This
week I am sharing yet another of my go to projects from the days when
I was really active in the swap groups.
Again
this one came about because I had a huge swap (over 20 members) a
short amount of time and most importantly a very limited budget. It
just so happened that I had just recently returned from a vacation.
One of my favorite stops on that particular trip had been a museum
that had some wonderful bronze statues. I so wanted to bring one (or
all of them) home but they were way out of my budget.
I
don't remember what the theme for the swap was, but it called for
some kind of art work to be created and sent in. As I was trying to
figure out what I was making I took a stroll through Dollar Tree
(since many times I can find things to use in minis there). I happened
to see a huge bag of the little Army men! It occurred to me that they
could easily become bronze statues like I had seen on my trip. I
purchased some bags of different themes and went home to figure out
how to turn those ugly plastic toys into beautiful bronze statues. I
played around with different paints and came up with the idea I am
sharing here.
I
used this same project in several swaps on different groups over the
years and I usually got really positive feedback.
I
had actually forgotten all about them until I was looking through
boxes in my storage room the other day and happened to run across the
bag of the leftover pieces from the last time I made them. As soon as
I realized what I had found I knew I had to share them here. This is
such a fun project and so low in cost.
There
were only a couple of the little toys left in the bag so I did need
to get more. I didn't really have time to go the dollar store so I
looked in my grocery store the next time I had to went there. The store
I go to is kind of like a super store in that it has groceries,
clothes, furniture, toys and a bunch of other stuff. I found a nice
selection of the little toys that I needed on the shelf, they are a
bit bigger than I would have preferred but they will work in either
1/12th scale or 1/6th scale. They would be a
large focal piece in 1/12th and more a table top size in
1/6th. If you look around you can probably find them
smaller. The ones I had before were in different sizes some quite
small and some the size I got now. The ones I found this time were:
Army, pirates, ninjas, and cavemen. The packages each held 2 types
with 15 of each type. The regular price was around $3 but they were
half price and my wonderful checker gave me a coupon for another 10%
off. I also found a small card that had 6 little horses on it for $1
(regular price) also on half off and went on the coupon too. So you
see even at the regular store these are pretty cheap.
In
the past I have had knights, policemen, firemen, cowboys and Indians.
You can probably find them to fit just about any theme you need.
The
painting of these is really easy and the only real trick is to make
sure you have them covered completely with the bronze paint. The
black wash is really what makes them look like bronze so don't skip
that step.
For
bases you can use just about anything. Polymer clay rolled out to a
sheet, cut and baked is nice. Just give it a satin like finish, I
actually just used some clear nail polish today and it worked out
fine. Wood pieces either painted or stained and top coated with a
satin or gloss finish would be nice. If you have access to polished
rocks of the correct size they are really pretty under these too. Use
your imagination and see what you have that will work.
 |
| Finished |
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| the toys in their packages as purchased |
that's really cool, thanks for sharing it :)
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