Build: Objects in the Bathroom Mirror

Check your perspective ... again

Building was a multitasking Project. There's always something to dry and wait for so that another part can be started. 

Go to the Mirror Boy 

But first of all, as soon as the mirrors arrived, the mirror cabinet was made of plastic card. That was mandatory to have, because during the built phases positioning must be checked as well as proper “mirror images”. 

E.g. check if the door isn’t too wide because it might block the mirror. Or check if the mirror boards height and angle impacts the visibility. With the ready build cabinet those checks were easy to make. 

The mirrors tiles were just push fit in the cabinet so that the final opening angle can be done when the minis are glued. Well, I’m not a dentist when it comes to precision and of course the push fit didn’t work at first. The cabinet was about a millimeter too high and the tiles fell off. 

But I’m an engineer when it comes to hot-fixes (-: A little strip of plastic card on the mirror tile worked perfectly. If you carefully look at the mounted cabinet, you’ll notice - but keep it secret.

Say no to artificial zombie Scenes

The frame is as important as the cabinet to create the proper dimensions. Rooms and buildings are rectangular - in most of the cases.That’s a tricky thing for dioramas as rectangular and parallel lines create an artificial feeling and we aim for a natural scene . 

To avoid that, I tilted the Mirror-wall very slightly. The effect might be barely noticeable but also helps a bit later in positioning the mirrors - every little degree counts.

Since the scene has been reduced to 5x5 - for a more claustrophobic atmosphere - the wall must be thin, but on the other hand sufficiently stable. And of course they needed tiles - well, it’s a bathroom, isn’t it?

With all these restrictions I did choose plasticcard as building material - Multiple layers glued for the proper angles give stability and they are easy to work with. The pure walls look a bit like stairs in a Dali museum. 

The walls needed a little pin to properly hold on the floor, and a toothpick helped to keep them, lets say sufficently, at the right angle.

The tiles were scratched with a ruler, hobby knife and sculpting tools directly into the plastic. I didn't want to build up further thickness with tiles so it was a matter of time and precision, but worked unexpectedly well.

The lowest part didn’t get any tiles, because hospital floor - even the bath - is often made of a huge PVC or Rubber sheet that does also cover the lower parts of the wall - searching references is essential.

The “stairs” on the back sides were coped with a milliput greenstuff mix and the walls were glued to the ground with a little pin for stability and toothpick supports to hold the proper angles. Getting the sides nice and flat took 3 days. Putty - dry - sand - repeat …

Every now and then, all pieces were added again with Blue tac as a check that I’m on the right track.

More references

Honestly, I felt quite weird while googling “hospital toilet”, though this research revealed many unexpected details. And exactly those details make the scene believable:

• The doors often have a metal cover on the lowest parts to protect against kicking. 
• The toilets have a handle so that it’s easier to get up after a surgery. 
• Showers often don’t have a tray for easier cleaning and accessibility. But we come to the implementation in a minute.

The Door

The kick protection on the lower part was already mentioned previously, but hospital bathroom doors also contain a little cover plate around the handle. Both are made of tinfoil. The handle is made of a drilled through paperclip, while the hinges - contact point for the wall - are made from plastic profiles. 

Crazy Carving

So we had the walls, cabinet and door. The sink and toilet were printed anyway - everything from the concept phase done. 

Now the part with the girl seemed very empty - and from the reference search, I thoght tat a shower would suit well -  typical bathroom interior. As already mentioned, references revealed that a tray isn’t needed. A little sink scratched into the plastic card floor was sufficient to indicate that. 

And the armatures - well - time for greenstuff and plastic profiles. Some simple cuts and tiny glue action and a guitar string as hose. 

But the shower head was tricky, yet impossible for me to sculpt in green stuff - it was too tiny and irregular in shape. For some reason I went wild with the hobbyknife and carved the thing out of a dried green stuff blob. 

That was so much fun that I couldn’t stop. So I continued carving on one of the failed trials until I had a toothbrush and toothpaste. Pretty little details for the scene - still a bit too big when I look at it now.

Essential Story Hook

During the carving action, I thought about the scene and the painting… “the bathroom must be dirty, gritty and produce an unpleasant feeling. Like in the movie SAW( If you haven’t seen it - it’s a must for dirty bathroom inspiration ). Maybe even with someone dead? Or just hints that someone died there?“

And then “BANG” the story was set: 

Someone shot himself on the toilet = spilled blood, broken tiles. Maybe the person couldn’t take the whole zombie stuff and sucked a lot of pills and/or could have been drunk, then shot himself on the toilet. 

He could have been raised from the dead as a zombie or he got carried away. Definitely there has to be blood on the floor.

Not a scene for a little girl! But yeah, that will create exactly the weird feeling I was aiming for. And in retrospective, these are exactly the details that raise an uncomfortable feeling.

All I needed was a random pistol bit, a bottle, a pill box out of green stuff and some destructive energy on the tiles above the toilet.

There are a few little more extras I don’t wanna miss out. Beside the sink, there is a towel holder with a fallen towel / greenstuff sheet. When you look at the WIP’s without that, it appears empty and quite unnatural. And also there is always a towel beside sinks.

I did a little twist on the zombie’s hand - essentially it was cut and reglued. It should seem as if he was pushing the door slightly open.  

Finished scene

And that’s the whole build - but wait for the next post, after priming the whole depression of the scene can be felt.