Another journal

Now, I’ve made some Fallout: New Vegas themed items before, because I’m super normal about the game. Big as my fannish love is, I have avoided making props because I live in a very small apartment and don’t need more clutter. That said, I had a realisation last playthrough that I could both have a game prop AND use up some crafting supplies in one go, so: the Sierra Madre Casino snow globe.

A few years ago, Chase got me a cute kiddy craft kit to make snow globes. The theme was sparkly baked goods. I made one, it was delightful, then packed the pieces for the other two away because I don’t need three snow globes around that aren’t quite my style. Now, in FNV, you collect these from different locations, it’s a fun little bonus thing. I realised while playing that they’re close enough to the same shape as those in the craft kit and was very !!! about it.

The problem was, as with any craft I do: how do I do this while not buying anything and just using what I have to hand (which to be fair, is a lot of stuff). If I had one of those laser cutting machines then heck, this would be a simple build, I could knock out the figures inside from acrylic, do the letters, build the paths for it all from the asset itself. However, I am not so blessed.

You know what I did have though? Shrinky Dinks. I could blow up an image of the asset, trace it, paint it, shrink it, and it would look (close enough) to the screen-printed acrylic that a perfect facsimile would have. Thanks to poking around I found the “oh that’s obvious” solution to calculating the shrink size that my oven would give (thank you craftmehappy), you make a ruler and shrink that. I also very carefully outlined Pip Boy, then realised I forgot to flip him. THEN carefully outlined him again and realised I forgot to trace him sized up (because: shrinking) and then third time was the charm.

Which is why the proportions are not so perfect, on the letters specifically. I ah, my main enemies are precision cutting and lettering. But I think I did a very good job despite it all, cutting them from craft foam. Then! I glued them onto the base upside down and had to do it all over again. Very me-coded thing to do.

In the end though, it was all worth it. I broke up the build over two weekends, it was my reward for meeting goals throughout the week. I sealed the backs of the Shrinky Dink pieces, found my red glitter, mixed actually a spot-on colour for the back, and got the whole thing together.

You can see from the side that the casino itself is a little warped but that I got everything this flat is a miracle as far as my history with Shrinky Dinks is concerned.

And, just for you, a bonus view of the back, where I glued the letters on SO GOOD, just upside down.

A very satisfying craft! This is my favourite of the DLC, so it felt like the perfect way to celebrate that. I still have the pieces for one more snow globe in the kit, but I’m in no rush to make another. I will wait for inspiration to hit me, though let’s be honest it will probably be Fallout: New Vegas themed as well. Such is life.