Useful items for sixth-scale environments (continuously updated)

Great telescopes, Stryker and shazzdan! While I was in Michael's recently, I either didn't notice them or failed to grasp their potential.

I did go into several stores sixth-scale hunting yesterday. First up, Hobby Lobby, with following result:



Then there was Target (since some of you were talking about their toy animals) :



And then there was Pier 1 (which happened to be located between the other two) :



So I picked up the "other" vintage gas pump from Hobby Lobby, as well as the weathered wooden beach chair matching last week's lifeguard chair; a set of charms from Vintaj featuring an appropriately scaled simple modern key; a couple of packages of those corked glass bottles from Blank Slate; a little wooden treasure chest (there were also bigger and smaller sizes); two rabbits and a puppy, all by Mojo; and some moss and a fake plant for a planned diorama. At Target I got a couple of slightly larger rabbits by Terra, an Ocean Breeze candle for its metal bucket container (a tad on the large side, but I'm sure somewhere there are buckets that this matches), and a couple of other little plants (real, fake, not sure) from Live Trends. The Pier 1 visit yielded just more plants -- moss, fake rubbery conifers, and a plastic plant that came attached to a napkin ring.

Here are a couple of scenes I cobbled together with some of the new acquisitions.

Gas pump, keys, and plants:


Beach chair (atop a "deck" that is a barn wood sign board from the hobby section at Meijer), rabbits, puppy, a blue glass bottle (behind her knee), bucket, and plants:


So, good haul?

That is an excellent haul. ReverendSpooky has me all fired up to try my hand at a post-apocalyptic figure, and I really dig the gas pumps, but I’d hate to copy his stuff outright. He’s too good, and mine would just look like a sh$&y imitation.

Stryker -- I don't see what one has to do with the other -- you can use them in some different way.

Pontiacivan and Shazzdan, those control knobs, electronic switches and pegboards were ingenious!

Wow! Stryker, your Pirate (queen?) looks amazing, not to mention her amazing booty... er I mean chest, treasure chest . I just noticed there was a monkey there on my second look (missed it when browsing on the phone).

GubernatorFan, that's an incredible haul. Those miniature animals look really realistic and cute at the same time, and I really love the moss mat and the potted plants.

This is my favorite shot right here. The background is just splendid, the props placed perfectly, and the couple seems so natural.

GubernatorFan wrote:Beach chair (atop a "deck" that is a barn wood sign board from the hobby section at Meijer), rabbits, puppy, a blue glass bottle (behind her knee), bucket, and plants:

Man! This thread is amazing, it's like a treasure trove of cool new items and fresh ideas are to be discovered.

Thank you very much, Fox, you are too kind. The rabbits do look realistic, but they cannot compete in cuteness with your bunny in a cup, which inspired them. Just to clarify, I haven't used the moss mat yet -- what you see in the photo is Ready Grass, which is intended for tinier landscape models -- the texture is far too short to be accurate for sixth scale. But it can do in a pinch if one doesn't look too closely.

Stryker2011 wrote:That is an excellent haul. ReverendSpooky has me all fired up to try my hand at a post-apocalyptic figure, and I really dig the gas pumps, but I’d hate to copy his stuff outright. He’s too good, and mine would just look like a sh$&y imitation.

Come and play, come and play!! Plenty of room in the wastelands for all! Post-apocalyptic is such a huge genre, and I am far from ground zero. Hell, I think my stuff is heavily influenced by all the stuff that's come before, although I do try to throw my own spin on it. And it's such a fun genre to play in. Personally, I'd love to see your 1/6 take on the the world after it all starts crumbling down.

And GubernatorFan, that's an excellent craft store haul! Loving all the rabbits. That last scene has me wishing I was outside with a beer right now, now that we're finally seeing some decent weather.

And Shazzdan, I keep considering that extending spyglass as well. I feel like I've seen in craft stores, but keep thinking they look big. May just bite the bullet and grab one next time to see.

ReverendSpooky wrote:And GubernatorFan, that's an excellent craft store haul!  Loving all the rabbits.  That last scene has me wishing I was outside with a beer right now, now that we're finally seeing some decent weather.

Thank you ReverendSooky. I didn't mean to get so many rabbits but... well, they're rabbits. And maybe subconsciously I have been inspired by the most kickass "rabbit" of all (you know what I mean, if you've seen Infinity War). The good weather has been the inspiration for my increased store visits and picking up more and more of these items that can be used for sixth-scale scenes.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:And GubernatorFan, that's an excellent craft store haul!  Loving all the rabbits.  That last scene has me wishing I was outside with a beer right now, now that we're finally seeing some decent weather.

Thank you ReverendSooky. I didn't mean to get so many rabbits but... well, they're rabbits. And maybe subconsciously I have been inspired by the most kickass "rabbit" of all (you know what I mean, if you've seen Infinity War). The good weather has been the inspiration for my increased store visits and picking up more and more of these items that can be used for sixth-scale scenes.

I still haven't! Waited too long to get tickets for opening weekend, and theaters are still pretty full whenever there's a showing that work with my schedule. Seriously, the anticipation's making me a little crazy. Hoping to make it happen early next week.

ReverendSpooky wrote:I still haven't! Waited too long to get tickets for opening weekend, and theaters are still pretty full whenever there's a showing that work with my schedule.  Seriously, the anticipation's making me a little crazy.  Hoping to make it happen early next week.

Then I'm happy I didn't make a real spoiler. Try to avoid these and see the movie as soon as you can.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:I still haven't! Waited too long to get tickets for opening weekend, and theaters are still pretty full whenever there's a showing that work with my schedule.  Seriously, the anticipation's making me a little crazy.  Hoping to make it happen early next week.

Then I'm happy I didn't make a real spoiler. Try to avoid these and see the movie as soon as you can.

Yeah, kinda keeping my head in the ground until I can make it happen. I was considering trying to see it Sunday, but also just want to stay in and work on 1/6 projects all day!

I too bought some bits and bobs from Tiger recently - they don't always have them in stock as they're more of a seasonal item, but they sell these great metal chairs for about £3 each. The original one I bought from there a few years ago was matte black, but the more recent ones were painted in various pastel shades, but they painted up nicely after some primer.

Deja Brew WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

image by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I can't remember the branding of this, but I found it on holiday last year in one of those 'not-quite-a-£1-shop-but-close-enough' kind of shops. It's a novelty condiment/cutlery holder and cost me about £7 if I remember correctly. I really bought it for the umbrella as it actually works, but the chairs are actually a pretty good size for my dolls, though it'd be a little more of a squeeze for larger 1/6th figures. I added a fake mosaic on the tabletop to disguise the hole for the parasol, and I'd really like to get rid of the wooden boxes under the chairs which held the cutlery, but they're glued on there pretty solidly unfortunately.

image by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Enjoying the sunshine by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Enjoying the sunshine by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

On that same holiday I found this scaffy old tealight holder in a charity shop and thought it had potential. I stripped off the painted leather sides and stuck on some wooden shelves instead and boom! Industrial side table!

image by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

image by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Also on the industrial theme, you can get sets of novelty 'pipe' straws from £1 shops, and when combined with balsa wood, textured wallpaper and lots of weathering, you get a rather snazzy 'reclaimed' desk!

Industrial Desk WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Industrial Desk WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Max  . .#dollroom #dolldiorama #dollfurniture #barbiecustom #barbie #barbiecollector #sixthscale #dollphotography #playscale #fashiondollphotography #dollstagram #instadoll #maxandjuno #dollsofinstagram #doll #gaydolls #gaybarbiedoll #dollswithtattoos #ba by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

This next one's a little hit or miss as its really too chunky for true 1/6 but I think you can get away with it. I've seen these miniature easels at £1 shops and The Works here in the UK but I'm sure they're fairly easy to get hold of elsewhere too. They usually come with a mini canvas, which is really too thick for our purposes, but could be used as one of those big printed canvas artworks you can get. I made my own of course, and I think it works fairly well as a desk-mounted easel.



[url=https://flic.kr/p/UMe393][url=https://flic.kr/p/UMe393]

These are some great items, Lynkhart, thank you for sharing them with us. It confirms my suspicions that Her Majesty's subjects get better opportunities to find items suitable for sixth-scale scenes than us in the USA. We do have the little easels and the little overly-thick canvas, though I've only seen them sold separately.

Some great stuff, Christine. Love that reclaimed desk with the "industrial" pipes for legs. Very cool.

I was in Michael's and Hobby Lobby again today, and picked up a few more items, including the following.

Michael's -- a soft shark and hard tortoise, and a bunch of Miniature items (Shiraz wine bottles, beer glasses with cotton "head", pitchers, glasses, etc). The Miniature items are a little small to be truly sixth-scale, but some are passable. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the Michael's telescope.



Hobby Lobby -- more passports and a telescope from Explorer, some large conical beads from Metal Gallery that I plan on using as metal cups, and a couple of the lawn/beach chairs by Spring Shop. And plenty more fake plants (some of them too late for a recent photoshoot).



And here Chris and Michelle are putting some of the items to good (or silly) use for scale.



So, good haul?

The beach chairs look really good and I got a hoot out of Cap sitting on the turtle. Props.

That’s some good finds. Like the beach chairs and all the little bottles.

Thank you, dadrab and Stryker.

dadrab -- if you liked Cap on the tortoise, you might like this (from an earlier haul) :
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t3p50-useful-items-for-sixth-scale-environments-continuously-updated#2176

and its modification for the funnies:
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t47-osf-funnies-continuously-updated#2178



Stryker -- the little bottles are pretty good, but closer to what would be a beer bottle size in sixth scale than a proper wine bottle.

Lynkhart! Some great finds. That umbrella set is fantastic, and those candle holders really do make a perfect table. I actually picked up a bunch of those straws immediately after you had posted about them on OSW, although I still haven't gotten around to using them. And i still can't believe how good your props look with printed paper. I'd never guess that table wasn't real wood, and all your walls and flooring look like the real deal. I'm a sucker for carving all those damn bricks on my loft.

GubernatorFan, I'm fairly sure Darwin did exactly what Chris is doing when he 1st got to the Galapagos Islands. And the wood chairs are great. I got a similar set at Micheals, but they're much bigger. Sometimes you see those beach chairs kinda oversized, so it may still work, but the ones you got look much more spot on. Too bad some of the rest is undersized. Although, a little wood and a few more of those beers, and you could make it look like a beer tasting flight.

Reverend Spooky -- thanks for the laugh. I shall now think of Chris as Charles Darwin forever... never met a giant turtle/tortoise he did not attempt to ride.  The Spring Shop chairs from Hobby Lobby (this kind, not the "rustic" ones that match the lifeguard chair -- both of which were shown and discussed in earlier posts within this thread -- not sure who made them) are already slightly oversized, but seem to work ok. Thanks for the warning about the Michaels' chairs. Where did you pick up those straws from Lynkhart's post in the states?

GubernatorFan wrote:Reverend Spooky -- thanks for the laugh. I shall now think of Chris as Charles Darwin forever... never met a giant turtle/tortoise he did not attempt to ride.  The Spring Shop chairs from Hobby Lobby (this kind, not the "rustic" ones that match the lifeguard chair -- both of which were shown and discussed in earlier posts within this thread -- not sure who made them) are already slightly oversized, but seem to work ok. Thanks for the warning about the Michaels' chairs. Where did you pick up those straws from Lynkhart's post in the states?

True story too! Darwin claimed they were incredibly hard to keep his balance on. And who says science isn't fun!?

And I swear, I think the real chairs have that oversized look. Looking at your pics again, they look dead on to me.

I found the straws on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003FO8XN4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Might be a bit more than the steal Lynkhart got them for, but still not too bad.

ReverendSpooky wrote:True story too! Darwin claimed they were incredibly hard to keep his balance on.  And who says science isn't fun!?  

And I swear, I think the real chairs have that oversized look.  Looking at your pics again, they look dead on to me.

I found the straws on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003FO8XN4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Oh science can be fun! Nice true story then...

Maybe it is that the "rustic" chairs are a bit undersized (though perfectly usable), and so the contrast made me think these are a bit on the large side. Also, Spring Shop has another type of chair (metal, this time), which are definitely too big -- and I didn't buy -- so maybe that contributed to my impression. But you may very well be right.

Thank you for the amazon link.

GubernatorFan wrote:

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:I stopped by our local Hobby Lobby just a few hours ago but unfortunately I couldn't find the mini passports or the coins I'm not sure if our
 store does not carry them or they were just sold out although I find the mini backpack a few weeks ago.

@ Gubernator Fan: That sixth-scale looking motorcycle from Hobby Lobby that you talking about did it look like a custom chopper with red
 paint?

Hi BAD WOLF. No, the motorcycles I saw (some of them about sixth scale, some smaller ones too) were a copperish/bronzish color and had no actual headlight (other than the cup for one). More like the one in the first two photos of the OSW thread. I think this is the online listing:

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Home-Decor-Frames/Decor-Pillows/Accent-Pieces/Black-Motorcycle-Metal-Decor/p/38680


The passports and coins are from the Explorer line of jewelry in the beads and jewelry section. If you can't find them in your store, here are the online listings:

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Beads-Jewelry/Mixed-Media-Jewelry/Embellishments/Mini-Coin-Bezel-Fillers/p/80870696

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Beads-Jewelry/Charms-Pendants/Charms/Blue-Gold-Passport-Charms/p/80654178

Hope this helps!

Moonbase Alpha Male wrote:Package (card) looks like this:  

I finally found them today at Hobby Lobby (miniature passports and coins) and thanks for the heads up on them, I think the passports will work nicely in Ada's office when I get back to working on it.

@ GubernatorFan: thanks for the heads up on the little wine bottles.

Yet another great haul Gubernator. Really love that tortoise, the details on the shell and the skin textures look amazing. He seems very well in-scale too, I thought.

That last pic where Chris is sitting on the tortoise and Michelle taking a picture of him is just splendid, love the playfulness.

Bad Wolf -- welcome.

Fox -- thank you very much. Yes, the tortoise is very nice, worth getting and a plausible scale if you wanted to pick it up. I've done Chris riding both the tortoise and the sea turtle, but if I recall, I was inspired by the movie Fierce Creatures where a character mockingly tries to ride a tortoise. So now I got a bit closer to my inspiration.

ReverendSpooky wrote:True story too! Darwin claimed they were incredibly hard to keep his balance on.  And who says science isn't fun!?

Hmmmm...

When I was a kid (long ago in the dim ages), my folks and family would travel to Florida from time to time to visit an uncle. In those days, there were a couple of touristy places that featured colonies of Galapagos turtles. Of course, all the kids wanted to ride and they'd let you. (Don't even try that today, as the PETA crowd will hunt you down.)

The turtle didn't appear to give a damn one way or another. Truthfully, I didn't either, but my folks thought it'd be cute. So, I perched myself atop the turtle and he walked around some. Terribly boring as one goes nowhere...slowly.

So, I must conclude that, while having an undeniably brilliant mind, Darwin was somewhat of a klutz.

GubernatorFan wrote:

So, good haul?

Cool haul but it looks like the things on that coffee table are smaller than 1:6. They look closer to 1:12.

dadrab -- thanks for sharing your real-life memories of such a ride! Perhaps it makes a better story and image than an experience, but at least it wasn't a bad one. And judging by Chris in my photos, yes, Charles Darwin would have been a kid at heart too.

shazzdan -- that's quite correct and I admitted to it. I am not 100% certain the pieces in this line are made to a consistent scale, and most are a bit too small to be sixth scale, but some are passable (I certainly don't pick up everything they've made). The pitchers and to some extent the glasses, for example. The wine bottles, as noted above, are closer to beer-bottle size for sixth scale. I have proper sixth-scale beer mugs, but they always looked oversized to me (the ones with the actual liquid and styrofoam? foam trapped inside); these look undersized.

I'd been waiting to post until I had time to get a good outdoor photo, but I picked this up at Hobby Lobby recently.  I thought it worked great as a kinda rural outdoor covered bin.  



Was really happy with the shot too.  Hope no one minds me double posting in the outdoor photo thread.