To start at the beginning....
I decided to set up this blog to chart my progress whilst constructing and decorating a dolls house kit I purchased from Maple Street Miniatures here in the UK. The kit I chose was 'The Olde Coach Inn' as I've always had a craving for some kind of beamed house, and within my price range it seemed the best of of the many houses I've looked at over the last few... well, months really. To be honest I was also encouraged by the fact that it was apparently fairly easy to put together with 'just a crafting knife and a screwdriver.' I've never built anything from a kit before so liked the notion of it being an 'do-able' challenge.
I hadn't bargained for quite how many bits and pieces there are to put together though...
62 parts to make the basic framework of the house plus a variety of packs of beams, stair spindles, hand rails, roof tiles, windows, doors and hinges, which were all checked off and packed neatly into two huge boxes, delivered hassle free straight to my door.
It was at this point I began thinking maybe I should have started with something a tad less ambitious.
I would never admit to the fact that I was intimidated by the contents of the boxes, but they did stand propped up in my lounge for a good month or two before I plucked up the courage to start unpacking everything. You can draw your own conclusions from there!
So now I have a dining room table, completely overrun with bits of mdf, masking tape.....oh and a box of plasters because I've already managed to cut my finger, and I haven't even started to glue everything together yet as you can see from the photo...
My first real dilemma is whether to crack on and put together the entire framework of the house, or whether to wait and individually decorate each piece before gluing everything permanently. The latter option would definitely make things easier i.e no having to grub around in small spaces gluing beams and plastering walls etc - but wouldn't it be awful if I did all that and ended up finding that the pieces didn't fit together - which given my track record so far is entirely possible. Plus if I did do it that way I wouldn't get a true sense of how everything looks, which will undoubtedly influence how I want to proceed decorating the thing.
Think I might have to go away and ponder on that a while....
7 comments:
I am on number six project and I always prime the MDF with a quick thin coat of cheap white paint (you can get MDF primer - avoiding the bits that will need gluing best I can that way any paper or paint has got something to stick to. MDF sucks up paint etc so is better for a primer of some sort. Maybe google around if you can find time and see what everyone else does. So the starting steps for me is test build using masking tape or whatever so I thik I know what I am doing when it gets to the real McCoy also give it a big long look for a few days and be sure I don't want to move any walls or floors doors or windows chimneys etc - that is really important if you are going to personalise your vuild and you seem to want to do that. Then a quick priming coat front and back of all the pieces, then if I know all the ceilings are going to be white - never use a bright white for anything - I get them to their final stage - usually two coats of paint. Then yeahhhh build it and then do battle with the walls of each room as I get there.
Welcome to the world of mini nuts Marilyn https://daltonhouse.blogspot.com
Oh wow, Marilyn, thank you so much for all of your really helpful suggestions! I'm still at the test build stage for the building at the moment and have partially taped the back and the first two floors. I would definitely have used a bright white for the ceilings so thank you especially for that particular tip! It would appear I'm already following your blog annonymously. I'm only now really plucking up the courage to leave comments on other folks blogs - it felt a bit strange for me to do so before I started my own project. I'm guessing that there'll be no stopping me now!
It seems a weird thing to say but everything needs to be 1/12th so gloss paint is too shiny if you sort of mentally divide that by 12 you end up with a sort of silk rather than gloss and bright white is sort of shouting at you in rooms that size. Plus your Tudor whitewash would be a bit thin and greyish any way plus candle smoke and fireplace smoke etc etc etc. Depends on whether you want to fuss about getting things authentic and in miniature as opposed to making a dollhouse. I can see that you have already improved stairs and windows and beams so I know you are a kindred spirit.
My blog has absolutely everything that I have done in it so is a starting place if you want to check out something. I've done some videos too....they are pretty awful but they do show you how to go about this or that. Please email if I can help in any way. Mormson@gmail.com. Oooohhh. Have a bit of your brain constantly thinking about wiring for fires and lights. Exciting isn't it.
Thank you so much again, Marilyn. Your suggestion of a thin greyish wash definitely makes sense in a Tudor build, though I'm yet undecided about how to proceed with the interior. Hopefully it'll all come together as I go along, which is half of the fun, right? I shall take great delight in reading your blog from the start....I'm always intrigued by how other people go about things and have already picked up a few tips along the way. More are always welcome!
I am relieved by your last sentence as I realised I had got caught up in what you are doing and kept shoving stuff at you whether you wanted it or not.:-D I have enjoyed trawling through a world of Tudor though, so here I go again... Did you know their walls and beams were often brightly painted and they had painted cloths to hang too - sort of insulation as well as decoration. Loads of interesting stuff out there about Tudor Inns. You are going to have so much fun with this.
Small world, Marilyn! I followed your link to YouTube and realised I'd already viewed some of your videos, specifically the ones about using brick slips! They were partially what encouraged me to buy the Coach Inn, as I was initially wary about decorating the chimney with a brick facade. How's that for coincidence?!
As for the plasterwork walls, I currently think I'm probably going to use a very muted ochre for the outside of the Inn. That said, I may very well change my mind when I come to actually doing it!
The bricks are easy enough to do - just time consuming - don't think you can just do it 'by eye' though it is easy to wander off line - just put yourself pencil markers to keep you straight. Ooooh I actually envy you being at the beginning of all your fun. Enjoy.
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