My Magic Box!

This has been a project I have been sitting on for a long time. Part of the reason being I needed to wait to find the right pieces, part of the reason being that I wanted to do this justice, and the other part being that I was not sure how to make it look nice. I was in the process of making this when I was on my favorite site (http://btvsfigs.proboards48.com/index.cgi) and I came across a person who made the Magic Box--his picture is below.

I am in total awe of this piece. This person made it for a donation!! It is to scale with the 6 inch figures. It even has an outside part. I inquired how he made this and he gave me some good advice (but wouldn't share how much he would charge to do another one for me). I'm sure he's like most people and won't do something twice. Practice makes perfect, I say!

I toyed around with the idea of doing the arch over the counter and the walls along side the counter but I finally decided to just do the counter and back display. I don't have a lot of room and my space is getting smaller with each diorama I make. So...having said that here is what I did.

My first challenge was trying to find shelves for the back shelf part. I thought the shelves you get with Tara, Bad Girl Wesley, and Illyria figures would be a good idea. I had 5 of those shelves.
Then I got into casting things so I casted some shelves. It was a good idea, but so darn hard to get it out of the mold once casted and the mold riped (AND THAT WASTED A LOT OF SILICONE!!) so I really struggled to make 4 more! I managed to do that and filled in the gaps with sculpy and shaved down the mistakes and came up with this: (sorry, photo is sideways)

I was pretty content. Then I was searching on ebay and found this shelf.
It looked like it would work so much better--but I'd have to get 5 (actually 6 now that I look more carefully) of these. I spent over $10 for this, I believe, so that wasn't going to happen. I really didn't want to try to get a mold and cast this shelf either. So I decided to go with what I had. Then I see this great deal for Bad Girl Wesley figures and I bought all the ones he had--giving me 3 more shelves--to replace the other trashy casts that I made. Then it came to me that I could add some of that foam board to the shelf (the board I used to make the stairs mentioned in an earlier post). I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

But wouldn't you know that when I did a search today I saw this shelf for about what I paid for the other one--and it's 3 parts so I would have gotten 2 and this would have worked so much nicer!!! GRRR

So here are some pictures from the show and my version:

The items on the shelves were also hard to come by. I tried so hard to get my shelf to match the show but it is quite difficult. Most dollhouse items are way too expensive or not quite right. I did see some mini glass jars at Hobby Lobby and I picked up what they had. They are filled with random spices from my cabinet. The taller tubes are actually flexible tubing cut, topped with clay, then painted and filled with stuff. The rest of the bits and bobbles are pieces I get from other random figures and pieces from when I go junk shopping. It is not quite like the real show but I still think it's cool.

I didn't make any figures for this set. I used an OMWF Anya and a Giles figure. I may go back and make the Giles from OMWF to match Anya. I made the box on the counter. I made this because I had all those potion bottles that didn't fit on the shelves. I made it look like Giles is opening the box and restocking inventory.

My counter display turned out nice. This is, like, try 3 you are looking at. I tried different things but then I realized it was too small or not long enough. Third times a charm and I used a CD case for the glass with some rods for support. I had cut up a back wall pane (the plastic backdrop you get with random figures) and glued that for the lower counter. I had to sculpt the lines in the counter. I also made the stand where the register sits on. I needed to make it bigger to fit all 3 signs on. And, yes, the signs are hand painted!! I am proud of that.

Inside the display I painted the picture that's in the back. I tried to reproduce those geode rocks. I also made the knife display and added some other bits. I also painted the two signs on the glass display.


For the floor I sponge painted black and white. Then painted in greenish squares. (this was all on the poster board paper (what was left of it). I didn't want to use the scenic water to put on the floor to give it that shine so I used hair spray to give it a subtle bumpy shine. I'm not sure if it was from the wet paint or hairspray but wouldn't you know it the darn thing curled a bit!


Here are some pictures of the whole scene. I still am trying to figure out how to make the lights (just the metal covers--nothing that lights up) on top of the shelf display.

Season 4, Episode 6: Wild at Heart
Original Air Date: 9 November 1999Just as Buffy discovers increased werewolf activity on campus, Oz escapes from his cage during a full moon and runs across another werewolf, the sultry, sexy singer Veruca, and wakes up next to her naked in the wilderness the next morning.

I made this set to be part of the werewolf Oz. I have yet to make those pieces--which led to this scene. This is the scene were Oz and Willow are at the Bronze and Veruca and her band come out on the stage to sing. Oz then catches sight of her and Willow suspects something strange...

For Veruca I used a Phoebe (?) warrior figure. I had to cut off a lot of the accessories that were attached, then I sculpted on the shirt, pants, and hair. She is supposed to be holding Lorne's microphone but then she tips over. For the guy guitar player I used a Spike figure. I had to cut some of the top of his shirt off to give this guy a V-neck t-shirt look. He has Oz's guitar. The other guitar chick is Scully. She had the right hair and appearance. After I got all done I realized that she was much shorter compared to the other 3 figures. I let it go but may change it some day. She has extra Buffy arms --the shirt and pants are sculpted. For the piano player I used an Angel head and chest/arms and part leg. The rest of the legs are sculpted clay. I had some sneakers from a football player figure so I used those for this figure. His piano is two grave stones glued together with cardboard added. I had to paint the entire piano. The bottom was not easy either. It is made up of cut up pieces of the poles from the Charmed warrior set (I think it was Leo's cage thing). The rest of the bits are Oz's speakers, Lorne's stage (2 of them) and the silly tables that come with Vampire Xander.

I thought I had before pictures but I can't find them :(



I really had a ball making these figures once I found this table and stools. They are PERFECT Bronze tables! I spent a lot for them, but they were worth it!

For Willow I used a casted head, and a season (4?) Willow body. I had to cut the legs and re- sculpt them into a sitting position. I also sculpted the shirt and hair. Her shirt was hard to reproduce (paint). She has all these faces on the maroon dots.


For Oz I used a season 2 (?) figure. I had to sculpt his hair a bit differently since it was more messy looking. I also had to break his legs and re-sculpt them into the sitting position. I am not thoroughly content with the way his face came out but I left it (and the picture does not help out in my favor either!).

Season 1, Episode 7: Angel
Original Air Date: 14 April 1997Angel and Buffy's relationship is threatened by a dark secret he has been hiding from her. And when that secret puts the life of someone close to Buffy in danger, she must make a choice.

I made this scene because I had a vampire Darla figure and I wanted some pieces to go with it. When I get to the end of all my projects (ha ha ha) I probably will go back and redo the Buffy figure. She is an early piece and quite sad (compared to some of my more recent postings). I used a OMWF figure. I had to sculpt the ears and hair. It didn't turn out quite right and the hair broke so that's glued in the back. Her crossbow turned out nice.

I also doctored up a 50s Angel figure.

The pool table was previously a mini Foosball table. I glued red felt to cardboard then set into place. I had to make and paint the billiard balls which turned out nice. It's a small piece of the Bronze set. (I took a picture of the whole set and I'll blog about that next).

Season5, Episode 15: A Hole in the World. Original Air Date: 25 February 2004. When an ancient sarcophagus arrives in the laboratory at Wolfram & Hart, Fred opens a small compartment and is infected by an ancient disease that slowly begins to kill her. As Angel and Spike travel across the world in order to help her, Wesley slowly begins to realize that there may be no stopping the disease.

I wanted to make this scene where Fred falls back into Lorne's arms after spitting blood on Wesley because this was such a huge twist to the show.

I knew this was going to be a challenge since I had to recreate the Wolfram & Hart staircase. I had steps that I wanted to use, but they were not for a 6 inch scale. Also, dollhouse staircases were not possible. My staircase is probably not entirely proportional to the 6 inch figures but it looks pretty good.

I had mapped out the stair case with cardboard pieces and constructed it to see how it looked. The hardest part was to make the stringer (the part where the steps sit on). I was never any good in geometry and the rise over run confuses me. It wasn't too difficult to figure out once I had the idea how it needed to look. Here are some pictures of the staircase. I was going to use balsa wood to make the steps but the weather didn't permit me to get to the craft store. Wal*mart had this foam board (it's a foam pad sandwiched between two thick sheets of cardboard). It cuts well and it worked great! I was happy about this.

Here are the parts I used to make the three characters in this scene.

Fred: (Illyria head and chest, Kennedy extra arms, and Charmed warrior legs).

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Lorne:

Wesley ("Bad Girls"):

Here are the sculpted pieces:

Fred:

For Fred I sculpted her curly hair, the sleeves on the shirt and I gave her a larger chest. The original figure was quite flat. Kennedy's arms are glued in and the joints are sculpted over. This was hard to do since the arms are so delicate and small, plus the sculpy didn't want to stick! I also sculpted the dress and around the boots (since I cut some of the boot away to make them shorter) and I filled in the leg joints.

Lorne:

For Lorne I had an equally tricky time sculpting the big shirt. It had to go over his jacket and it had a big collar. He also had this scarf thing around his neck. I also cut away the breast pocket one the jacket and sculpted over that.

Wesley:

Wesley was the easiest of the three. I just had to sculpt the turtle neck sweater. I cut off the jacket on the original figure, and cut back the cuffs on the sleeves. I wanted a tighter, smaller fit for the sweater. I also used a wash cloth to press over the shirt to give it a bumpy look. I only sculpted over the arm joints since Wesley's shoulders were looking out of proportion.

Here are the finished pieces: Though you can't see it, Fred has streaks in her hair which turned out nice. Her dress was very difficult to paint since there was not any real good shot of her dress. I must have redone this 3 times before settling on what you see.

Lorne's shirt was a challenge to color. I don't like doing tiny details on clothes especially when I'm doing this all with a paint brush. My hands are too shaky to make it look like the real piece. What I have isn't so bad, thought. The other thing I saw when I was finished painting, was his collar looks huge. I decided to let it go and leave it alone.

Wesley was easy to paint. I tried to make his flesh tone a bit darker. It was hard going around his eyes. I'm not good with painting eyes so I wanted to leave his alone. His cheeks do look a bit too blushy but I decided to leave it.

For the steps: I loved painting this. I mean, it was very hard and time consuming to get all the details and painting that poster board is hard to do (on the foam siding, that is). For the steps, I used brown, and put in details to make it look like wood with a lighter brown and black). The side wires are string, spray painted. I had to thread this through the side pieces. This was not easy--and there was 8 of them! Finally the marble top. I'm sure Wolfram & Hart don't have marble floors, but I thought it went well with the nice staircase. For this, I first painted the floor black. Then I had three shades of green on a piece of paper. I used a sea sponge to dab into the 3 paints (blotting it one the paper first until it made light marks), then went around the base. I got carried away blotting on the paint so I rinsed the sponge and went back in some spots to blot away the paint making the black peek through. The finally step (after a few trials and errors) I discovered that if I painted a trail of water first, then take a little white paint on the water path, and smear it with my finger or brush, it would give it that veiny look. I love how this turned out. It looks so real! To make the surface shine (and the wood steps) I tried glue which didn't work. I had some scenic water and I knew it had a shine to it when it dried. I put that on with a brush and it worked great. My only complaint is I should have not put this on with a brush for the marble--I should have used my finger, which is what I thought of doing. It has a streaky look to it and marble floors are not streaky. The streaks look great on the steps and it is fitting.

Here is the entire, completed set.