Rubbish Re-used Part One

Aborted support, even sticking strips 

together at 90 degrees so that they 

supported each other the support 

was not rigid enough.

I’ve started to make use of the recycled materials I mentioned in the last blog post. The aim here, to add a couple more models to the Ghost Town made from the coffee sticks. 

A couple of these had their base shape constructed from foam board; others were made from old boxes. 

There were a few issues with some of them during construction which I hope I can address this time round.

Boxes turned inside out

The main problem is the weakness of this cardboard to hold up under building, but once they are fully coated with the sticks then they become quite solid. I start by taking the boxes apart and reversing them, so that they are inside out. This turns the shiny sides in, which means when you leave some card bare for the windows it will take the paint better.

It was whilst sitting in contemplation that thanks to an empty loo roll I was reminded of the strength of the humble tube. I tried a couple of ideas to add support to the inside of the boxes before sealing them up, but the tube is the best strengthening idea other than filling them with plaster – but that’s excessive, expensive and too heavy.

With the first of the tubes as support.

The tube was cut down and slid into the box before the end was fitted. Depending on the size of the box you’ll need several of these to support the middle and corners. Toilet roll tubes don't come round that frequently, so other tubes are needed. Some I made by rolling up those annoying flyers that come through the letterbox and what drop out of magazines, glued and taped in a roll then cut to the right length to support the boxes. Other tubes were made from corrugated card from a mail-order delivery. The thing to remember when using this cardboard is to ensure that you cut the card so that the direction of the corrugations is vertical for your tube, if they stand horizontal the tube will collapse under pressure.

New collection of boxes

I put the three boxes together in various patterns before deciding on this configuration. Then started to collect my next set of boxes. I did not expect these to be mainly made up of medicine boxes and ice cream boxes, but with a recent chest and throat infection this became the origin of the next collection.

I used one of the Lemsip boxes collected from the medicinal collection as an additional front entrance to the first of these buildings.

This model doesn’t look like much at the moment, but just wait and see what happens to it.

Previous blog in this series: Rubbish or Raw Material?