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Monday, 1 October 2012

Sofa so good

My attempts at card modelling have, to say the least, been less than inspiring. I, like many others I suspect, was seduced into attempting it by the modelling  expertise of others (I'm looking at you Vampifan).  The photograph on the right shows a typical box-type structure that is meant to represent a sofe (settee ?). Unfortunately it is typical of my attempts at card modelling - an abomination of something, but quite what remains unknown.
Continuing on from using my bits of scrap left over from my current builds, I've again utilised the scraps of cork and a few bits of foam-board left of from my urban terrain build.

The photograph shows all the necessary pieces make some chairs and sofas with.

The dimensions for the sofas vary, depending on the number of seating spacess, but they are basically the same for all seating. Five pieces make up each piece of furniture; a back; two arm-rests, a base and the seating.
 All the cork pieces are about 4mm-5mm thick.
The base is 10mm x 15mm (per "seat"), on top of that is a piece 10mm x 15mm approx. - (and again, per "seat").The arms are approximately 15mm square, whilst the back is about 20mm tall, 15mm per "seat" long with an additional 5mm added to each end to allow for the arms-rests.
When assembled the first few prototypes looked like this:
I was very happy with the results and from the above photograph I'm sure you can make out my attempts at making a few different styles.
Altogether I had enough bits of cork left to make eighteen sofas (from two to four seat capacity and around about  twenty chairs.(You can just make out the black painted ones in the background)
The photograph above left shows the first coat of paints applied to them (actually two coats, as cork soaks up paint like nobody's business). When they've thoroughly dried out, I'll be giving them a dark wash and then some high lighting Some will be given a matt varnish, to represent fabric, whilst others will be given a gloss varnish to represent leather.

Finally just to show the comparison between my homemade sofa and my wreck of an attempt at a card one:




Well, that's it for this week, I hope you find something here ot interest you and as usual, all comments are welcomed and appreciated.


30 comments:

  1. There is nothing as demoralizing as comparing your own card models to Vampifans, I know. You're cork couches and chairs are perfect though, and will quickly fill up any buildings you have making them look far less vacant. Impressive.

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    1. Thanks Adam; he's (Vampifan)got a lot to answer for.

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  2. Oh wow, those look good!

    That particular card settee model is one of WorldWorks Games less successful efforts, I think. It doesn't look that good even when made by an expert!

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    1. The newer soda by WWG didn't comeoutany better C6.

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  3. Your foam board ones are much nicer than the card one at the end. I tried making a park bench from coffee stirrers and it looks crap so I can understand how much effort you put in making these bravo mate!

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    1. Thanks Brummie;I too have tried making a park bench from coffee stirrers =I'm on Mk3 now !

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  4. Sigh, if only I wasn't such a perfectionist! Actually, Colgar6 is right about that particular sofa by WWG. It isn't as good as the sofas made by Stoelzel's Structures. It also isn't as good as your homemade sofas. They're great! Well done, Joe. Take a bow. Just promise me you won't be polluting the airwaves with shite sofa sale adverts like those by SCS and DFS, etc. "Hurry, sale must end on Sunday... so that we can start a new sale on Monday!"

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    1. Thanks Bryan, this must be the first post that's made me luagh outloud !

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    2. Oooh! Can you deliver by Christmas?!

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    3. I'm afraid we're a bit back-logged atm. can you wait for the January sales ?

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  5. Hehee; really they're not that amazing ! - I prefer cheap and cheerful.

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  6. They look excellent! Nice one!! The card one looks a little worn, used and a little wonky, he he!

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    1. You're right Ray about the card one, but I'm sure it's not meant to look that way.

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  7. Dude!!! That is really great!

    You have some good skill going there, hold on to that thought! These chairs and sofas are really great.

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    1. Thanks LS, they're so simple to make too, everyone should have a go at making some.

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  8. One of the chairs are lying on its back? The unpainted picture ;-)

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    1. Yes, you're right, someone was trying to get the change from the inside of it.

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  9. Brilliant Mr Z! I really like what you've created here and will have to have a go at it myself. I've found with iddy-biddy small models like sofas exactly the same problems as you;ve had, whici is why most of my builds have no furniture ...

    As an idea though, if you coloured in the card sofa with a black marker, you could have it in a model skip, couldn't you?

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    1. A skip is probably the only decnt place for the card one; I hope you do have a go at making some of these for yourself too.

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  10. Very clever and damn good. Not to say inspiratonal. Must give this a try.

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    1. Thanks Irqan, hope to see your efforts soon.

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  11. Very clever, and they look really good.

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  12. Nice!! You've done a superb job with those sofas and chairs!

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    1. Thanks Rovanite. I wish I knew what had inspired me though, 'cause I'd bottle and sell it.

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  13. Simply brilliant, those sofa are really good looking!!

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  14. Thanks Zerloon, I do hope though that other people will try things like this - so I can copy them !

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  15. Zabadak,

    These are great, I'm going to copy you and make a furniture store.

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    1. Great idea, looking forward to seeing it.

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