A HAUNTING CABIN

I’ve loved this show for years and both of the episodes listed below inspired me to make an abandoned shack/cabin in the woods, complete with its own resident. My creepy monk figure was the perfect “Shadowman” (I can’t justify it as one word, but here we are) for this project and at 1:12 scale, aptly fits the theme.

A Haunting, ©Discovery, Inc.

Both episodes had similar elements that I wanted to highlight: Creep factor? Check. Abandoned? Check. Visited by shady characters? Check.

– A Haunting S7, E2 “The Shadowman”

“In the late 1960s two brothers, Tom and Tim Yancey, encounter a demonic entity in the woods surrounding their home in Lake Worth, Florida. For some time, they try to ignore their experience of what they labeled as “the Shadowman” and get on with their summer.”

– A Haunting S7, E6 “Devil Inside Me”

“In the summer of 2003, twelve-year-old John Drenner Jr. finds an old abandoned shack in the woods surrounding Odenton, Maryland behind his grandmother’s home. During his investigation of the shack, he came upon a book that detailed dark and satanic rituals, eventually learning the area was used by devil worshipers to perform their rituals.”

(Ok… so those excerpts set the tone but before we go any further, can I just say that I find it odd they spelled

“Shadow Man” as one word?)

Speaking of coffee, don’t drink and craft!

CONSTRUCTION

I started construction on this cabin in May of 2020 during the pandemic. It was more therapeutic than monotonous in which lots of coffee stirrers were broken to size, methodically sacrificed, and hot glued.

The formation was fairly simple: I started with a piece of corrugated cardboard for the base and in addition, cut 1-inch strips to place horizontally around the perimeter as well as vertically. The strips are then reinforced by craft popsicle sticks due to their width and strength. The hot glue makes it easy for them to stay in place while you connect the gaps with the coffee stirrers.

I find that breaking the coffee stirrers for a worn look is more aesthetically pleasing than cutting them. Note: When cutting blunt edges, regular scissors won’t help you; you need some big guns for this task. I didn’t own one then, but I would now suggest a multi-angle miter shear cutting tool. At the time, I ended up using old wire strippers because their center is fairly sharp and more heavy-duty. If you choose to go this route, be sure they’re old because this will most likely ruin them for cutting wire in the future. They also launch pieces of wooden debris all over the room. You (and possibly your pets as well) may require eye protection whilst performing this activity. I would be seriously remiss had I not mentioned the perils of small, yet velociously trajected tree chunks.

I made sure to leave some gaps and placed some stirrers askew for an old weathered effect. I tried to reinforce the corners for strength and the cabin itself turned out surprisingly pretty sturdy.

ROOFING

The roof and loft were constructed separately with 1/4 inch dowels, popsicle sticks, and coffee stirrers. Now that I think about it, I think the dowels were the demise of the wire cutters.

I experienced the most issues while trying to build the loft. Using coffee stirrers, it started out as two removable pieces that each resembled very tall tables. Or? Wooden AT-ATs. I tried this because I didn’t know how I was going to suspend a loft with only a half-roof. But they turned out quite ugly and there were stirrers/”barn poles” in the way of the rest of the diorama.

Back to the old drawing board…

Eventually, I decided to just bridge the loft across the internal roof structure using the same materials. I then took the entire structure outside and spray painted it brown for a base coat. Also, with assistance from my wonderful husband, I added some wood trim and 2-inch x 2-inch scraps to make a platform that I planned on hiding wiring under but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

The roof itself was made in the same manner as the walls using stirrers. I decided I didn’t like the look and wanted to add a rusty tin roof. I took small sheets of foil and used a toothpaste tube roller to create the pattern. Those looked good at first when glued to a sheet of cardboard, but my first-ever attempt at weathering and rusting was just awful. No matter what I did, I couldn’t eliminate the shine of the foil. Black and brown acrylic paint washes just weren’t doing the trick to tone down the umber clumps so I thought I’d add some actual ground cinnamon for texture (as well as to cover the mess I’d made). It kept getting worse until I just had a heap of dirty foil that smelled like toast. What could I do except abandon the abandoned roof??

With head in hands and spice in nostrils, I decided to cut up some corrugated cardboard shingles. I glued them onto another piece of cardboard cut to size that would cover the span of the roof. I got a little too carried away and realized I’d made WAY TOO MANY shingles. I figured if I painted them black then dry brushed and weathered them they’d look better. Nope. Turns out the roof looks like a deranged witch’s hut somewhere deep in a fairyland forest. It’s definitely too thick plus you can see the corrugation. Lesson learned!

ACCESSORIES

Prior to this, I had made an open book, table, candles, and a candle snuffer in this tutorial:

Mini Open Book and Gothic Accessories. I decided I wanted to place these items into the cabin because they reminded me of the scene in S7, E6 where the devil worshipers were hanging out.

It turns out I didn’t like how the candles looked in this setting so I found some cool 3D print files on Thingiverse that I listed on the Extras & Freebies page. I painted them black and dry brushed them with gray and white. It really made the skulls pop with detail! I also found files for a chalice and knife. Incidentally, red nail polish was an excellent choice for the chalice!

In my head I really wanted these mini LEDs to fit inside the little candelabras but alas, it was not meant to be. I ended up (carefully) cutting the backs off of them to hot glue the lights. Fast forward a few months and I probably could’ve altered the 3D files in Blender so they’d print correctly, however, I did not have these skills at the time.

This enabled me to cut a hole to feed the wires underneath and hide them from view. The battery pack was housed under the table and the front is covered by the table cloth. I used a scrap of red crushed velvet I found and it worked alright for 1:12 scale, but I’d most likely use a different fabric in the future with a smaller weave to be more compatible with this scale.

In addition to the table, I knew I wanted other items included inside like some old crates and a broken pallet. Those were easy enough to construct and weather, as well as .svg files for a paper lantern I found in a tutorial on YouTube by Heather Tracy of Thicketworks:

Miniature Cemetery Diorama If you are not familiar, .svg files are cutting files to use with a machine like a Cricut Maker.

I cut a piece of fish tank tubing, heated the end to expand it, glued beads as a base, and made a small lamp for the table. This came from a great tutorial here: How To Make A Miniature Bead Lamp With (fake) Glass On Top.

On the wall behind the figure, I added a 3D-printed sconce. To construct the pentagram hanging on the wall, I used some jute twine from Dollar Tree (now Dollar-Twenty-Five Tree, I believe) and some twigs from outside to simulate the atmosphere in S7, E6.

A used tea bag (opened, sans tea) made the perfect dilapidated curtain to cover the window.

I found a “KEEP OUT” sign on Google to hang on the outside of the structure. After printing it out, I sandwiched it between cardboard and acetate and weathered it with (you guessed it) cinnamon. I had no idea Ara of Bentley House Minis also made this but here we are, keeping miniature menaces out of our creations like a couple of pros.

LIGHTING/WIRING

As for the wiring, this was as they say “a whole ‘nother”. I knew I wanted to add lighting to the other lamps I’d made but didn’t know how. After looking around online, I decided to purchase yellow pre-wired 3mm flickering LEDs instead of mangling tea light candles to shards this time. This also required me to order mini switches.

Now, let me just say that a soldering iron and myself are quite the pair. Still a newbie, I struggled to wire the lantern, lamp, and sconce together to connect to the main battery pack so everything would be able to be controlled with one switch. A word to the wise: Before you start wiring anything, please check the correct polarity and schematics so you don’t cause a fire. Trust me. Because if it’s done incorrectly, you’ll have to explain to your household that the smell emanating from your melted mouse pad was due to a lava-like reaction from an incorrectly routed switch and plastic battery pack that happened to be sitting on it.

Scorched foam aside, I didn’t have enough length on the switch wires to mount it to the wooden base so I had to get creative. I fed the switch under the cardboard floor and made a hole towards the front of the diorama. I decided to hide it by placing it inside a 3D-printed small book that opens and closes, adorned with a pentagram on the cover. I painted it black and red to match the accessories that were already present.

FINISHING TOUCHES

One last accessory item that I thought I’d be able to make was a few bales of hay. Turns out, I’d misled myself. Perhaps it’s better if I don’t describe the jute twine disaster glued to a block of wood and let you see the outcome for yourself. It may or may not unintentionally resemble a living person. So much so, that I added a smiley face.

It was bad. So I went to Michael’s and found an actual small hay bale that I could use and later nixed the idea altogether in favor of covering the floor with it and adding a sprinkling of dried coffee grounds to simulate dirt. I fixed those both in place with isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle and watered down PVA glue. I added moss (Cilantro leaves) and vines on the outside in addition to some vines crawling in the cracks of the cabin. Those were also sprayed and glued into place.

I weathered the wood inside and out with layers of dark brown and black washes and added some “smoke” marks above the candle sconce on the wall and ceiling.

And lastly, I cut vinyl wording and the “A Haunting” logo on the Cricut Maker and affixed it to the base of the diorama. That process could be another blog post in itself and probably would involve several colorful words that describe what it’s like working with vinyl as a newbie.

TAKEAWAYS

I’ve learned so much throughout this process and yes, there are quite a few things I’d do differently if I did the entire project over again. To name a few, I’d definitely construct the base differently as well as the roof. The hay would be chopped up into smaller pieces and the vines would be more realistic and weathered. What do you see that could’ve been done differently to improve the overall aesthetic of the diorama?

Congratulations on making it this far! I hope you try something new and glean inspiration from my Franken-project. I would love to see if any of you make the minis shown here (or anything of your choosing) you’d like to share! Please feel free to leave me questions/comments. My goal is to build a warm and friendly crafting community for you all. Thank you for reading and hope to talk to you all soon!

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