Prop ideas and materials

I have decided that for my first prop I want to combine my idea of the Queen Mary tin with toys from a child's life in World War 1.

I want to base this prop around the story that a 7 year old boy lives in a farming family. His family is so poor that they could not afford to buy him a gift for his birthday, so when the soldiers come through the village on their way to the front line, his parents exchange some scraps of food for the soldier's Queen Mary tin. They give this to their son as a late birthday present and this becomes his little tin to store small toys e.g marbles and crayons and anything else he finds interesting. 

With this narrative in mind I want to start making this prop as soon as possible. I ordered a small gold tobacco tin from ebay which came today. It cost me £2 and I want to adapt the lid to match a Queen Mary tin. In industry, if I was to produce lots of tins for a production it would probably be cheaper to vacuum form them but as I just need the one, adapting an existing tin is more effective.

I thought back to a lecture we had with Andy about the different materials you can use when making various props. I learnt that:

• Polystyrene can be easily shaped. If you cover it in PVA and muslin it gives a harder surface. It can then be painted e.g a loaf of bread.  
• Chavant - Oil based clay that doesn't set. You can buy it in various hardnesses and it can be used to make a mould (to pour rubber mix around.) 

• Super Sculpey sets under heat. You can build layers of it or use tin foil as the core to build layers on top of then bake. Usually used to make small details e.g to make a doll's head. 

• Milliput (another sculpting substance.) You have to mix both parts of the Milliput to use it and to make sure it sets properly. You can spread a thin layer onto wood and when tacky you are able to mould this until it sets e.g pasta can easily be made like this. 

• Art mache (powdered wood pulp) can also be moulded when mixed with warm water. Gives similar results to normal paper mache. 

I thought about what way would be best to make the lid. I think that moulding the lid (like how we were shown to mould badges in our casting & moulding demo) would be the best option but I need to speak to Andy and get his advice.