Work in Progress

Converting a building into a transparent "dollhouse"

Posted by Hobbyinovator on 23 Apr 2021, 15:12

I have for some time been toying with the Ideah to make buildings and vehicle models transparent. I have been planning to take existing building models and replace one of the walls with a clear plastic sheet so that you can see the interior. I will have modify inner walls, add stairs, furniture etc. The end result is to bee like a sorts of dollhouse for us military modellers.
My first victim for this little experiment will be the kind of crappy Italeri Country house N0 6074.
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As you can see the model leaves a lot to be desired. The corner tiles only cover one side of the corner and in the picture Italeri chose to solve that problem by covering that side with poison ivy. I guess I will have to cover the inner walls with some putty above floor level? Also notice the joints of the walls.
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What the building looks like with the floor installed.
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A part of what I thought was clear plastic about to be installed.
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I put the wall that I wanted to replace above the plastic, drawed the contours and cut it off.
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The plastic will have to be modified so it can fit in with the joints of the other walls. I use a Dremel with a cutting disc for this.
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Some sanding, notice how the adjusting cutting of the corners hase been done.
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And here comes the fail part. I thought that when the protective film covering the plastic had been removed, the plastic would be crystal clear, turns out not so.
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Well i can't let this little set back stop we so what do I do now? I scrounge and find an old DVD case to use instead.
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Testing to see how it fits. It will have to be cut down a bit.
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Posted by sberry on 23 Apr 2021, 18:10

I love this idea and will follow this project with great interest!
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sberry  Germany
 
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Posted by C M Dodson on 23 Apr 2021, 18:35

Good idea but why not just leave the wall off ?

Wolfgang did this on the Solfrino diorama to great effect.

It would save a lot of grief.

Best wishes,

Chris

Chris
C M Dodson  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Peter on 23 Apr 2021, 22:23

Looks great so far. :thumbup:

Are you doing this to keep it dustfree?

And when you are looking for furniture and other things, then have a look at this site:

https://www.unicornmodels.be/v2/index.p ... &id_lang=1
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 24 Apr 2021, 07:26

Peter wrote:Looks great so far. :thumbup:

Are you doing this to keep it dustfree?

And when you are looking for furniture and other things, then have a look at this site:

https://www.unicornmodels.be/v2/index.p ... &id_lang=1
C M Dodson wrote:Good idea but why not just leave the wall off ?

Wolfgang did this on the Solfrino diorama to great effect.

It would save a lot of grief.

Best wishes,

Chris

Chris


The reasons for not leaving the wall off are stabilization(which is needed at least until the floor has be glued to the walls), keeping it dust free and I have had the idea that maybe I will attach window boards and corners tiles to the clear plastic in order to show where they are supposed to be. We'll see about the last part.
I have made a not so successful first attempt at creating a staircase, I may have to make a new one.
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Anone have any opinion about where in the building I should place it? I will have to make a hole in the floor.
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I have started some other related threads about the typical interiors of a WW2 Normandie house.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24699

And where you can get clear plastic sheets.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24677
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Posted by Wiking on 24 Apr 2021, 10:40

A full house with interior ?
Respect.
I wish you the power to go till the end.

In the past I do something similar but in only a segment ruined house.
It was a bit different to a plastic kit. You have to decide what and where.
And the lack of furniture and bits and bobs for inside a house make that all not more easy.


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Go for it !
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Posted by wilberforcefrog on 24 Apr 2021, 12:44

It's an interesting and ambitious project to be sure, and I'll be following it with interest!
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wilberforcefrog  United States of America
 
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Posted by Beano Boy on 24 Apr 2021, 14:09

Great stuff. :thumbup:
You could use the shapes in the house kit as templates to draw around,
and cut out saving money on the next ones. Kind regards.BB
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 20 Sep 2021, 18:28

Progress of my stairs making:
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This may be easy for some, but it sure wasn't easy for me. Just drawing and cutting the lines straight is a challenge.
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I sawed off some rectangular wooden beams in order to align the sides, but the beams were a bit uneven so it took some work and lots of glue to suceed:
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I scribed de outline of a door at the backside of the stairs for an under stairs storage area.
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I used some hand cut stripes of a tinner Evergreen sheet for the stair boards:
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 20 Sep 2021, 19:04

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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 21 Sep 2021, 19:15

Anyone have any idea what this rectangular object in the center of the second floor is supposed to be?
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 21 Sep 2021, 20:08

I was under the impression that it was a handle, which you could use to lift the upper floor out of the building and so access the ground floor.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by sberry on 22 Sep 2021, 07:05

I have built the other version of the Italeri house several years ago, and I came across that strange object, too.

steve_pickstock wrote:I was under the impression that it was a handle, which you could use to lift the upper floor out of the building and so access the ground floor.


This was also my interpretation.
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 27 Sep 2021, 18:56

That would explain it.
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Posted by Peter on 04 Oct 2021, 21:21

Hobbyinovator wrote:That would explain it.

It is the explanation. These houses are made for wargaming and so all levels can be used to put figures on it.

That door under the stairs can also be the entrance to the cellar. ;-)

Looks good so far! :thumbup:
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 06 Oct 2021, 20:02

"That door under the stairs can also be the entrance to the cellar."

Yes I was thinking along the same lines, we'll see where this ends up.
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 06 Oct 2021, 20:05

Time to drill a hole in the secon floor for the stairs:
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Filing:
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Fitting the stairs into the square hole, realising that it must be lengthened for a man to be able to walk through it:
ladda free film
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Posted by MABO on 11 Oct 2021, 07:33

I follow this project with great interest.
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Posted by Hobbyinovator on 11 Oct 2021, 17:52

When trying to widen the stair way hole I decided to use hammer and chisel to speed up the process, the result being:
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Posted by ironzentaur on 11 Oct 2021, 20:12

Your gift wishlist for Christmas: A Dremel Tool !
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