A Painter's Thoughts: Do it yourself: 1/35 Coke cans

A Painter's Thoughts: Do it yourself: 1/35 Coke cans: Currently I am working on a post-apocalyptic scene as a gift for a friend of mine. While building the base I asked some friends for advice - and I have got a great idea from them. My blogging buddy Nathelis from Miniature Fairy Tales told me to add some garbage and maybe some bruised cans. I just needed to find a way how to convert this into the needed scale. And that's where the journey starts.


I was searching in the web for an answer. Browsing several shops, torturing google and taking a look at different modeling forums. Lucky me! Shortly before I thought there won't be a simple solution a description popped up on the screen describing how to create selfmade cans!

Let me spread the word and share this process with you.


What do we need?

• a sharp exacto knife
• super glue
• activator-spray (this is an important part if you don't want to bore yourself to death while waiting)
• a 1.5mm drill / toothpick or anything else like that
• an aluminium sheet
• a brush / pen or any other item with a rounded end
• sandpaper

Step 1:

First of all we need some retangular pieces out of the aluminium sheet. For this I am using a metal ruler and my exacto knife. A scissor might work here too.

Now we wrap one of these pieces around a toothpick. Twirl this a bit to make it fitting perfectly. The fold has to be glued with a small drop of super glue. I recommend to prepare at least 5-6 "pipes" like this. Feel free to use different diameters to find the right scale for your purposes.

Step 2:

As every coke can has an inward-curved bottom I wanted to reproduce this little detail too. For this we use any of the non-used pieces of aluminium sheet and press in the end of a brush to get a hole there:

The result looks much better if you prevent to just press the end of the brush to the sheet. Circle your brush gently to get the curved bottom.

Turn over this piece and add some super glue to the bump. Now place your can-cores from step 1 on top of this. Using activator spray is recommended here as the glue needs some time to harden on aluminium.

Please keep in mind to always use a respirator to protect your lungs! Activator spray is harmful!!! Open the windows before you start to use this!

Now the plan was to let the glue dry and then cut out the bottom with a scissor. Sadly the cohesion of the glue wasn't good at all and my bottom felt off while cutting it out. But I recognized that the superglue dried in the shape of our bump. Perfect! Don't put your bump-piece in the trashcan, we can always glue this on later for some "special effects" if wished. All we have to do now is to remove excessive glue with sandpaper.

Step 3:

Time for the cap now. This is mostly the same procedure as described in step 2, just without the bump.


Step 4:

Finally the can could be used as wished. With the backside of your exacto knife we could even press the can to damage it carefully. You could also use a hammer to make it looking like a car was rolling over it.

Feel free to experiment here.

Maybe it's easier to paint it first before adding individual damage. But this idea came to my mind way too late.

If you are interested on how these cans are looking with some paint on it you should have a look at this blog in the future. The base is already primed and close to be finished. Here you have a small preview (pre-primed and before some minor changes were done):

Have fun testing this out a nd fel fre to spread for word to share this small DIY-article!