This takes the prize for fiddly!

It was really exciting yesterday afternoon when the order from BJMiniatures arrived - only 10 days from placing the order!  This site has lots of lovely little accessories and furniture kits.  So I've spent the last two evenings assembling some of the furniture.

The first thing I did was to glue two bits of thin plywood together to make a base for the bed, since a normal bed won't fit in the upstairs gallery where my mini person wanted to sleep.  After it was well dry I rounded the corners just a little bit and added some Kleenex tissues to pad the timber base, and formed a double pillow from the tissue as well.  The rounded corners just make the finished corners easier to keep neat, and having the tissue to soften the wood base makes it more realistic when covered with a quilt.  One of the things in my BJMiniatures was a quilt printed with a pretty Baltimore design and having a green border that fitted the colour scheme well.  So I covered the bed with the quilt.  This bed will not easily be seen when the roof is on but what can be seen is pretty.  Here it is:

The colours in the photo are a bit washed out which is a pity, and you can't really see that the quilt tucks under the pillows and there is a dent to define the two pillows.  My mini person is quite happy with it.

Next I tackled a sofa, which came with fabric printed with tiny, tiny dark green checks.  In fact that fabric pretty well decided the colour scheme for the furniture.  It came in parts, made of plastic and you cover each piece as you assemble it.  Doing the front of the arms is fiddly but not too bad, probably because I've done similar things before.  I'm quite pleased with the way it came out.

I did the cushion out of left-over fabric.  I always think a cushion makes things more comfortable.

The other thing I did with some of the fabric was to make a window seat.  This was easy, just a piece of ply cut to the appropriate height, and a second piece of plywood to form the seat.  I padded the seat with Kleenex tissue again and covered it with the fabric, before gluing it to the support at right angles.  Then the whole thing was glued into the bay window.  It will be a nice comfortable place for my mini person to sit and daydream or read, or for visitors to sit and chat to her while she is cooking.

Sorry that the photo is a bit blurred :(

After doing those I tackled the kitchen, also from BJMiniatures.  This is a really nice little kitchen, having a fridge, stove and sink of course.  And it also has a kitchen island with two little stools.  Here are the pieces sort of in place, though I haven't as yet added the rings to the stove or painted the handles on the fridge.  There are taps to add to the sink as well.  Then tonight I did the island and the stools in front of it.  These stools are beautifully designed, but would have to take the prize for one of the fiddliest (is that a word?) thing to make.  I'm still not sure that I have the legs properly spaced or the ring between the legs even.  But here they are:

At this stage nothing is glued into place.  There are still the knobs to add to the cupboards and the finishing bits to do to the stove, fridge and sink.

After tackling the stools I was ready for something a bit less fiddly so I did the coffee table and console table that came in the kit with the lounge.  Don't know whether I'll use the console table in this house, but it certainly gives a nice place to put things.  I don't really want to use the space below the gallery because obviously the french doors would open inwards. But there is a space between the doors and the wall that could take the console table.

Now I have some decisions to make.  I don't like to have a house without a bathroom, even if it is a wall with a door in it, open or closed, to hint at the bathroom beyond.  But this house is a bit difficult to decide what to do about this.  Do I add a 'room' ?  It would have to go between the small window and the upstairs gallery if I do.  Or do I leave it as is and my mini person will just have to keep her legs crossed!!  What do you think?

The room could do with a carpet in the living room area, but nothing fancy I think.  I don't have anything appropriate at the moment.  The green rug I ordered from BJMiniatures is the wrong green for the lounge so not suitable.  Perhaps my mini person is one of the modern women who prefer to have bare boards for their flooring.

Now I have an idea what furniture will go in the cottage, I can make decisions about lighting.  I don't want to bury the wires too deeply after my experience with Woodnook Cottage, where it will mean digging the wires out to repair them.  

Hope you like the progress so far!

Blessings

Sandie

So very rusty!

What a long time it has been since I posted!  I thought that by now we would have packed up our house, sold it and moved and unpacked and got back to normal!  But we are still here due to family issues.  Still here but mostly all packed up so I haven't had access to most of my miniatures and supplies for over 18 months and although I was able to fill in the time with an English paper-pieced, hand-appliqued queen-size quilt called The Pemberley  (one of Katrina Hadjimichael's lovely designs, I go to one of her classes once a month and am now on my second quilt called 'Lambton' http://katrinahadjimichael.blogspot.com/) I have really missed having my mini fix!  The advantages of the hand applique is that I can sit and do it at night without creating a mess (once the individual pieces are prepared anyway).  Which has been a blessing to keep me from going completely barmy!

Finally I decided that enough was enough and when my Christmas present from my son arrived, I started on it.  It's the Little Duck House and base, from Petite Properties.  With most of our days at present ranging in temperature from the 30's C up to some in the mid-forties, I have set up a table in the lounge room and started working in air-conditioned comfort rather than my studio which has piles of packed boxes everywhere.

Of course being mostly packed up meant access to my glues, tools, accessories etc was either limited or non-existent.  They are either deep in the bowels of our huge storage shed or in boxes with other boxes on top and not necessarily labelled with the particulars of the contents.  I did list some but became distracted due to the rush of packing them.  So much to my chagrin I've had to buy new paints and a lot of new bits and pieces. 

But boy am I rusty!  I found that not only did I not follow my usual method of assembling a kit but I did things that made it more difficult in some ways, such as not painting the floors until the house was assembled.  Then I decided to use a method of 'plastering' the inside walls that I usually only used for 1/12th scale, which is to mix paint with talcum powder.  This gives a nice rough surface which would have been okay for the exterior but was a bit out of scale for the interior in 1/48th scale.  But it will have to do.  I've sanded it down a bit and did a couple more coats of paint to smooth it out somewhat and pushed on.

Then I did the outside walls with some interior filler so they have a rough, plastered look to them as well.  For a change I decided to paint the house and mixed Jade green with cream to produce a nice soft green.  All the trims are done in cream and it does look quite pretty.  I forgot to take photos of the house in progress but here it is at the stage it is now, with the windows and doors installed.  The front porch isn't attached yet because I want to paint and distress its roof first.

I did take photos of progress with the base though.  Here it is when first assembled.  The lego blocks are to keep the apertures for the house lined up exactly

Next step was to pad the openings of the pond and the exterior with newspaper to fill in the gaps.

This was covered with paper strips covered in glue - like papier mache, moulded and squished until it was pretty well the shape I wanted.

And over it all I did a couple of layers of interior finish, to give it more stability and strength.

I didn't pad the opening where the house will be, because the batteries can be tucked inside there when I light the house.  They can have a bit of double-sided tape on them to hold them in position so they don't fall out when the project is handled.

Once the whole base is painted dark brown (as per Bea's instructions) it doesn't look so messy and the brown gives a base for the landscaping later on.  I took this photo a bit later on, after I'd started to landscape the bottom of the pond.

Next I assembled and painted the walkway that goes around two walls of the house.  Because it is outside I distressed it a bit.

And here it all is at the moment, roughly in place.  Still have the exterior trims to add on a couple of bits.

I have decided to be very brave and tackle my first attempt at doing water instead of using the clear plastic supplied for the purpose with the kit.  Thanks Stephanie for the encouragement!  I've ordered some so I need to wait for that to arrive.  Along with numerous flower kits from sdk miniatures and furniture from BJ Miniatures, Debbie Young (Young at Heart) and other bits and pieces. I am a bit worried that if I leave it too long it will end up yet another ufo, so I hope the orders arrive soon!

Blessings,

Sandie