Rastl Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I've been working on making stock for my magic shop. So I've been working on books and scrolls. I had the shelves made a while ago but might need to make new ones with higher shelves so things have room to stand up properly. For reference, the shelf stands 2 inches tall by 1 3/4 inches wide. Short version: Bookcase is from Hirst Arts wooden plank mold Scrolls are made from painted rice paper Seals on the scrolls are white glue mixed with paint Books are cardstock over balsa Writing on the books is done with gel pens Full version is on my blog with links to where I got the instructions and inspirations to make this stuff. Right now the problem I have is keeping the spine decorations random. I'm hoping to get around that by doing these in batches instead of all at once. Comments and suggestions welcome, as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted February 4, 2008 Moderator Share Posted February 4, 2008 You officially rock, and rock hard, you realize this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Jack Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Way cool. Y'know, I picked up a 3/4 inch tall replica of a Spiderman comic book at a doll house place once, if you'd like to put it on your shelves, lol I seriously need to check out the Hirst Arts molds someday. I've always hand-carved all my furniture from balsa or plastic. I remember when I first started painting minis I used to carve magic staves and wands from really tiny twigs and make scrolls from paper candy wrappers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enchantra Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 You officially rock, and rock hard, you realize this? This is because Rastl, like most of us women has a very sneaky ingenious mind. We are to be feared. On a different note, Rastl, this is just awesome. For more random symbols, pick up a book on linguistics and you might be able to grab some good symbols from other languages. In fact here's a link that if you search through it you will find the alphabets of hundreds of languages. Enjoy! http://www.omniglot.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Some progress to show. I've been working on getting the book covers decorated. Yeah, that's a lot of books. On a good note I found that gel pens work great on the card covers I put on them. I've had offers to have things reduced so I could print them out and use them for book covers but personally I like the look of the hand drawn characters and stuff. My freehand is .. not so great. Most of the covers won't be seen since they'll be in shelves. Which is a good thing. And a scroll sneaked into the picture I see. Attention hog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thes Hunter Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Ooooo prudy! I am going to have to steal your idea and grab me the plank mold. I have been wanting some good bookcases. And Wow do your books and scrolls look good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turhan Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Greetings to all, Been away a while and while I was gone You all went and made some of the coolest additions to the mini world. Gonna take me a long while to catch up on all the posts, WIP, and new goodies from our favorite mini maker. So, Rastl, one thing I've done in the past is to find odd fonts and runes and foreign languages on the net and paste the tiny bits into a word document, then, if it is regular text, reduce the font to the smallest, and set it to half height where possible. Sometimes it comes out with a book sized 'image.' If the thing is not text, like a jpg or bitmap, I just paste into a text box, create the desired box fill color and shrink the box to tiny size and print. I've even found tiny images on the net of actual books from long ago and been able to print the image to paper and then glue the paper to balsa as you did. This doesn't help you with the random spine "titles" and whatnot, but it might give you some other tools to work with and add variety. By the way, your stuff is way better than mine, and I'll have to get back to work to limber up my fingers I can tell just to get back to 'average' for what I see on the boards these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomBom Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Woh, these look great! You've got quite a lot of those books, you've got enough to make a medieval library . I like the hand drawn stuff too, it's way more impressing then printing, what would be the fun of that?! Great work! Oh, and got to remember the rice paper for scrolls, that's a good idea too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kang Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Wow, this is some really cool stuff you've made! OK, some of these titles are probably a bit long to fit on your books, and it does look like you're only using strange arcane symbols on your covers so far, but if you're worried about keeping them random, why not throw in a few actual titles that your shoppe's customers might find familiar? This might give you some ideas (though not all will necessarily be good ideas). I especially recommend your magic shoppe always keep a copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide in stock - that thing came in handy in, like, almost every single episode of the Real Ghostbusters! Kang R.I.P., E.G.G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 I didn't want to make printed covers for the books because I like the randomness of the hand drawn stuff. That's just me. I still have the mage's workshop to make. That one will have more interesting stuff since she's using it in her daily work. The trick is going to be making the curved shelves to fit the half-round tower I made for her. Tricky... But none of that until the shop is done. And I hope to have an update in a week or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted March 10, 2008 Author Share Posted March 10, 2008 More stuff! The cabinets for behind the counter are 95% done. The remaining 5% is adding the writing to the drawer labels. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted March 11, 2008 Author Share Posted March 11, 2008 And with the labels painted. I have a 'price chart' too but won't have it in the shop until I set more things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlady Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 That's just awesome....I am overwhelmed by your amazing creativity! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganm Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 That's a really sweet diorama you're building! Do you use these in actual gaming or for show? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 Gaming. Everything I make is expected to be used in gaming. So I try to make it sturdy enough to stand up to decent handling. Players who abuse my figures or terrain get their fingers stomped. Verbal first warning, actual second warning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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