The Study

People often say to me "Master Watson, you handsome dog, your study is quite impressive.  How might one acquire such a room in one's own abode?"  Well, dear reader, here are a few simple and cheap projects you can do yourself to add a little extra "TALLY HO" to your adventure themed room.

Hide Shield and Spears

Begin by cutting your shield out of cardboard and cover it in scraps of paper towels using glue, which gives it a nice texture.  Paint it, age it, done!  The spear heads are made by sandwiching two sheets of craft foam around a paper dowel to give it shape.  Sand the edges to a point, stiffen with glue and paint.  Lastly, get yourself a couple lengths of bamboo and attach your spear heads with twine.


 Pin Display

These little plaques are sold at Joann's for a just couple dollars.  Stain or paint and press your favorite Disney pin into the wood.


Stone Artifacts

You're going to need some artifacts if you're into that "grave robber" look.  Foam carving is easy and fun, it just takes some practice.  Cut your foam with blades or hot knives (CAUTION: melting foam gives off nasty fumes so wear proper PPE).  Coat the final project in several coats of Drylok to harden it and create stone texture.  Paint it up!  The more color variations and weathering you do the better old stone will look.  Replicate something from history for authenticity or design your own lost civilization!


Crates

Nothing says "I just returned from expedition" like a wooden crate!  Get some wood planks, nails and go to town.  This one was made from reclaimed pallet wood so no weathering was required.  Add interesting details about the contents or sender/receiver with stencils and spray paint.  Or print up shipping labels and glue them on.


Trunks 

Keep your eye out at Goodwill for cheap trunks.  Pick an exotic animal pattern (such as the majestic stripy horse as pictured above) and paint it on.  Scour the internet for pictures of travel stickers, print your favorites and 'em glue on.  Add airline or train tags for extra detail.


Oars with Character

Find an old oar (also Goodwill) and make it tell a story.  This one says: "I'm never getting back in the water because piranhas."


Cork Board of Adventure

Print and hang old photos, advertisements, post cards, and various historic communications.  I myself find it satisfying to create notes that imply that I was involved with events referenced in books/games/movies.


There you have it!  Your well on your way to being perceived as well traveled!

This is Halloween

Happy Halloween ghouls and boys.  

Jack Skellington came here from Halloween Town...

You'll notice his handiwork scattered around...

This is oven bake clay on a wire frame.

More rapid than vultures, the Archive was changed,
All was soon covered, adorned and deranged.

The pumpkins on the left are scratch built from paper mache.  The jack in the box is a foam pumpkin on a pvc pipe concealed by a pool hose.  The base is a cardboard box with a wire crank wrapped in tape.

Jack worked his magic, both outside and in,
But one final touch made his bony face grin.

This is a double sided Disney Villain paper mache jack o' lanturn.  I put translucent paper behind each so you cant see through to the other.

Now what better gift on my friends to bestow,
Than a graveyard that's covered in ghostly white snow.

Moar Pyrates

Ahoy me swabs, come aboard for a look at s'more o' me pirate props.

This be, or rather used to be, me parrot.

I carved the skull from blue foam, the body was a cheap halloween raven I repainted.

Thar be the proper spot t'stow yer weapons.

The sign is wood held together by a strip of lauan screwed on back.  The grenade is a baseball covered in toilet paper mache.  Just bore a hole for the cork and a hole in the cork for the fuse.

Feast yer eyes on this 'ere treasure map.  

This was drawn on regular paper then tea stained, dried in an oven and burned.


If it's a pirate display yer after, it's barrels ye be wantin.

Another wooden sign just carved with a dremel.  The barrel is a solid piece of white foam.

Fallout Props

Welcome back, dear reader.  If you're a prop maker and you've played the Fallout games, you must make replicas.  It's not up to us, that's just how it works. 

I made everything here except the lunchbox.  Its all pretty simple and straight forward.

Nuka Cola Bottles:  Brace yourselves.... they're coca cola bottles!  Just remove the original labels and print your own.  I then aged the glass with glue, paint and sandpaper.

Old World Money:  Just print them out and crumple them up.

Bottlecaps:  Paint the cap, apply the printed label, and add a thick coat of a sealant.

 

Mentats:  This was an Altoid case.  Due to the raised letters, i filled in the low spots with glue and paper.  I painted it and applied the printed label.  Finally, added grime and scratched the paint.

 

Baseball Grenade:  This is the only design I actually came up with myself in this post.  I took a dowel and slid 2 pieces of pvc over it and made it look solid with layers of mod podge.  The pin is an unfolded paperclip and a key ring.  Finally, I bore a hole in an old baseball and glued it inside.

This Ranger helmet did't quite come out like I wanted but I felt it worth mentioning.

The whole thing was cardboard except for the dome on top was a paper mache cast from a motorcycle helmet.  This was the first and only time I used resin for a top coat.


Before you go, please enjoy this old Fallout Disneyland comic I did.

Weapons

As a man of action, it should not surprise you that I would 

have a considerable weapon stockpile.

BLADES

This be a wee dagger for me lass's pyrate costume.

This dagger is made of a layers of lauan.  The pommel and crossguard were coated in mod podge for a more metalic texture.   The scabbard is wrapped in leather and has craft foam chape and locket.

A tribal hide shield and spears I brought back from expedition in Africa.

The shield is cardboard covered in paper towel mache(gives a nice scaly texture).  The spearheads 

are craft foam and those are real sticks of bamboo, people.  Be impressed.

A Skyrim inspired axe... for which I needed no reason to make.

4 layered craft foam blade and wooden handle.

I had a MIGHTY NEED to make a cutlass and had enough stuff for 2 so... there's 2.

These have wooden blades/tangs, craft foam baskets and wood grips.

GUNS

Obligatory Nerf Maverick mod.

Just paint and craft foam accents.

Run of the mill steampunk rifle.

The scope, mag and lever are from a toy gun, barrel is pvc pipe and the other bits are pvc and craft foam.

A Fallout inspired plasma rifle.

This is just a big ol' pvc pipe with other pvc and craft foam bits attached.  The barrel glass

was a cheap flashlight.

I felt it only appropriate to end this post with this photo:

Artifacts

Oh!  Hello, I didn't see you there, reader.  

Since you're here, how about I show you some of the artifacts in my collection?

This fine piece of unidentified green rock is believed to be a depiction of Cthulu.  But heck if I know         -ive never seen him.

This is a simple blue foam carving.  It was initially just a test carving, but came out well enough to finish. 

I can not say anything of the species, era, or who carved this scrimshaw fossil tooth.  

But I can tell you it looks lovely in a bell jar. 

 This piece has a tin foil core covered in sculpy and was carved after baking.

 This next item is on loan from the Miskatonic University's special collections.  A section of wall from the Elder Thing City brought back by the survivors of the Starkweather-Moore expedition.

The base is blue foam and the Elder Thing is sculpey.  It is coated in mod podge for a uniform surface.

I harvested this unicorn horn myself.  And before all you cryptid rights activists come after me; no 

I didn't kill it.  I'm not a monster.

This is solid sculpey clay twisted to shape and coated in enamel.

Finally, we have one of Dr. Freeman's original orbitoclasts.

This piece is actually a small wooden dowel pushed up into a hot glue stick and a clay head.

PirateTreasure

I you are not already aware, dear reader, I reeeeally enjoy pirates (pronounced "poy-rates")  Not the murder and theft, but the aesthetics of the golden age of piracy.  Today I'd like to focus on treasure (as any good pirate would).

This is my first treasure chest.  It is composed of cardboard and a manila folder(the rounded part at the top).  The exterior is toilet paper mache.  The best part: the rust is cinnamon sprinkled in the wet paint.

Now we step things up a notch.  This full sized chest is made of wood. The metal bars are are craft foam with clay rivets.  The lock is made of craft foam and a clothes hanger hook.  But what's this?

TREASURE!  "Good job," you may be saying, "you built a useless 30 pound space waster."  Don't get sassy with me, reader!

It has a false top, and functions as storage year round.  The false top is a piece of lauan, a mound of foam and 200-some plastic coins glued in place.

  

 COINS!?

The best option I found for lots of cheap and good looking pirate style coins was from Hobby Lobby.  Only a couple bucks for 72 with a ship on one side and Spanish shield on the other. 

If that's too boring for you, go ahead and make your own!

"Ye don't know what this is, do ye?  This is Aztec gold" -Capt. Barbossa

If you don't recognize these coins or the quote I'm very disappointed in you reader.  I made a one sided mold from a Disney trading pin with sculpey clay.  I then used more sculpey to make casts and painted each.  A slow but very easy process.

Keep a weather eye open mates, thar be more 
pirate posts on the horizon.