1:35 Věšák

Thirteen parts for one piece of furniture

With small accessories the rule is usually that the more pieces in a package, the simpler the shape. Here the ratio is turned inside out: everything in the bag serves to assemble a single stand. The reason lies in the shape. A coat rack consists of a thin post, a splayed base and several arms pointing outwards and upwards. It cannot be cast in one go, because the mold could not be opened, and so a puzzle comes about.

What follows from that for the build

Count on this piece taking more time than a heap of crates. The arms are glued out into space and without support they will go astray, so it pays to prepare a simple jig: a piece of paper with a cross drawn on it and pins to hold the angles until the glue takes. Check the post against a plumb line and the base against the flat of the table. The difference between a carefully and a carelessly assembled coat rack is visible from a meter away.

Why it pays off

Furniture of this kind works in a scene as a mark of habitation. An empty room with a coat rack in the corner looks like a place somebody lives in, even when there is not a single figure in it. If you hang a coat made of kitchen foil or a helmet on the arms, you also gain a story about who has just come back. The stand can be either sound or damaged; an overturned coat rack among rubble is one of the most effective ways of saying that something happened in the room.

Recommended painting

The real thing could be wooden or metal and the whole procedure follows from that. With wood, thin glazes applied over a light base work well; with metal, a dark base and polished edges instead. Whichever you choose, work the lower part of the base into the floor with dust or fine rubble, otherwise the stand will look as though it is floating above the surface. It is precisely that connection that separates a stand-alone figure from a genuinely inhabited scene.