Retro Caravan: Setting the Scene

Retro Caravan in 1:12 Scale

Relaxation on a summer holiday - lying in a deck chair, reading a good magazine while sipping a cool drink and snacking on a bunch of grapes, transistor radio playing softly in the background. Bliss!
  The retro caravan project is nearly finished - make the door, put on the roof, touch up the paint and the grass and then I'll relax!

Retro Caravan: The Interior Finished

1:12 scale retro caravan

Inside the miniature retro caravan
What fun I've had this week, finishing off the caravan interior, putting all the little accessories in place. I still have to make a door but other than that, it's a matter of getting a perspex cover fitted for the cut-away side and putting the roof on.

  There's bread and jam, pie and fruit for lunch. A sunhat and swimsuit and beach towels hanging up. A National Geographic magazine, books and a Rupert comic to read. My grandfather used to buy those comics for me when I was a kid. Monopoly, Chinese Checkers and Checkers are the board games for rainy days. Mum's knitting is on the divan, Dad's shaving mug and razor are safely stowed on top of the wardrobe, and the gin bottles are stored up high too! 
  The kettle's on the gas burner and the dish mop is in the basin. There's even a hot water bottle for cold nights!
  Caravan holidays at the beach were such fun!

Retro Caravan: the Mini Bits and Pieces

Accessories I've made for the caravan

Now I'm onto the part of a miniatures project that I like the best - getting all the little accessories bought and made. I've had fun thinking about all the things you'd have in a caravan during the summer holidays in the 1960s - the beach towels and sunhats, the fishing rod, the bread and jam and fruit for lunch, the magazines and books, the swimsuit and board games.

Accessories I've bought for the retro caravan

  I made a mat for the caravan doorway and the plan is to make sandy footprints on it. After all, you can't have a beach holiday without sand getting into everything, can you!

Retro Caravan: the Curtains

A retro look for the curtains

I like this material I found for the curtains. I think it has a real 1950s retro look. Making them was easy. No stitching required, just thin lines of tacky glue to turn up the edges to hem them.

  To pleat the fabric rectangles into loose folds I used more tacky glue and folded and pressed them into shape with my fingers. Of course, I got more glue on me than on the curtains so needed to stop often to wipe my hands. And in the morning I found a toothpick glued to the fabric! I told you adhesives were my nemesis!

  For the pelmets I used off-cuts of banister railing. This has the groove along the underside so gluing the curtains into the slots was a breeze. They also make a handy shelf to put little bits and pieces on.

  At the moment the pelmets are just stuck in position temporarily with blu-tack. Once I have figured out how to make the windows I'll go back and fix the pelmets in properly, and coax the curtains into better folds so they don't stick out. This post is really to give you a sneak preview of the almost-finished interior.

Another Retro Caravan

I am in Devonport this week and while wandering up the main street, looking in shop windows, I spotted this painting in a gallery. It's called 'Ruby and her Cool Caravan' by Emma Butler.
 You can't help smiling when you see it! A little red and white caravan just like the one I'm making. It's even got the red and white spotted material for the curtains like the fabric I've used for the upholstery. Talk about great minds thinking alike. I love it!

Retro Caravan: Interior Fitted Out

A view of one side of the miniature caravan interior

 The cabinets are all fitted in now so you can get a good idea of the layout of the caravan. They are supposed to look a bit 'rough and ready' as if a home handyman has built them! Many of the real caravans were adapted and renovated by their owners over the years so I wanted this to have that sort of look. Nothing too perfect.

Looking into the caravan kitchen

  To make the cooker unit I used black twist ties as the metal grid, 2 buttons as the burners and off-cuts from spindle ends as the control knobs, painted with chrome nailpolish.
  Next job is to fit the windows, the pelmets which I've already made, and the curtains. I've got a real 'retro' floral patterned material for them.

Retro Caravan: Finishing the Cabinets

Building the caravan cabinets

It's been a horrible rainy, misty, windy so-called 'summer', so I've spent time in the studio doing the cabinets for the caravan. I have cannabilised a couple of old kitset pieces from another project for the sink/drawer cabinet and as a unit for the gas cooker. With a bit of strategic trimming and pruning with a craft knife and sandpaper, they fit into the space along one side. To get a metallic look on the sink bowl and the top surrounds of the cooker I used chrome nail polish.

  They are all undercoated now; top coat tomorrow. I'm not sure how I'll make the gas cooker but I have a good photo from a real caravan to copy .

Retro Caravan: Building the Cabinets

Good progress on the 1:12 scale retro caravan

The caravan seems to have come along in leaps and bounds over the last week or so. Putting the wheels on  was a milestone as it made the caravan seem so real. They are off a toy car from a charity shop. A friend bought it for $2 and I swapped some foam rubber for two of the wheels.

  This week I also decided to partly fill in the back wall of the caravan. Then I can fit the 'kitchen' in properly while still leaving most of the large opening for viewing the interior.

   I already had a cabinet with a door and three drawers. It was just a matter of sanding it off and cutting a hole in the top to fit in a bowl as the sink. The shelving unit beside it was a 'dolls house for a dolls house' that I'd cannibalised by cutting the roof and part of the sides off. That is where the gas cooker will go.

  The black cabinet is literally a black box that I cut into to use as a wheel guard. It fits perfectly beside the tall cupboard.

   The cabinets are all in a very rough state at the moment. Now I know how they will all fit in, I'll take them out, give them a good sand and paint them. 

Retro Caravan: Starting the Interior

Painting the mini caravan

Well, my experiment with contact paper for the outside was not hugely successful. In some lights it looked fine; at other times you could see little air bubbles, so I ripped it all off. Then I had to sand the wood again and give it all another coat of white paint. Once that dried I painted the bottom half of the caravan's sides with red paint. I'm happy with it now.

Starting on the retro caravan interior

  Then I could get cracking on the interior. For the floor I used Formica samples from a kitchen shop. These are stuck down with UHU glue. The samples had writing on them but that came off with a swipe of nail polish remover. I made a little floor mat with red and white tape glued to a piece of formica.

  The table I made from a kitset. It has a Formica top and metal strip around the sides to give that real 1950s look. 

   The long bench seat and the two smaller seats are made from balsa wood. For the cushioned parts I glued foam rubber onto the balsa and then stretched and glued fabric over it like wrapping up a parcel.

  Nothing that you see in the photo is glued into place yet. I still have to paint the sides of the seating. I'll get onto that soon. Then it will be ready to do the next stage at our November club meeting  

Retro Caravan: Experimenting With the Exterior

Photo from Life and Leisure magazine

I saw this photo in a Life and Leisure magazine, liked the colour scheme and decided I'd make my caravan look like that. First thing was to spraypaint the inside and outside in white. Then I dithered over whether to paint the bottom part of the exterior red or try something else.

   I was wandering round Mitre 10 and saw a roll of red contact paper, the type, with a paper backing that peels off, that you stick on kitchen shelves. That was an 'aha' moment!

Starting the exterior of the miniature caravan

   At miniatures club on Sunday, I cut the contact paper to size and stuck it on, taking care to get the air bubbles out. It looked OK, but after a while, the paper started to lift up. So I peeled it all off, put a layer of tacky glue over the wood and repositioned the paper. It slipped around a bit then - I'd get one side lined up but by the time I'd smoothed it on, it would have slid out of position.

   However, I persevered and let it dry. I found some metal strips that I thought I'd do the edges with but they were too hard to bend and stick down on the curved parts. So I'm going to try this white braid up the sides and around the wheel arch.

   I'm still in experimental mode on this. By the time I go to minis club next month I might have ripped it all off and started again!

  

Retro Caravan: the Beginning

1:12 scale kitset for caravan

Do you remember those little round caravans popular in the 1950s and 60s? Starliners, they were called. My husband, daughter and I went round the South Island in one when she was a toddler. The caravan looked cute and was very light to tow, so light in fact, that in strong winds it lifted off the ground. That was alarming!
   At our miniatures club, we are making 1:12 scale versions of them.
  So far at club, one of our members has created the kitsets from a design by Gayle. Bending the wood to make the rounded sides would have been a problem for those of us without special tools and machinery, so Laurie made the basic shell of the caravans up. 

The retro miniature caravan shell

   I'll take you on the journey with me - from pieces of wood to a completed caravan. Each month at our club meeting I'll do a bit more and post it on my blog so you can see it develop.
   So far I've (with help - I hate power tools) cut out the door, windows and wheel openings, and under-coated the body with acrylic paint.