Small Scale Kits by Jane Harrop and The Art of Mini......Fun but Fiddly!!

 I have recently been playing with a couple of smaller scale kits I bough with the Beach Hut in mind. The first is by Jane Harrop  and is in 1/48th scale I think. I thought it would be fun next to my 1/12th version.

 The parts are all very easy to assemble if a little bit fiddly for a bit of a sausage finger like me. I painted everything before putting it together as advised and used extra tacky glue to hold the pieces in place.

 I used matt emulsion paints because of matching the colours and I think this type of paint may be a tad too thick to use, or I should have thinned it down a bit

 The package includes very detailed instructions, a lovely coloured postcard of the finished item and a clear picture of all the pieces. Jane will be at the City of London Fair in February so I hope to be able to pick up another of her kits then.

The second kit is from The Art of Mini a miniaturist whose work I have looked at for a long time and whose stand is completely mobbed at the shows she attends. I think she is also having a stand at the February show which is amazing and I will definitely be joining the queues.

 This 'dolls house' shelving kit can be used for shelving or as a 1/48th house display I think. Again these pieces were all very clearly labelled and the whole piece went together very easily. Well apart for the roof dormer which looks a bit rubbish.

 I am terrified of touching it though in case the whole thing falls apart!! I will probably just touch up the paint. Again I definitely used the wrong paint  but I have learnt a lesson.

 At the moment it is sitting outside the beach hut and filling a big gap quite nicely. These kits are great for when you have to hide all your stuff away and can only work on a tray in a secluded corner.....like when all my kids are home and the other half has decided to take a couple of days off work. 

I am also thinking they would be very easy to play with when on holiday as you need so little equipment. I have a long plane journey coming up in March and I quite fancy seeing the look on my husband's face as I start getting out my glue and brushes!!

 A trick I used when making these was to use Lego structures to create my right angles and hold pieces in place. I found this tip on a website many moons ago and have not tried it before. It really does work very well indeed.

I have also spent most of the day painting the wood for Honeydukes. I had forgotten how long all these jobs take. Luckily there was lots of tennis on today so I was able to sit and be entertained while undercoating.

 These three pieces will make up the extra deep cornice that goes all the way around Honeydukes.

 Of course I did not have enough of the straight piece so I had to take a trip to Hobbycraft for some more wood. 

This will be the look of the woodwork obviously painted in green. Only ladies tennis tomorrow, which bores me to tears, so I will be laying the shop floor and hopefully the cobblestones too.

A Busy Week, but Moving On Nicely......

The Leaky Cauldron and Potage's Cauldron Shop have both had rustic and distressed woodwork which mostly boils down to stained and distressed balsa. For the Apothecary I have decided to go for painted doors and cornices to create a slightly different look and atmosphere.

 This wood will make up the shelves, architraves and cornices for the interior of the shop. I decided to use a crackle spray paint that I had in the drawer from when I was planning a never to be seen shabby chic shop.

 I started with the base coat of brown, then the top coat of cream which crackles. Usually it would be left  with the crackled cream top coat but for my purposes I have given the wood an extra light spray of the brown base. I will now shabby them all up a bit more and finish with gold burnishing.

 I have not had much success with crackle glazes but with a bit of practice this stuff does work. I have used the black and gold previously and these work very effectively.

The main reason I decided to spray the wood rather than paint all the individual coats is quite simple...using a spray is soooooo much quicker!

 I have also papered the inside of both front panels, which was a bit of a challenge as I was running really short of the wallpaper. This is quite a big shop and I always forget the insides of the front panels.

My wallpaper was large in size but I used 6 pieces. Note to myself.........check you have enough for the bookshop!!

 I have also laid the gorgeous reclaimed oak boards from Wood Supplies one of my favourite suppliers at the moment. I love these boards. They look fabulous. They are well cut and they go down like a dream.

 They look quite light in these photographs but I have stained the oak a deep, rich brown. I have added holes and sanded them down to make them look less glossy and sleek.

 The real benefit of using such old wood, I think these were cut from a mid-Victorian floorboard-around 1840, is that they are already ripe with age. I love them.

I have carried the floorboards through onto the front of the kit as with the cauldron shop so that when the door swings open there is continuity. Again I just about had enough boards, I used 26 thirty cm lengths and had one 10cm length left, phew! Make 2nd note to myself re bookshop!

I had to make use of my not so better half for this job as I could not hold the pieces firmly enough to saw the different lengths. He was very kind and seemed not to mind being disturbed every 10 minutes as I handed him two or three pieces to shorten at a time. Ah, he's a good lad!

The small gap will be filled and stained as well as I can. It is very narrow and I simply can't saw that finely. I can live with this......I think!!

 The two ceilings are also coming along. The paper is quite sturdy so I have been able to mess about with it quite a lot without it disintegrating on me. I am such a coward with paint washes. I have taken on board the dirty water technique used by so many talented people but I seem to wipe off two thirds of what I paint on! 

I have also sprayed the ceilings with different colours as if various potions have exploded in their time.

Still another couple of dirty washes to go!

Have a sunny Saturday wherever you are, in one way or another.