Just making more UFOs!

All good intentions are leading just to the creation of more UFOs at the moment, it seems.  I started on the Seaside Cottage kit from Suzanne & Andrews and now it is finished except that I can't attach the roof permanently because I can't find my quarter scale scribed flooring to put down.  At first I had intended to just use the plain flooring supplied but now I want to add the scribed flooring - I've hunted through all my boxes that are packed, to no avail.  I know I have some, somewhere!  The house is sitting there waiting for this last step.  The furniture is done, all except for dressing the bed - my fabric containers are not in reach just now.  Then it needs more accessories.

Okay, while I am waiting for some paint I've ordered I'll start on the Karen Benson Toy Shoppe kit.  I have lots of things ready to put into the shop already so it will be nice to get it together. By the time I have it constructed the paint I've ordered will probably be here - Deb is usually pretty quick with the orders.  Well, that shop is constructed, wallpapered and - still waiting for the paint to arrive so I can finish it off!

So I started on Petit Chateau.  I had the paints which I'd bought previously, and have a lot of the furniture kits for this house too.  Got the shell constructed, started wallpapering the rear section - and ran out of Grandmother Stover's glue.  I know I have another container of it.  In the boxes, of course.  Can I find it?  You guessed it - no.

I rang the miniatures shop about 1 1/2 hours away.  Yes, they stocked this glue - and had sold the last containers of it on Saturday, just two days previous to my phone call.  It will take two weeks for her new order to arrive - the same as it takes for anything to arrive to me that I've ordered from overseas.

What about starting on the furniture kits for the Chateau?  I took them out - and a lot of them need staining.  I have two stain pens, neither of them the colour recommended.  Not usually a problem except that if I use them the furniture won't show up very well against the floor colour.  I did manage to make up a couple of items that are painted but as for the rest..........I will have to order some more stain pens.  It can be tricky to get these through customs, but I'll go ahead and order them.  So that's another two week's wait.  and of course I can't get them and the glue from the same overseas dealer, so that's two lots of quite expensive shipping to pay.  Oh well.

Okay, I have everything I need for the Petite Properties schoolhouse kit at least.  I had been spraying the pieces for this and for the church as well, with acrylic sealer to prevent warping if I used Creative PaperClay on them.  But I decided to use the ballast and sand on the school, to give a 'brick and flint' finish.  And it all went okay except I'm not happy with the job I've done on the exterior - the ballast goes on well but I have trouble getting the sand to stick to fill in between.  So there are lots of places where I've used paint fairly thickly to fill in as well.  The school is constructed, the playground is landscaped and I started to put the fence around it,  All fine.  then I began to put the railings in between the posts - and I was missing some, and also missing some little caps for the top of the posts.  I thought I'd finally be able to complete something (the furniture kits are all made up too) - but the UFO gremlins had other ideas (big grin).

However I did persevere, and now the construction is finished..  And today I actually have some progress photos to share with you.  I still have to decide what to do with the wires for the lighting and cover them up on the back wall.  Will I plaster over them or use a little annexe room building at the back to hide the wires and switch?

So here it is

I realized when I looked at this photo that the school had 'walked' and was now sitting over the path that goes from the back gate to the 'asphalt' area in front of the toilets. Obviously until I decide on what I am going to do with the wires I can't attach the school to the playground base area.  The roof is darker than it looks in these photos.

Here's the left end, with its lovely big window - I think it's beautiful, that window and wish I had one like it in RL - somewhere.

Here's a view of the right end, showing the side door that accesses the playground and also showing the toilets.

Sometimes I decide for some reason or other that a particular thing looks as though it will be difficult to do and I tend to put off doing it (or don't do it at all).  For this project, it was the toilets.  Or more specifically, attaching the wire to the toilets and the cistern.  But I got down to doing them today and they were fine.  As long as I let the glue dry really well between each stage it went together well.  Then I attached the cistern to the wall and the toilets to the floor so that the wire was balanced and held between the two.

So let's have a peek inside those toilets (sorry the photo is a bit blurry) - can you guess which one is the boy's?

And here is the right side wall (toilet block end)

And the gremlins are beaten at last! You might have noticed from the photos that the fence is also finished.  I found those pesky missing pieces.  I was short of one of the longer side 'railings', but had an extra one of the short 'railings'.  I didn't want to leave that stretch bare so after some consideration I decided to cut it in half and glue both halves in place leaving a gap in the middle.  To cover that gap I added a bit of vine growing up on the inside of the fence and draping over the railing (and the gap).  I'm happy with the result of that too.

I'm glad I put the tree in the grassed area, even though it's not the most realistic tree around :) 

A slightly closer view of the entrance will (hopefully) show the tiles I've put on the floor in the porch area.

This photo also shows that I went with a slightly more brown look to the building.  I am not entirely happy with the surface of the school.  I used medium-sized ballast from the railway shop, then while the glue was still wet I poured sand over it.  It did do that to a certain extent but not as much as I wanted - perhaps I put the ballast on too thickly.  Anyway, when I painted the base coat over the surface I did it quite thickly to fill the gaps where the sand wasn't deep enough.  Then I thought the whole thing looked too brown.  I was watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders at the time and there in the background was a church done in the flint and brick style, and it was in beiges and browns - much warmer.  So I added some Nutmeg Brown (Folk Art) to the base coat mix and redid it.  Then I sponged in a random way with the Nutmeg Brown, some terra cotta and different shades of the base coat.  After it was dry I distressed it by dry-brushing with black.

I did test the lights of course before I painted the roof, and they work really well.  They look a bit ugly though.  I hope that adding some shades and painting the wires will improve their appearance.

I put the furniture inside to check whether my plan would work out.  Nothing is glued down because I'll need to be able to get to things to add the accessories.

Now I need to get down and make those accessories.  The story for this building is that it is set in the present time but the students, who are in grades 3-6, that we call Primary (aged 7 or 8-11) here in New South Wales, are studying the history of their village and their school.  The old school desks have been brought out of storage so that the children can experience some of what school life was like in an earlier time.  There will be a display of  'historic' things on a table between the two bookcases on the large window wall, and some photos or such on the on the old chalkboard on the easel.

Speaking of which, I need a chalkboard for the front of the room as well.  There's only one place that has enought room for that, and it is on the right hand side of the back wall (which is the way the students will be facing, so it becomes the front of the room.  Is that clear as mud?  If you look at the photo of the interior you will see the space there between the smaller window and the teacher's cupboard (which I might move elsewhere).

What will I tackle next?  Some of the cottages that I want to furnish? But they need wallpapering if I'm going to do that.  Back to the glue again.  I have the bits for landscaping Pickett Hill, maybe that would be an idea.  But I'm in the mood for construction.  But I should do those accessories first or this too will become yet another UFO ;)