Saturday 29th May, 2010

Next time read the instructions properly.....

Friday afternoon I sneaked some time to start on Miss Marple's Cottage - at last!  I haven't posted photos of the Sea Shanty because I need to touch up the water a little bit, but it is basically finished.  Tomorrow (or today, it is half pst midnight now) I hope to do just that and take photos.  However, I was able to start painting the windows for the conservatory yesterday, before we had to leave for our appointment with the doctor to have our flu jab.  These windows are so beautifully cut and delicate, and take quite a while to paint but I did one side and left them to dry.

Tonight I did the other side and then it was time to join Peter in the lounge room and keep him company while we watched Midsomer Murders, one of our favourite shows.  I thought that the rest of that part of the instructions was just painting and when I was set up in the lounge room I skipped down to the next section, which is the actual assembly, without checking.  You'd think I'd know better, wouldn't you?

The first part of assembly went really well.  I glued the supports under the flooring and let it dry.  Then I did a 'dry run' and taped the walls around the floor. It all went together quite well and I was surprised at just how tiny this little building is.  The Sea Shanty is considerably more spacious. 

So once I knew just how it all fitted together I went ahead and glued it.  Big mistake.  Then I finally read the next part and realised that I had goofed! I had neglected to read through all the first part which didn't just deal with painting the wall trims and the fireplace etc, but also says to glue the walls to the brick paper.  Oooops!  So into the microwave with it, and dismantling it.

 Mind you, there appears to be an error in the instructions as well because it tells you to glue all the walls around the floor.  Then later on it tells you to wallpaper inside the front section and to hold wall E (which has the front door in it) against the front of the house.  So I guess you don't glue that wall on at all at this stage.

After taking it all apart I finally did the right thing and read the instructions more thoroughly, glued the walls to the brick paper and have left it all to dry.  And I have also glued the roof parts to the roofing paper.  So I will leave them to dry overnight, weighed down with some books. 

The conservatory will need more coats of paint to give it a really good finish, and I will do my usual thing and paint the inside of the walls before papering them as well.  When I was first beginning to do miniatures I bought all sorts of how-to books, because I didn't have a club to belong to and wanted to learn how to do things.  In one of them it said that painting the walls white shows the colours in wallpaper to its best advantage. 

I also do the walls with presanding sealer to even out the surface somewhat.  I think that's more important than ever in this smaller scale.  

I'm always very excited to start a new project, whether it's stitching or constructing and I'm excited to be starting this one.  Hopefully it won't be as drawn-out as the Sea Shanty was.