FIRST ELEVATOR

In the early stages of my building dioramas I built my first elevator. 

What I did wrong: I didn’t have enough silver stainless steel contact paper at the time so I wrapped the doors with a shiny silver wrapping paper instead.  Looking at my old photos the doors look unrealistic and silly to me now. 

What I did right: 2 sets of Interchangeable Walls (1) a dark walnut and (2) a dull silver with a circular patterned bottom wainscoting look.  The doorway to get into the elevator and the Up/Down indicators above the doors and wall push buttons looked decent and were made from 3-D scrapbooking gem stickers.  Lastly, I put canned lights on top of the unit pointing down to give it realistic lighting.

THIRD ELEVATOR

My biggest elevator so far, it’s a movable unit that could be picked up and placed into a diorama.  20″ wide on both the front and back wall, and 10″ deep for both side walls.  I kept the 30″ height in case I wanted to use these foam boards for other things later. It has it’s own 1/4″ foam board floor that’s covered in a dark grey wood grain and is pinned with flat sewing pins to the four walls on all sides.

I made all the walls out of 1/2″ thick black foam board. The interior has a concrete look contact paper on the side walls.  The interior back wall top halve has a plastic window coating film (used in bathroom windows for privacy when you need light).

The hand rails are all balsa wood flat strips partially covered in silver contact paper. the floor boards are the same balsa wood striped not covered. I also used them in the doors to cover the cut foam board and make the doors look finished.

The sliding doors are two 1/4″ foam board rectangle pieces covered in silver contact paper and black shiny contact paper on the edges.  I’m using masking tape on the backside of this wall to keep the doors in place, either closed or open.

The UP/DOWN arrows at the top of the doorway are mirror stickers from the scrapbook section of Joann’s.  The buttons to press on the wall are also 3-D gem stickers used in scrapbooks.

I’ve got a light can resting on Plexiglas at the top of the elevator to light the room.

At the time of writing this I haven’t put out the story this set goes with, so I can’t show too much.  I’ll add more photos to this tutorial after the story is released.