Thursday, August 19, 2010

Crazy day but still time for minis

Yesterday I had to take my daughter's car back to the shop - she'd just had it back for a week. We picked it up today, she headed back to her campus apartment and it started acting up on the interstate. She pulled off and it completely died on the exit ramp. So I picked her up, she moved everything to her sister's car and headed back out. Meanwhile the repair shop picked up the car. So between car related trips out I still managed to get lots of minis made for the saloon. Last evening I worked on the liquor bottles. Some are lite brite pegs and some are made of translucent polymer clay painted with glass paints.
Late last night I started a couple of cowboy hats. One is real leather and one is felt. I found the tutorial on the internet. I made some variations.
Here are the finished hats as of this afternoon.
Chairs - I really hate making them. Or maybe I just hate the thought of making them because these came together fairly easily. I only had enough square dowels to make two per table. The dowels are balsa 'cause that's what I had. I'd have preferred real wood but I couldn't find any square dowels locally. The seats are cardboard. The ladderback pieces are skinny sticks and the stretchers are toothpicks. I made them assembly line style and that helped to speed the process up. I'm glad I just "bit the bullet" and made them because I really like how they turned out.
And here's a poker game in progress. Each player has a mug of beer - a section of ink pen casing with a fishing line handle, plastic packaging base, amber glass paint beer, and matte finish white fabric paint for the foam. The playing cards are printies from printmini.com.

Now I have to decide if I'm gonna try to make the pool table or buy one. I've made one in 1:16 scale for my brother and it wasn't too difficult. That's a decision for another day...

11 comments:

Kathi said...

Your chairs are amazing! They really look like wood. Love the ladder backs. Great work!

Katie said...

The chairs look great De! Fun to see a game going on the table! Liking the bottles, too!

De said...

Thank you, Kathi and Katie!

May said...

Los sombreros te han quedado muy autenticos.
Las sillas perfectas.
La partida de poker te ha quedado muy real.
Besitos, May

Mairi said...

Hat, chairs, beer and playing cards are great! :D

Kim said...

I'm always amazed at how fast you work De! The chairs are fabulous- and I am in love with the tables- the painting job is incredible! Love the hats too and all the little bottles- they are going to look great all lined up on the bar!

De said...

Thank you, May, Mairi and Kim!
Kim, the darker color on the tables and chairs is an antiquing gel. That's how I got the cool finish on the furniture. Very easy and looks good, too. My favorite kind of project, lol.

Unknown said...

Everything looks great De, you've done such a good job with the chairs! It's coming on pretty quick!

Ascension said...

Te esta quedando muy realista, me encanta.
Los sombreros son preciosos.
Las sillas geniales.
besitos ascension

De said...

Thank you!

miniaturista said...

Muy típica escena vaquera.
genial.
Un abrazo
Maite