Shoe Boxes, Pipes and a Roll Mat

Right, back to the props! There are only a few more props left to do for the bedroom set now, hurrah! The next few props I worked on were shoe boxes, pipes that would run up the bedroom walls to make it look more spooky and also a roll mat to show that the pasty child wants to travel. To make up the main bases of these props, I sculpted the shapes out of fimo and then baked them in the oven:



For the shoe boxes, I baked 3 rectangular shapes of fimo and then folded and glued brown paper around them. Once they were dry, I added some text around the edges of the boxes to make them look a bit more authentic:






Once these were done, I painted up the pipes for the bedroom with acrylics using the same rust effect as I used on the walls, and I also finished painting the roll mat (although I had to add a layer of ploy-filler to these two props before I painted them to prevent the paint from scratching off.):

Bits and Bobs

Oops I have let the blog posts build up again! I should really do this once a week so I don't have to do an epic update! I'll break these last few weeks into little blog chunks :)It's all been a bit manic these past few weeks juggling dissertations with production, but its all going well and the sets and props are looking really nice together. In between making props here and there, I spent one afternoon adding bricks onto the lower half of the pasty shop set by putting a thick layer of poly-filler onto the two main walls and scraping a brick pattern into the filler using a thin piece of wire. Now that the main structure of this set is built we can get cracking on dressing it and making it look pretty:





While this was drying, I added a 'rust' effect to the door of the bedroom set. George had previously sprayed the door with a silver spray paint to make it look metallic, but it looked a bit too shiny so I added acrylic paints in the corners and around the edges to grunge it up a bit:




The only thing that needed to be constructed for the bedroom set was the floor, so this was the next thing I got started on. We wanted the floor to look like big stone slabs, so Sasha bought a bundle of granite-textured fimo which looked perfect for what we were after. To start with, I rolled out the squares of fimo into a thin sheet and then cut out different square shapes using a scalpel (we didn't want all the slabs to be the same shape because we wanted a more rugged look.) Once the fimo squares were cut out, I put them onto a tray and baked them in the oven. Our oven is ridiculously hot so I burnt the square tiles a bit, but it actually worked out well because they turned a really nice dark granite colour. Once they had cooled, I arranged the tiles like a jigsaw onto the section of wood we were using for the floor, and then using superglue I stuck the squares down and then filled in the gaps in between with black milliput. It was pretty fiddly because I stupidly mixed all of the milliput at once, so I was frantically trying to get the tiles down before it dried! But the finished results look really nice, phew!:

Dressing the Pasty Child's Bedroom

Before we could start filming the block-through of 'The Pasty Child,' we needed a set to be complete so that we could focus on one scene and get an idea of how the set was going to look on camera. So last week I got cracking on dressing the pasty child's bedroom. We needed the room to look quite barren and unkept, so we decided that having bricks showing though the plaster on the walls would look nice and bleak! To do this, I cut a section of foam board and covered it in a thick layer of poly-filler. While the filler was still wet, I carved a brick texture onto the surface using a piece of aluminium wire and left it to dry. Once the filler was set, I neatened up the edges with a nail file and then added colour with acrylics. It turned out pretty well, and looks nice and bricky:




Whilst the bricks were drying, I painted the set with another coat of primer to stock any cracks or flaws showing through. The sink and cabinet was not yet stuck on properly so I could remove them during the messy parts! Once the bricks were dry, I cut away the foam bit of the board so that the bricks were more flexible. I then cut them into sections, and then glued these pieces of brick straight onto parts of the bedroom walls, on piece above the cabinet and one in the top corner:



When they were nice and secure, I added poly-filler around the edges of the brick sections to make it look as if the plaster on the walls was crumbling away and exposing the brick:




When the plaster had fully dried, I mixed a pale grey colours using the special bristol paints and then painted the set walls with a few coats of this block colour.




Once the block colour was dry, I properly glued the sink and cabinet onto the wall. I then added darker tones to the corners and edges of the room to create depth using a stippling effect with acrylic on a dry brush, and then added extra detail like mould in the corners and rust stains running from the metal bars in the window and the sinks pipe.which looks really grim! Here is the finished result with some of the props :D

Props in Bedroom Set

Here are a few piccies of the unpainted bedroom set, complete with a few little props to show the scale :)

Calender

Here's a little calender I quickly put together for the pasty child's bedroom, to once again show that she wants to travel the world! To make this, I cut and folded sections of cartridge paper, and then glued the middle edges together. Once this was dry, I added the dates and doodled some illustrations over it :)

Curtains

To make the pasty child's room look less like a dungeon, I put together some curtains on a rail to go over the barred window. To do this, I sculpted the curtain pole and pole ends out of milliput. Once these were dry, I coated them with a layer of polymorph and then sanded and painted them. While this dryed, I cut two pieces of hessian cloth to make up the main curtain sections. On the tops of these two sections, I cut small holes along the edge and threaded the curtain pole through them. Once secure, I glued the ends onto the curtain pole and then added a thin layer of fabric glue over the edges of the hessian to stop it fraying.

Bunting and bags

To make the pasty child appear as if she wants to be free from her situation, her room is going to be filled with the travel books that I made previously. Another prop to hint at this is a little rucksack, suggesting that the pasty child is planning for her escape. To make this prop, I carved a piece of foam for the basic shape, then cut up an old sock into sections to make up the exterior of the bag.
Once these were cut, I glued the sections together over the top of the section of foam with fabric glue.





Once the main body was completed, I glued together sections of black fabric to make the straps of the bag, and glued these onto the top and base.




For finishing touches, I neatened up all the edges and then added a small button onto the bag strap. I also added the fimo pencil I sculpted previously to a pocket on the side of the bag to make it look more authentic.




To make the pasty child's bedroom look less scary, I quickly made some bunting by sculpting triangles of fimo onto a piece of aluminium wire. Once this was baked, I painted the triangles using a similar colour scheme to the other props:

Shop Till

The next prop that I got started on was the till for the pasty shop. Using photographs of real tills for reference, I scuplted the main structure out of fimo. Using a needle I carved out a section of fimo buttons and scratched extra detail onto the main surface. Once baked in the oven, I once again covered the till with a layer of polyfiller to smooth over any cracks and also add a surface that paint could grip to. I used acrylics, marker pen and fineliner to add the finishing touches: