Using a Stationary set for Diorama
Accessories
Lampposts, Bollard, Balustrades |
By Ian Sadler, #42535 |
I was looking in the
Pound shop in town the other day and saw this Stationary Set for sale, see
the scan of it. I was struck by the multipurpose use it could be put to
in diorama work for unusual or hard to make accessories. Back home I set
about a little lateral thinking about the contents and came up with the
following items that can be made very easily by the average modeller. |
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We all see
Bollards in town and to make one you need a lathe, not any more all you
need is the ball shaped map pin and a suitable base; mine came from a
redundant plastic pen base, the green base was yet an other scrap tank
wheel, see the scan.
Next a
GLASS Bowl street lamp again the ball shaped map pin remove the spike of
the ball “SAFETY HINT”, if you cut it off with pliers or side cutters make
sure the point is away from you and angled downwards. |
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Note the modern lamp post in the scan
was made from base of a scrap tank wheel, a pen part, grey stock plastic
tube, and large wire paper clip from the set, another pen part, disc of
aluminium foil for reflector and round map pin for the glass bowl. The
Glass Bowl scales out at 1ft in diameter and the lamppost at 22 Ft in
1/35. An old walled gate
post with round ball on top, make the gate post out of plastic stock add a
base and top tile from plastic sheet, drill a hole in centre of top tile
and just stick a ball shaped map pin. See the scan of the two I have made
note these are to same scale and work out at 6ft for the smaller one and
10ft for the larger one in 1/35 scale. |
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To make
the balustrade all you need is two lengths of plastic strip for the base
and top and as many of the other shaped map pins as you need. Drill a
series of holes at the correct centres equally spaced out to fill your
wall section. Insert and glue the shaped map pins and add the top
section, you now have your very own balustrade. Add to the top of a wall
section and it finishes off a normal drab wall. See the scan of the
example I worked up in less than 20 minutes.
Note you
could ring the changes and use the round map pins as one type or an other
type is to use them alternatively. It is up to you and your imagination.
The
corrugated gate was made from a single sheet of aluminium made to full
scale size of 6ft by 3ft, the frame was plastic tube super glued into the
ridges on ether of the long sides and flat plastic strip then glued into
form the horizontal bars and cross bar. After it had set I added the
hinges again made from aluminium foil strip and bent the socket round a
suitable drill, again super glued was used. After I had left if for an
hour the bolts heads were fitted by drilling the aluminium and super
gluing bolts from the “Water Filter Rivets by The Million”.
The rest
of the stationary set can be used as per normal or coloured paper clips
can be used for grab handles or metal fixing bars, the plastic out
covering can be removed and used for wiring harnesses or pluming pipes. |
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Note:
Scrap plastic pens at the end of their useful life; stop and think lateral
and break them down into its constituent parts and see what the result is.
It will help make those diorama accessories all your own work. See scan
of a pen broken down into useful parts including spring; great if you are
into Science fiction and ideal for weapons or booms or just add on parts
to engines etc.
Overall a
very good buy from the Pound shop, note other countries have similar shops
but the trade under their local currency, so start searching out the more
unusual items for those hard to make accessories and make them the easy
way. |
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