Making Mine Scenery Part VII

Almost done. Let's see how we got there.

Today we're going to make a passage with an adjustable height door. I didn't quite finish it yet, but I got far enough that you can see how its going to look when its done.

Continuing on from where I left off in Making Mine Scenery Part VI, I shaped the pink foam in the exact same way I did in Making Mine Scenery Part II. Once I had a suitably rocky texture, I moved onto designing a door to drop into the grooves at either end.

For some extra detailing I decided to cut some plasticard tread plate. I cut the treadplate 5" x 1/2".

Once cut, I used CA glue the treadplate strips down where the doors would drop.

To begin a door I started by cutting a 5" x 2 1/4" piece of thick plasticard. This will serve as the basis for the door.

Next I cut two 4" x 2 1/4" pieces of cardstock. Then I drew 1/4" borders all the way around each, and another one down the center. Then I cut out the insides to make a frame. I apparently didn't take photos of the next few steps.

I glued the frame onto the piece of plasticard. I left 1/2" exposed on either side. I drew lines to know where to glue it, I didn't just eyeball it. I cut a 1/2" rectangular hole into the plasticard about 1 1/4" up. I figured when the door was sealed the Prods would still use a sliding window to check on those on the other side, like "solitary confinement" in prison. To build out the sliding window I took some square Plastruct rod and cut it into four 1" strips - two for each side of the door. These were glued above and below the window panel.

I wanted to add more detail and make the door fit better in the grooves, so I cut four Plastruct girders to 2"1/4" and glued them to the door on either side of the cardstock frame.

Next I put a 1/2" piece of cardstock in between the window tracks and then I cut and glued rivets out of Plastruct rod.

Here I got a little crazy. I wanted more than anything to come up with a way to raise and lower the door because in the game there are slow moving hydraulic doors to crawl or dive roll under while they are moving, and I wanted to be able to represent that. So I put a 1/4" notch spaced along the length of the door. The two little pieces at the bottom of the photo are to be slide into the notches to keep the door raised at specific heights.

Here's the door resting on the supports to show how it can be set to various heights of "open".

Flash forward to all the drybrushing being done on the the wall sections. The mine floor was still wet so I wasn't able to finish all of the drybrushing. I also need to paint the treadplate and then weather the whole thing. Still, this should give you a good idea of what the finished piece is going to look like. We'll see that on Wednesday. Comments, questions, and requests are all welcome! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for reading and following!
-Nick

Making Mine Scenery Part I
Making Mine Scenery Part II
Making Mine Scenery Part III
Making Mine Scenery Part IV
Making Mine Scenery Part V
Making Mine Scenery Part VI