The Overlook between Shelves
Here it is, the start of my little book nook series! And as so often, once again a Stephen King novel serves as the introduction to my next craft topic - to be more precise, King`s iconic novel "The Shining".
Thanks to Kubrick's unique and unmistakable visual style, this novel is on the one hand wonderfully suited for a model conversion (you get the visual construction manual for free so to speak) - but on the other hand it is not at all. In fact, creative freedom is more than limited by the film's powerful visuals - Kubrick's vision of the hotel has become so iconically etched in the general visual memory that artistic freedom is hardly possible without being disruptive.
And even if one should decide for a Kubrick-faithful realization, there would still be the question of the impossible floor plan to discuss, which makes a larger model project almost impossible for detail nerds (like me): In fact, for his realization of the story Kubrick designed a set(ting) with a proverbially impossible floor plan, which does not open logically at any corner. A stylistic trick, which should subconsciously underline the feeling of disorientation in the movie, has so far posed an almost insurmountable problem with regard to a (comprehensive) model realization: There is simply no complete representation that would be "right"...and that's kind of lousy for a model....
But what could have never worked on a large scale now gets its chance on a small one. And so I decided very consciously for my first test book nook for this special template, which I otherwise would probably never have dared to touch. Because a single cut out scenery is of course always possible - and what cutout would be better suited than the hotel corridor with its iconic carpet pattern? Both the entrance to room 217 (room 237 in the movie) and the hotel's eerie elevator branch off from it, details that can be staged equally nicely and are quite sufficient for such a small setting.
The scenery is framed by a small pile of fake books (all Shining-related, of course)... and a wasps' nest. Friends of the novel know what I'm talking about ;)
And with that in mind, on to the gallery!
Building the Overlook
The construction of the Overlook book nook combines such techniques on a small scale that have already proven themselves in larger model projects: First and foremost is once again the building technique of perspective distortion, without which such a long corridor could hardly be represented at shelf depth. In principle, this construction trick reduces the scale of the model rapidly with increasing depth, so the hallway becomes "smaller", the perspective "stretched" - and the eye is ultimately tricked. Thus, a miserably long corridor can be represented even at 35cm.
Everything else consists, as always, of building all sorts of tiny details, the lighting and everything else that goes with a proper Shining walkway.
And that brings us to the WIP gallery! This one shows the construction in a streamlined form. If you want to dive deeper, you can find more detailed descriptions and pictures in my blog!
