I don't know how this will come out but I'm giving it a try.

Hubby and I want a good looking pirate chest but what we've found in stores are either too small, too expensive, or too cheesy looking. So I thought I'd take some spare scraps of Styrofoam and see what I could do.

I thought you all would enjoy watching me give it a try weather I succeed or fail.

Wish me luck!

This first pic is of my concept sketched out on paper


I began cutting the Styrofoam tonight and got the front, back and side panels of the basic box cut. I sanded and carved some plank and woodgrain detailing.




I'm at this point right now and am pretty pleased with it so far I hope I can pull this off.

Tomorrow is another day, I'm beat. Niters all!

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page

That looks really good so far, keep posting all the pictures!

After some trial and error, I found that a sharp pencil worked best/quickest for laying in the wood grain. I don't have a fine enough bit for my dremel but I will definitely get one the future. I'm sure that would make quick work of it. The problem with this project is that I needed a fine/thin wood grain. SIGH...so I'm having to do this literally by hand but I guess it's a labor of love

I got all four panels grained and set them in place with Elmer's wood glue (works great on polystyrene).

I spent the night trying different paints and techniques to get a realistic distressed wood look to it on a test piece and failed miserably. I think I have to resort to using the same paint that I use on my tombstones as polystyrene is witchy when it comes to coating with paint without leaving little white spots of foam showing through due to it's texture. I won't be able to get the proper paint until next week (whahhhhh!).

But in the mean time, I have more construction and planning to do. I'm planning on an arched lid so that would add at least 8-10 inches overall.

The main box I've built measures out to roughly 18"lengh, 10"high, 12"deep. Here are project update pics.

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page

I think learning from failure is more important than successes so I'll share my paint attempt failures on this project...

This first pic shows Rustoleum American Accent Paint (I coated it on pretty thick) Leather Brown on the top left and Colonial Red to the mid right. And the rest is Minwax Red Mahogany stain. I tried brushing on the stain and wiping off. No good...still had white foam bubbles showing. Then at the top of the test peice, I just brushed it on thick and left it. I still had white bubbles showing after drying.



Then I tried taking one of my airbrush paints which generally makes a great looking wood color (Createx Lt Brown). I used a black sharpie in the woodgrain and then brushed the paint on the foam directly and...sigh...no good


Then I tried directly airbrushing on the foam and the stupid white bubbles still showed through.

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page

looks great - try a latex dark first coat and then dry brush the wood tone that way you can cover the white and fill in the grain, and the dry brush wood tones will sit on highest points....

__________________
If you can't beat'em, SCARE'm!

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i294/daveo1101/

After seeing the bride that you've already done, I have no doubt that this will be a walk in the park for you!

__________________
Happy Haunting!!

Moon Dog, I didn't do the Bride. That was LaurieBeast. I only wish I was *THAT* good LOL

But I'm sure I'll manage with this chest one way or another.

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page

yeah, that's what I was thinking. That's how I do my tombstones (with a good exterior latex paint). But I need to buy some more paint and can't get to the store until Friday so it'll have to wait.

But that's ok, I can get started working on the chest lid in the meantime. Which is better actually because the paint job will be more uniform if I do it all at once.

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page

Sorry, y'all look alike to me!

__________________
Happy Haunting!!

Ok, I have an update for you all...

I started working on the chest lid. I began by making a 1 1/4" high base for the lid. I carefully made sure that it matched the top of the chest base and squared it off with triangular blocks in the corners to add stability

Then I carved the lid sides and glued them in place...


I carved the lid slats (4 of them, 2 sides and two thin ones for the top) and laid them in place. You can see spaces between the slats as I haven't glued them in place yet. Also, I have push pins holding the side panals in place on the base while glue dries so the slats can't lay flush until I remove the pins. I was just checking for their fit and so far, so good.




I've decided on a paint color (It'll match the base of our animated Deadeye Drake). I'll have Lowes match the color in a good exterior latex (same as I use for my tombstones, it's worth the expense). I'll then take a black sharpie to the woodgrain groves and knots...a little drybrushing over it all and that should work for the paint. By the way, I also carved the wood grain on the inside of the lid as well.

Hubby and I were thinking of buying real wroght iron hardware for corner brackets (they're fairly cheap) and I'm going to line the inside of the chest with felt...well, that's the plan at this stage

We're still working out how to hinge the lid as polystyrene is weak. I'm considering a piano hinge set in place with wood screws steeped in Elmer's wood glue. A piano hinge would run the length of the inside back of the chest and be covered by the felt. I'm not sure yet about it though.

ETA: I forgot to mention that I'm planning on making vertical straps for the chest out of Crayola Model Magic Clay (fantastic stuff if you haven't checked it out yet) and paint them black. We'll also adorn the chest straps with brass capped tacks.

__________________
**********
The dark little corner of the internet that we haunt Our Page