Topic: Keke's Garage

[DocOutlands]

 The center seam/gap between the coolers is rather jagged, so I'll be trying Narce's suggestion of the hot-wire cutter on the next piece of foam I cut.  I've a hunch I'll be getting some drywall patching material to fill in the gap as well as fill in around the arch.  I've got to make a run to town on Monday as it is...  I forgot totally to put any rods in place to try and pin the coolers together.  If the glue fails to grip, I'll go back in and redo that tomorrow or Monday.  Prolly Monday, as Keke has a party tomorrow afternoon and Lonnie is feeling rather neglected.  She wants her own building at this point!!

My family recently had a major fencing project built, so there are lots of pieces of wire-scrap to be had for pinning together styro walls and making various detailing bits.  We've got a 6" styro ball I need to split in half for roof deco on the garage still.  Dunno what else we might put up there - have to see what Keke thinks.    I think I'm going to have her work on covering it in spackling once I'm satisfied with the joins.  She needs some more sweat-equity in this deal!!  Besides... I have my *own* bldg to work on.

I liked the way the practice wall looked so much that I went on and spackled down one edge today so I could wrap the stone texture around the side.  I'll do the other little piece tomorrow.  And, since they are practice walls, I may have to whip out some brush paint and put on a thick coating of craft acrylics.  Just to try things out.  I also have these smaller chunks I cut out of the coolers to play around on.  Hm.....

[hangarbay94]

Doc, I've been racking my brain on how to create a Jedi temple set for the Novel and seeing what you and your daughter are doing here has given me loads of ideas.

I know you have bigged me up in the past, but your fun ideas from microwaving figures to using styrofoam have pushed my creativity to new levels. This it's such a great idea and a great story. Your daughter is doing an amazing job.

Jules

[Tamer]

As far as drywall goes. you could use drywall tape on the joins between the two coolers and never know they weren't one piece when your done. I have done a little drywall in my time. I just hated the sanding afterwards, but it wouldn't be too bad on the coolers. If you are going to "mudd" the whole thing you might not even have much sanding to do. You could even research mudd applications as you can do tons of different effects with things like sponges and foam brushes. My father in law can do a swirly effect that looks cool.  I even thought about what using floor tile compound would look and using small pieces of a similar color slate tile or even rock for that matter would look over the thing. See what ideas you are giving us all? Awesome project.

[DocOutlands]

Glad to hear our project is kicking some Muses in the rump!  I've gone into great detail about what we are doing for a few reasons.  One is to hopefully help give some inspiration to others.  Two is so that if I run into problems, it is easier to troubleshoot and fix.  And three is so that Keke has a record of it later on when she's older and sits around wondering exactly what fun she's ever had with her dad!     Self-protection, y'know.  Ok, and four, hers is a learning/experimental project so that *I* learn how to work with foam better for use on my own projects, so the thread will serve as a "lessons-learned" repository.

[spudafett]

doc, shame on you using your daughter as a guinne pig! lol

that is coming together awesome!  I love the door opening.  are you going to have a door which closes on the inside or leave it open?

stuff you should do on the top is add some wires and antenaes and satelite dishes.  Maybe a gun turret? 

[DocOutlands]

My lovely wife threw a wrinkle in the plan last night.  She pointed out we lose playspace with that door being so narrow.  So she says..."How easy would it be to make the back wall removable?"
 

So as the Gorilla Glue dries, I'm back to thinking.....   

[spudafett]

doc, removing the back wall would be simple.  Just cut it strait up one corner, across the back, and down the other so that you have one large pannel.  Use that hot wire technique and keep it strait.  Then use dowel rods and holes to peg it together while displaying, and then you can just pull it off the pegs when you want access to the inside. 

I'd cut it before you spackle it if you havn't already......

[DocOutlands]

Yeah, that was the approach I'd figured to stand the best shot at working.  No spackle yet - just came in from shutting down the shop and the gorilla glue with three pieces of tape inside has turned the bldg into a single entity - albeit a fragile one.  Turns out this is to be home for a multi-being team of bounty hunters (someone has been watching a lot of Cowboy Bebop lately), so a comm-array on the roof would be a must, as would weapon emplacements.  Details as they develop.

[spudafett]

LOVE cowboy bebop...  hmmm  some 3.75 bebop figs would be awesome....  *looks up reference pictures and surfs e-bay for likely parts*

[DocOutlands]

Bebop - I think the Evo-pack Bultar Swann head on, say, the Agent Helix *might* be a start at a decent Faye fig.  Maybe use a ROC Destro w/o coat as a Spike base and a Heavy Duty as Jet?  Obviously, an Ahsoka body for Ed, being all gangly and barely clothed. 

So, I spackled up the seams last night late, as mentioned.  Here's pics, as promised.  I did it after the girls went to bed so that baby sis wouldn't throw a fit over getting to "help" - something we could ALL do without.  As for the hot-wire cutter, I'm thinking a straightened wire clothes-hanger, jumper cables and a car battery.  Lemme know if ya see the smoke plume!  Actually, a 6v lantern batt and some jumper wire, but yeah.  We'll see how that works.  I need insulated handles...oh!  Wood clamps.  Got it covered.  So, once the spackling dries, I'll cut the back wall off.  Then we'll start spreading out the latex primer.  Hm.  Keke needs to practice that today, I think.  That's something she should do on her project...

[Commander_Kurgan]

Hi Doc!
This is going to be a killer piece on the diorama.
My son just said that you guys do all this cool stuff while we don't have these styrofoam boxes...that's just unfair...

[Frie-leK SlavE]

looking good doc.  Cant wait to see it finished.

[DocOutlands]

Heh - tell Sean it's all a matter of looking at what you have (or can get easily) and figuring out what you can do with it that is WAY KEWL!!  That's all this is.  Of course, wait til ya see *my* bldg!! 

[Tamer]

It is looking really good Doc. I am anxious to see how this all turns out!

[StenHunter]

Awesome job so far guys! I can only hope that my kids are into this stuff when they get a little older.. but god the Boy can't even stand still half the time.. I can't picture him with a bursh