Want to make a wooden door for a cottage? Or how about for a witches’ hut? Well either way, it is easy enough to do and the step by step guide below will be able to help.
To create a model door, you’ll need EPS foam, a scalpel knife, a wire brush and some acrylic paint. Cut the foam to the right size and use the wire brush to scrape along it to create the wood grain. Paint it black to begin with and then once dry, drybrush over it with the brown paint.
For the door to be proportional to a D&D character, the door would need to be 32mm tall and 13mm wide. However, you do have some leeway with this as doors can come in a lot of sizes and of course it depends on how big your overall model is.
Step 1
Gather your tools and anything else you might need to make this. Below is a list of tools that I used to make this door:
- EPS foam (expanded polystyrene)
- Scalpel knife
- Cutting mat
- Acrylic paint (black, white and brown)
- Paintbrush
- Wire brush
- Glue
Step 2
Cut the foam to the desired size that you want for your door. I am going to be using the measurements of 40mm by 25mm as it will show my process better. If the foam you are using is too thick, you can always cut it in half to make it thinner. I am also cutting out 2 smaller pieces of foam to create some wooden bars to go across the door. I’m using the measurements 25mm by 4mm for them. This last bit isn’t necessary, but would help with the depth of the door and would help it look more realistic. Cut a small round piece of foam and shave down the upper edges to make it look like a doorknob.
Step 3
Use the wire brush to scrape along the top of the foam. If this is a door that is going to be seen from both sides, then both sides and the edges of the foam will need the wire brush scraped along them. It will have a more authentic look if you brush over it multiple times, varying in pressure of how much you press. Be careful not to press too hard because otherwise you might break the foam, depending on how thick it is. Do the same for the other 2 smaller bits of foam that were also cut out earlier.
Once this is done, glue the 2 smaller bits of foam horizontally onto the bigger piece. Do not glue the doorknob on just yet. You now have to wait for the glue to dry before moving onto the next stage
Step 4
Now when the glue is dry, you can start on the painting. Start by painting the whole door black. This will bring out the shadows and will help to define them after the colour has been painted on. While you are waiting for the door to dry, paint the foam you cut for the doorknob. Now this can be any colour you want, but for a more realistic look it should be a more brownish colour, like a yellow mixed with brown which is what I’ve done here.
When the black paint is dry, get a small amount of brown paint on a clean paintbrush and brush it over the door. This will give highlights on the wood and make it look more 3D. One that is dry, get a lighter brown colour and do the same thing, as this will give even more depth to the door. When the last layer of paint has dried you can glue the doorknob onto the door.
Method 2
Another way of making a door would be with lollypop sticks. If you have a way to cut them, you could easily have a way to make them into a different looking door. Cut the lollypop sticks to the height and width you want them and line them all up in a row, now take another 2 of them and cut them so they are the width of the others. Stick them down with any glue you have around and wait for the glue to dry.
Once the glue has dried, turn over the door and take a baby wipe or a wet paper towel and put some brown acrylic paint and start wiping it over the wood. The paint + the wet baby wipe will make it so the paint only stains the wood instead of fully covering it. If the paint does go on too thick, just rub at it with a dry tissue and that will fix it.
Method 3
Another possible way to make a wooden door would be to make it out of multiple pieces of foam. To start off, create some planks of wood out of foam (my tutorial on how to do that can be seen here
).
Make as many of them as you need for the door, obviously making them the height and width that you want. Then glue them together and add any extra detail you want. For example, add the wooden bar along the top and bottom like I did in Method 1. If you are going to do that, follow all of the steps in my first method for the extra beams. Once all of that is done, glue down the doorknob.