Custom Details and How To - Simral and the Santa

[Tiermann]

Hi,
Here is the promised thread with some details about the customs and photography in my Simral and the Santa story.

First off here are the elves:



Simral and Willy have had their heads swapped so that they have  different hair color than the stock elves. Boss has had a beard added from the 5 Dwarf add-on 7849 - no known part number

Here is the Snow Queen



Her body is from the Bride in the Victorian carriage set 30 14 0600 - Bride

The hair has been swapped for a black version in the same style
Her crown and scepter are vintage pieces from some set such as 3568 - Hofstaat that I had on hand.
The cape is 30 64 5050 - Cloak, full-length with collar from the 3976 Christmas Market advent calendar

[Tiermann]

Here is the Palace main structural element



I took the structure from 5756 - Unicorn Fantasy Land that I absolutely hated



I spray painted it - it took multiple coats to get over that dark pink and purple. I used the Krylon Fusion paint in white and the silver is Krylon Metallic Enamel - Silver. The silver covered beautifully and ended up being used on the accessory parts as well. The sparkly roof parts were done by painting white acrylic paint by hand and then while the paint was wet sprinkling on a white/clear type glitter and patting it into the paint. The detailing on the structural carving was painted by hand using an acrylic silver paint.

[Tiermann]

Another large element from the same set 5756 was the waterfall base piece. I used the same white spray paint on it.

[Tiermann]

The silver spray paint was used on these other items as well



30 20 5000 - Chair, straight back, ornately carved



30 20 4960 - Stool legs, fancy carving



30 08 6980 - Throne



30 20 4670 - Harp, large



30 66 7400 - Trunk, entire; fancy ornaments

[Tiermann]

For the main throne piece I used the pieces from the Fairytale Palace throne.



This consists of a number of parts. I spray painted the gold insert to silver
30 20 7160 - Throne back, fan-shape
and painted the main pieces white
30 63 9180 - Throne rear wall, round lobed shape
30 63 9170 - Throne base
The blue jewel parts were left as they came since the color worked so nicely
30 20 7170 - Throne decoration, ring of knobs
30 20 7180 - Jewel, oval



You can see in this closer view that I hand painted with silver the gold decorative carving parts of the back wall. I also painted in the ribbed center part and the detailing around the outside edge.

[Tiermann]

All of the photography for this story was done in my living room. You can see in these views I have a large 4 by 4 foot (about 1.3 meters square) panel to work on. I used white fleece fabric as the base with plastic bags wadded up and put underneath it in the rear to make the hills. I moved the bags around to change the shapes of the hills for different shots in the story. The Palace set was set up first and all the shots there taken, then it was moved out and the workshop set built.





You will notice a wall section laying there in front. That is what I used for the photos taken through the door into the workshop. I was thinking very much about stage - TV - movie set design when I built this up.

As you see the workshop is just 2 walls built to a 2 story height out of Steck parts. The detailing parts come from lots of different sets. With 4326 - Woodshop Class being the most recent. The child size table and stools are great for the elves and the other details like the drill press worked great in this industrial type setting. If you have questions about any specific parts just ask and I will let you know where they came from.



the Santa with the back panel open was a custom bit I did last year for my Santa Castle
With the story planned for this year I just didn't have time to do more than the photo sets you see here. I originally had plans for a cafeteria scene but ran out of time to do it. Maybe next year.
That's it for this batch of images. Thanks for looking

[Bill Blackhurst]

First class attention to detail, Tim ! Your efforts produced a magnificent photo story!, & is truly appreciated ! Thank you for going through the steps on how you achieved this great contribution !

[Clong]

love your work. keep it up

[bonniebeth]

I just LOVE the palace of the snow queen. That set was so hideous before, but now it's beautiful! Amazing what a little paint can do!  And the peacock throne! It's fabulous! I like it so much better than the original colors.

[tonguello]

Stunning and very informative! Thanx a cngratulations on a perfect job!