Monday 15th February 2010

Finally making progress!

This housework business sure gets in the way of important things like minis! But I did get a lot done today anyway. I cadged my teaspoon full of grouting from my brother, and used some of it to grout the stones on the fireplace. Looks great.

The back of the photo frame is removed as per Step 1 - I finally worked out what the instructions meant, having had the wrong idea before. I thought they meant to remove just the easel bit, not the back door section as well. And then of course I couldn’t work out what would be the back of the roombox or where the easel part would be attached. More than just a little bit dense! So I took it out and had another look at it today and the penny finally dropped. Took a while vbg! Then I painted the raw inside of the back with white paint rather than leave it raw so that it will seal it and give a nice white background under the wallpaper on the ground floor.

I’ve covered the outside of the box with fabric (Step 3). I had made the box such a tight fit in the frame that I couldn’t take the fabric all the way to the front, but it doesn’t show when the box is in place. I have taken it just to the point where the box enters the inner frame.

And the upper part of the inside is done with light sky blue paint (Step7) which I dabbed on rather than painted. Then I did a wash over it then dabbed it a bit more. This should have been done after the back door section and easel was re-attached but it won’t show because the tree covers it at the top and the back was still drying when I did the sky in the box. Impatient – who, me? What do you mean?

One side of the square piece of foamcore is stippled with white paint (Step 6), ready to form the ceiling of the ground floor/ground of the upper part.

And I’ve done the mantle and the ceiling beams with a wash of light brown paint (Step 7).

The front door looks pretty nice in its first coat of light grey-blue paint (Step 8) and the furniture is looking pretty spick too with a couple of thin coats of white paint on them (Step 12).

So it turned out that I did get a lot done, in between loads of washing, even though I was pretty tired after quite a big day of housework. I’m feeling quite chuffed.


As you can see, I don’t necessarily do things strictly in order. If white paint is required for several things, I try to do them at the same time if it’s convenient to do so. If I’m doing the rafters and the mantle with the same wash I do them together, and so on. So I’m somewhat all over the place – while something dries I’m preparing another step if I can.


And now I’m really excited about this project and feel it’s really starting to move.

I have no hope of finding where my little 1:48scale transfers (decals) are that I want to add to the furniture, so must remember to order some more as soon as I have the Internet again. Apparently I have to have a new mobile device, so am waiting for that to arrive.