Chippendale style secretary bookcase

[eTraxx]

A thread on the Railroad Line Forum on a Chippendale style secretary bookcase build. Excellent.

[DaKra]

Been there, done that       Mine is a Sheraton.   

[Junior]

Dave....just amazing! The books - reduced photograph?

Anders

[DaKra]

Hi Anders, thanks!     The books are 3 dimensional, a separate layer behind the glass, painted red brown and green.  I  copied the design from one of the 1/12 Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago.  These dioramas are some of the greatest miniatures ever, and a great way to learn various furniture styles.  Warning: Ikea will never look the same again!       

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/category/15

[Chuck Doan]

The Kupjack rooms are also excelent. I have seen some of those (I think there are a couple of family members who build), but not the Thorn rooms. My Mom saw them once. There are some amazing crafters in the 1/12 world, including food items.

[Ken Hamilton]

Been there, done that       Mine is a Sheraton. 

I figured you'd chime in on this one, Dave.
BTW, that chest is GORGEOUS.

[Ray Dunakin]

In-freaking-credible! Is that all wood, or did you use cardstock for some of it?

[BKLN]

I love that kind of stuff. Actually I waste way too much of my modeling time with the attempts to build silly little detail things like that. You can't really compare Dave's and Nelson's (?) work because of the different approaches, but they are both really nice.

All so often I end up thinking about the limitations of detail. This has been subject of a few discussion here, but I always wonder if it is possible to create a "Red Oak Garage" in HO. [ Chuck, did you get the hint? ] I am always worried that things just appear too toylike. But then somebody comes around and builds awesome little furniture pieces like that. Amazing.

[Frederic Testard]

I think that Dave's products plus Chuck's or Anders' artistry could lead to a very convincing HO scale Red Oak. But clearly the smallest possible item in HO has the same real size than in O, that's 8 scale times bigger...

[DaKra]

I used card for almost everything.   I paint it with acrylics, and follow with a wood stain and varnish.  The stain picks up some of the brush patterns from the acrylic layer and makes a very convincing finished hardwood.    Using real wood for furniture in this scale is a problem due to oversized grain and texture.   Only very tightly grained woods will look to scale,  like pear or holly.   I used real wood on my piano forte and though it looks good, it was a chore to sand and finish.   

Correct, these two models are different kettles of fish due to the methods involved.  Much of my work is  drafting, the rest is testing, assembly and finish.         

In extreme miniatures, I  think scale is less the factor than resolution of detail, sort of like dpi on a digital photo.   At a certain point, everyone just runs out of pixels!   

Chuck thanks for the tip on Kupjack, I knew the Senior Kupjack worked on the Thorne Rooms, was unaware his son was carrying on the business.    Googled some of his work on my lunchbreak and found my perfect Peanut Butter Lid diorama for next year! 

Found this slideshow, on Flickr, great stuff. 

http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=kupjack

 

[Chuck Doan]

Good find Dave! I remember mostly the diner with the stainless stuff and the theater dressing room. Very inspirational.

[finescalerr]

The guy who built the desk at the start of the thread is Tony Burgess, from Tulsa. He's a subscriber and has contributed to my books in the past. He created that tiny desk from stripwood using nothing more than a knife, files, and sandpaper. He has sent me a few personal e-mails showing its creation and just finished it last night. It is a replica of an original full size desk he built years ago for his study.

You clearly can't compare his model directly with Dave's because the approach, tools ,and materials are completely different. You would have to compare Tony's work to HO scale furniture guys were cobbling together by hand in the years before computers.

Tony would fit in here because he rides a carbon road bike, builds dioramas, and is generally as nutty as the rest of us.

Russ

[JohnP]

Dave, give up the railroad and hobby orientation. Make colonial and Victorian home interiors in 1:87. Put them in a frame and sell them as art. You will make much more money once they catch on.

I bet you could make a nice kit of a high-end true colonial Greek revival with the window frames, carved frieze boards, columns (Doric? Ionic? Corinthian?), and so on. It would look good in an HO better end of town collection.

So why is it we always have to see models of the run-down, seedy part of town?

John

[DaKra]

Hey John, I like the home interiors idea.   When I have enough furniture pieces completed, I will put them in a colonial era interior setting.    Either that or the sidewalk in front of a NYC junk store.    I like the seedy parts of town, too, as long as the model is well made!   

My interested in furniture started when I started googling around for ideas to make HO scale bread to fill a bakery window.  Found the 1/12 dollhouse websites and got furniture envy!   

Bakery still isn't finished but here's an HO scale Chippendale lowboy.  Still need to make the drawer pulls out of bent wire.

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow, you're a regular artist with that laser!