This snack shack was built from a Kimberley House newsletter's project pages; they once ran a series on carnival booths and their peripherals, and this snack shack was one of them. It has Dutch or stable doors, a removable roof for access, and a front flap that lifts up. It should lift up, but it has lost 2 of its hinges, and the remaining hinge is unglued, besides the flap itself being somewhat warped on top of all its other problems. It is aged to look like a whitewashed wooden building, and if you could see up close, I added spatters of dirty water to look like rain and weathering. The roof covering was made of black construction paper; big mistake, it is now dull gray, so will have to be replaced or repainted. The long white piece of wood with a raised section at one end is going to be the sign for the shack.
This was one of the very first projects I ever tackled; the angled lathwork on the base was cut, one by one, by me by hand using my mitre box - I wore a groove in the aluminum cutting these little sticks. At the side of the shack is a pair of steps for entry into the building.
Looking down into the box, you can see the sponge-painted "linoleum" floor. And of course, no furnishings whatsoever. I did say it was one of my earliest projects, and I was so unsure of making anything that would stand up straight, that I never did finish the interior. I did, however, beg a metal printing sheet from a local printers to make the furniture tops with, after reading an article by Noel and Pat Thomas, who used this material when they built their Castine fish shack's fryer unit. The printers gave me 2 sheets; they have been out of business now for years, having been replaced first by a sewing machine dealer and later by an orthodontic clinic.
This is the top of the griddle; made of wood and paint, it needs a shelving unit under it, and of course lots of grunging up to look used. As you can see, I did pick up a number of items to go into the project, miniature condiments and restaurant sugar, straw and napkin dispensers, as well as a heavy duty tea kettle; this snack shack will eventually end up as part of the Chipping Littleham Market scene, shown earlier on in this blog. As that market is set in England, I had to include cider vinegar for the chips and "brown sauce" for everything else. I am not really sure if ketchup had made it to the UK in between the wars.
The garbage pail and fire extinguisher were Camp MiniHaHa tidbit gifts, perfect for this setting. The scale is commercial (miniature!) kitchen size, but its paper dial has let go and will need re-gluing - I did tell you I started this one a very long time ago. There are some white metal kitchen utensils that need painting, and dozens of milk-carton seals that will become stacks of thick, white china plates in the shack. There is also a picnic table to go with this, but it is currently doubling as the table for the junk dealer's stall in the market. And lots of gulls; flying and sitting and for just plain scavenging on the ground in front of the shack for yummy dropped items. I need to practise how to make convincing miniature gull droppings....
It is my intention to begin making some polymer clay items that don't need much contact with my rough, dry fingers, just to get back in the groove. Some of the things I hope to make to sell at the shows I'm attending this year would also work very nicely in this snack shack setting. And I still harbour high hopes of getting this done for the Model Automobile show the end of May; I hope to exhibit the between-the-wars market once again, with a proper stall for the junk dealer, and perhaps a fishmonger's stall, as well as this snack shack.
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