A riveting update

Rosie here.

I have been busy running some riveted straps across the ceiling. Its kind of a surprisingly labor intensive part of the project. Each one is primed then needs two coats of paint and then finally a light weathering before it can go up. It looks pretty neat up there but by itself not much of a blog update.

However, tonight I finished up the first rough hull frame of which there will be four running across the room on those straps I put up previously. I used masonite for the cutting guides clamping and sawing both halves together for uniformity. To insure they lined up I screwed them together over the rough cut pink foam with 3 inch bolts before using a variety of hot wire cutters to cut out the frame shape.

I will repeat his process 3 more times for these. There will be "beams" across the center and smaller curved frames on the far side. Hopefully when painted they will all look like rusty metallic steel.

Till next time I won't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but you...

Out of the closet

Hello World! I'm here and I'm....finished with my closet exterior styling.

I thought it turned out very well and it looks like my riveting scheme will work pretty good. There will be more of this look around the room. The corner forms are made from thin MDF and high density pink foam carved into an arch shape. The foam has been smoothed over with joint compound, sanded and painted so it looks convincingly solid.

The "metal" riveted strips are masonite with some of my rivets glued on at about four inches apart. Its lightly weathered with artist pastels in rust, brown and a slimy greenish color.

You'll see more of the pink foam in the next step where I'll be using large pieces to simulate hull frames running across the ceiling. THATS when will things will start looking more submarinee-er

Scroll Troll Details

Thanks for the comment and question Paul. I modified the blueprint to fit my needs a little. The original as you see has some flimsy looking spindles on the ends that had to go. It orignaly measured around 20 inches and without those it came in at around 17. I ended up blowing them up to around 22 inches.

The other picture shows a movie still with the piece in question and they look about 16 inches or so as used on the set. They added a whole lot off style I thought.

I am currently turning my rectangular closet entrance into more of an archway with riveted steel all around. Should be posting by the weekend.

More moldy fun

The silicone and two part resin I used to make the rivets have a shelf life and once they have been opened they have to be used up fairly quickly.

These scroll work style pieces will adorn two of the three utilitarian looking storage cabinets that will be going in the room. The art work was from a blueprint on the disneysub site inspired by an actual piece in the salon room scenes of the movie. There they served as decorative bookshelf fronts that ostensibly would keep books from popping out whenever the Nautilus took a roll. Here they will eventually be used to help disguise a rather plain, modern-looking mass produced storage unit.

The wheel handles will be functional in that they will be operational. But not with water.

Electricity!

Windows 08

There is this really useless window on the west side of the room. It is 11 inches wide by 5 foot high. Not nautical at all. It needed a disguise.

Using half inch MDF I measured a long oval shape that overlaps the opening of the window just a bit. I used an paint stir stick as a custom compass to draw the curves on either end.

I cut it out carefully with a jig saw. Sanded. Then added some of those rivets around the perimeter and painted. This was also an opportunity to try out some weathering techniques and I found that latex isn't as helpful as say enamel or acrylic in this regard. The end result is a little heavy maybe but since this is a window to the "deep" it should show a little extra rust.

Ultimately there will be a red custom sized curtain in there blocking the decidedly none aquatic view of the neighbors basement house.

...And were Back

Sorry for that interruption everyone. I now have a spankin' new machine which was long overdue in coming. I surprised myself when I figured the old box was Eight years old! So I was due for a crash.

NEW ITEM: In the address bar on your browser there should be an orange box on the far right end. If you click it you can enter your email address and get a notification when I update. That will save you from checking and finding I've been a slacker.

These images are of a false wall I installed on the south side. The effect when I add some "steel" beams across the ceiling later should seem more curvy like the outer wall of a submarine pressure hull. The window itself will eventually sport a round salon window evocative of the movie but in this case no cool iris to open and close.

Thats a little beyond my skills