Tip Page #10 by Ian Sadler

Using a Stationary set for Diorama Accessories

Lampposts, Bollard, Balustrades

I was looking in the Pound shop (For No.Am. readers, a Dollar Store)  in town the other day and saw this Stationary Set for sale, see the scan of it.

I was struck by the multipurpose use it could be put to in diorama work for unusual or hard to make accessories

Back home I set about a little lateral thinking about the contents and came up with the following items that can be made very easily by the average modeller.

We all see Bollards in town and to make one you need a lathe, not any more all you need is the ball shaped map pin and a suitable base; mine came from a redundant plastic pen base, the green base was yet an other scrap tank  wheel, see the  scan.

Next a GLASS Bowl street lamp again the ball shaped map pin remove the spike of the ball “SAFETY HINT”  , if you cut it off with pliers or side cutters make sure the point is away from you and angled downwards.

Note the modern lamp post in the scan was made from base of  a scrap tank wheel, a pen part, grey stock plastic tube, and large wire paper clip from the set, an other pen part, disc of aluminium foil for reflector and round map pin for the glass bowl. The Glass Bowl scales out at 1ft in diameter and the lamppost at 22 Ft   in 1/35.   

An  old walled gate post with round ball on top, make the gate post out of plastic stock  add a base and top tile from plastic sheet , drill a hole in centre of top tile and just stick a ball shaped map pin.

See the scan of the two I have made note these are to same scale and work out at 6ft for the smaller one and 10ft for the larger one in 1/35 scale.

To make the balustrade all you need is two lengths of plastic strip for the base and top and as many of the other shaped map pins as you need. Drill a series of holes at the correct centres equally spaced out to fill your wall section. Insert and glue the shaped map pins and add the top section, you now have your very own balustrade. Add to the top of a wall section and it finishes off a normal drab wall. See the scan of the example I worked up in less than 20 minutes.

Note you could ring the changes and use the round map pins as one type or an other type is to use them alternatively.  It is up to you and your imagination.

The corrugated gate was made from a single sheet of aluminium made to full scale size of 6ft by 3ft, the frame was plastic tube super glued into the ridges on ether of the long sides and flat plastic strip then glued into form the horizontal bars and cross bar . After it had set I added the hinges again made from aluminium foil strip and bent the socket round a suitable drill, again super glued was used. After I had left if for an hour the bolts heads were fitted by drilling the aluminium and super gluing bolts from the “Water Filter Rivets by The Million”, See previous article by me. 

The rest of the  stationary set can be used as per normal or  coloured paper clips can be used for grab handles or metal fixing bars, the plastic out covering can be removed and used for wiring harnesses or pluming pipes.

Note: Scrap plastic Pens at the end of their useful life; Stop and think lateral and break them down into its constituent parts and see what the result is. It will help make those diorama accessories all your own work. See scan of a pen broken down into useful parts including spring; great if you are into Science fiction and ideal for weapons or booms or just add on parts to engines etc.

 Overall a very good buy from the  Pound shop  , note other countries have similar shops but the trade under their local currency , so start searching out the more unusual items for those hard to make accessories  and make them the easy way .

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