. I’m still debating about actually finishing the fireplace or just pulling together a 2nd plainer one to do what I want. I just don’t see the fancier one working since I’m de-glamorizing the place considerably.
  • Scrounged around and found some old wood that I can use to modify the remaining roomset base into something I can use for the apartment (the kitchen–which will be a medium size between the base I use for the LR and the small base I use for the University Dorm rooms, offices and student lounges).
  •  Bought a box of spackling compound , a large container of white PVA glue and a bit of doweling.
  • Made a rough paper model for me to visualize how I want the 1st Wrenwood Hall roomset to look. (yes, I said 1st. If I manage to have enough supplies left over I may try to make a 2nd smaller room (on the new kitchen base). Maybe. ;)

I’ve also been thinking about the actresses themselves. I forget how nice it is to sometimes step back from your main projects (like the University themed photostories).  I have a rough cast of Actresses and support staff pretty much ready to go — unless I decide to customize some of them a bit more….(which, yes, we know I’m going to, Don’t we?)

I’ll check back and try to update with some photos in the next day or so!

 

 

 Posted by corset_kitten at 11:29 pm

Costuming considerations: sewing in 1:6 scale

 1:6 Props & Miscellany, 1:6 scale Dolls & Action Figures, fashion royalty, Making Stuff, Sewing in 1:6, Wrenwood Hall  8 Responses »
Oct 182010
 

Ever feel torn between two choices when it comes to how to do something?  I’ve been wrestling with how I want to go about making some of the costumes for Wrenwood Hall.  I think I’ve made my decision but I’m not entirely sure I won’t change my mind down the road!

About  Wrenwood Hall: at this moment it’s a costume drama set in Tudor England somewhere between the 1530′s-1540′s.

Giselle, Kyori (yet to be named) and some of my Hot Toys action figure guys act in it.  It is what the two of them do for a living & although their photostories don’t necessarily revolve around it I think it’s important.  And yea, I know a lot of costuming that I might never, ever use again. Hell, I might make it all and not even use it once.  Or I might just totally love it and want to dress the dolls up in it all the time LOL.

Who can say?

I do have a weakness for the Tudor time period, and nicely enough for Venice and Florence of the same time period (wasn’t the renaissance great!) so it’d leave me some wiggle room for introducing characters with farther flung geographical roots). Anyway, whatever.  Right now Wrenwood hall is a total figment of my imagination.  But I love the idea since it’s a story inside a story.  And heck, why not?

Back to the Costuming issues:

Tudor. Lots of layers. (for an example check out Ninya Mikhaila’s awesome site)

I’m using a hodgepodge of my online resources & my copy of The Tudor Tailor to work out some patterns that will work for the different body types.  You wouldn’t think it’d be that difficult except that I’m dealing with a plastic body that won’t conform to the silhouette of the time period.  Which means I have to “fudge” things. I really want to try to keep things as accurate as I can–I don’t want to end up making the kind of hideous mistakes that some costume designers have in costume dramas (sorry I do have a severe weakness for costume dramas but being a semi-authenticity freak I tend to tear them apart as I watch them). The other downside is that if I am dressing them as accurately as I can all those layers will add up (even if I made everything out of superfine fabrics) and well, eh.

I find it a bit funny that the scrawny, mostly flat chested  Nu Face body looks closer to “right” than the regular Fashion Royalty body.  I’m trying to decide if I am going to screw around with the profile of the dresses so that I can make them look ok on the “grown up”  FR bodies.   I probably will.   At the end of the day I figure it’s a “costume drama” and anyone who watches those at the movies or on TV will know that although costume designers might try to keep things close to accurate—they don’t always. And some of them go on some serious departures from realism!

Fabric: Another challenge has been finding fabrics that will look “right” for the costumes.  Rich, luxurious fabrics are the way to go… Unfortunately, although I’d like to make some velvet clothing I haven’t had much luck finding a thin/low pile velvet(or velveteen) that will work. I’m going to keep my eyes out but so far it doesn’t seem to be happening.  I’ve got some silk, and some cotton  (yea I know cotton wasn’t very common in the time period but I’m not shelling out $$$ for handkerchief weight linen so there! :P ) to use. I do have some various pieces that I hope will do the job. I won’t know until I get to the “making” part of it. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for some smaller patterned pieces that would work as damask but so far no luck on that score.  And my luck being what it is–the local shop that used to carry a pretty good range of upholstery fabric just scaled back their selection to almost nada. Grrr!

Accessories: Jewelry is the biggest one I can think of and it’ll take some doing on my part. I might actually break down and use the last of my savings and buy a casting kit. Then at least I could make what I want.  Am I insane, or what??  I could try to make the pieces out of fimo/polymer clay but my track record with the small stuff isn’t so great. Plus it won’t weigh properly and won’t hang right.  *sigh* I’ll have to wait and see on that one. . .

Ok, well–there you have it–the sewing considerations that are currently on my mind!

 Posted by corset_kitten at 7:32 pm
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