Steve's Haunted Manor

Based on the artwork on the back of the box

Here's a stunning model of the Haunted Manor made by Steve L. using and adapting the artwork from the back of the cereal packet.

Although delighted to have received a copy of that artwork many years' ago, I've always been somewhat underwhelmed by the 3D aspect, which seems to have been an after-thought: folding and cutting as implied by the dashed and solid lines would result in the wall upstairs being lowered with the base becoming the floor of the landing.

I have often wondered why the artist did it like that, especially as Quaker made some pretty decent 3D models for some of their other cereal packets of that period. Perhaps it was to save space for whatever else was there on the back of the box? 

So, naturally, when Steve contacted me recently to say that he'd made a 3D Haunted Manor using the artwork, I was intrigued and looking forward immensely to seeing the results and  after much anticipation, I'm delighted to be able to post these pictures, along with some information from Steve:

The manor isn't occupied as such, but i never intended it to be. Those images of the Spooks were the first indication we ever had of what was inside the packet, and they are as special to me as the real thing. 

I've said it before but we are so lucky to have a full size, full colour image of The Manor.  But when it came to construction back then, i realised a problem that i had no idea how to fix, so i've tried to fix it now...  i made the top and bottom halves separately. I glued the images to thin card. (Cereal packet, what else?!)  The bottom half was easy, all i had to do was cut along the bannisters AND along the top of the stairs. I also cut away the gaps between the stair pillars (balustrades?) where possible. The top half was simply cut in a straight line, along the base of Tilly and George. I then had some painting out to do, because the stairs were printed on top of the back wall and parts of Tilly and George. I just used brown and black and off white. I was amazed that i could acheive decent colour matches because i dont have an artistic bone in my body. Black details on Tilly and George were reinstated with a ballpoint pen.  I made a complete landing from 1/16" balsa, 3/4" wide. I "broke" the floor at the left hand end to coincide with the broken bannister, easy with thin balsa, then painted it a grubby red, with the broken part brown and black.  I should have said, i made the top and bottom halves of the Manor from 2 separate prints, then made a 3rd print so i could paint a large area of black round the images of winnie, bertie and alf. After cutting out the windows and door, these images were glued behind as appropriate. I made a frame from 1/8" balsa, 2" wide and painted it black, and that was it. I'm very surprised no one else has made a Manor from this great image.

The model looks superb and the new artwork for the back and the floor fits in beautifully, like it's part of the original. I'm really impressed with it all. I also like the way it's been put into a simple black painted box and recessed slightly, which frames it superbly. Of course, it looks great just with the artwork Spooks, especially as Alf, Bertie and Winnie have been set back. So, here we have a 3D Haunted Manor that does the original artwork justice - great work Steve!