Strip Wood Contest

Hello folks. No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I just reviewed the last time I updated this and it was in July!!!! It is now October and haven't clued you in on my progress...or lack thereof.

The first thing that stopped my progress was the Washington summer. You know that when SeaTac registers 108 degrees it is down right miserable for people like me who start to wilt above 75! I basically hibernated in my bedroom with the a/c blasting which made life tolerable but not conducive to working on my minis.

The second thing that stopped my progress was I got stuck. I couldn't figure out how to get the next section to look like the original photo. I pondered and tried different things and it just didn't want to go together. September 30th was drawing closer and closer and closer...that was the date I needed to submit my photos for the contest...and the project just wasn't going anywhere. Then I decided I didn't really HAVE to finish the project the way it showed in the original. The contest wasn't to make a copy of a real building, it was to make something without using a kit.

I had gotten a little further than the last photo I showed you in July but I didn't remember to take a picture of it before I ripped it off...sorry. So although it isn't like the original photo, I did get a roof on it. The following four pictures are the ones I sent into the contest. I also sent one of the ones during the construction phase as they requested but I can't remember which one I sent so that isn't included here.

Since I wasn't finished with the project I tried to make it look like the area was a construction site.

Shows some of the terracotta planters and garden gnomes that will go inside and around the building.

The back view. I'm hoping they won't notice that the back hasn't been grouted yet or realizes that it is still under construction...lol.

Here the workers are looking over the blue prints trying to figure out what's next. You can't really tell from the photos but the grey floor is actually miniature gravel.

So there you have it. I've actually gotten a little further on this since these were taken. I've started to put on the clear plastic that represents the glass. I have photos but will share those with you in the future. Hope this finds everyone well and I'll try to update this more often now that the weather has gotten to respectable levels...lol

The Rafters Are Up!!!!!

Front view with the rafters all glued and ready for paint.

Right side view.

View from the back with the rafters painted. The square inside is the next level up all painted.

Left side view.

Front view.

It is coming along but sure is a lot of work. Learning quite a few tips on what I would do differently too. I would have put it all together before putting on the stones and then probably spray painted instead of brush painted everything and then did the stones. The stones made the wood warp and though the pictures don't really show it too much it isn't quite square. I measured twice and cut once (sometimes several times) and it still didn't come out as square as I would have liked it...trying to let go with some of my perfectionism isn't easy but I'm working on it. But because it isn't all square it meant each rafter piece had to be measured, cut and sanded to fit...not mass produced like it would have been in real life. Dad never would have built a building so out of square and mom would have said that's what lets the devil out. I'm going with mom's philosophy on this one...lol Just noticed that the date has the day-month-year notation rather than the month-day-year. I'll have to fix that on the camera. A photographer I'm not. Until next time...take care all.

All Connected

Instead of working on the rafters I decided to put everything together. I was going to make the front opening the size of the doors but then I wouldn't have a good square to make the main room on up to the top. Now I have to figure out what to do with the gap between the door and the walls but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I am going to hinge the back so that I can reach in and arrange and rearrange the inside.

View from the back. I'll have plenty of room to get inside with this size of an opening.

The door comes in a frame and is currently just sitting there. As you can see I'll have to do a better job of centering as well as figure out some way of filling in the space between the posts and the doors.

View from the front with all the beams painted.

View from the front with the beams for the rafters glued in place and drying. I want to give them a good chance to dry before I start messing with them to measure the rafters. Figured I'd update you all while it is drying...besides my AC is in where the puter is (it got warm today) and the game is over (Mariners beat the Red Sox 7 to 6 in 11 innings.) Have a Happy Fourth of July all. I'll be home trying to keep Nannuk off my head while the fireworks go off.

Dry Fit of Roof Section

As the title states here are pictures of my first attempt at creating the roof over the left wing section. Dry fit means I haven't glued anything in place yet. LOL...you can see in the first picture's background I was watching the Mariners beat the Dodgers (at Dodgers Stadium I might add) as I was working on this. I tried making the rafters but found I couldn't get a good measurement of the angles in the dry fit stage. I'll begin to glue things in place and then I can make the rafters so they will fit snug against the beam. More later.

Walls Are Up

The stones have been mortared and the posts that go from ground to roof are glued in. I have the project sitting on waxed paper so that if any glue leaks from putting in the corner posts it won't glue to the board. I haven't figured out yet how I want to do the back because I'll want to have some sort of access for my hands to get in and arrange things. Not sure if I want to hinge it somehow and if so where...or make the panel removable or just what I want to do. I also haven't made it because I wanted to see how the door I've chosen will fit and if I want to make it bigger or smaller than the original plans.
View from the front.

I painted the french doors. They aren't glued in place yet but I was anxious to see what they looked like. The windows are full length and one piece so I can remove the squares and have clear glass or I can do a water decal and have a design on the windows. Haven't decided yet and may put up some different options and see what you guys think. I'm also thinking I want to have a bigger base (or add to this one) so that I can have a path leading up to the doors instead of practically being on the edge. Glad I have until September....lol still a lot to figure out and do. Next thing I'm going to tackle is the roof over each wing of the building. We'll see how creative I can be to make it resemble the real life picture I'm trying to copy...lol Until next time, hope this finds everyone well.

Stones Glued On

The jigsaw puzzle is done. I've also sealed them with the Polyacrylic so the walls are ready for mortar anytime after tomorrow. The Polyacrylic has to dry for 24 hours before the mortar goes on. I also sanded and repainted the corner posts and cut, painted, and sanded the corner posts that don't go from ground to roof. They are in the foreground with the chandelier leaning against them.

Here is a close-up of the chandelier I'm planning to put in the top section. We'll see if I can figure out how to build around it and hide the wiring...the fun continues. Hope this finds everyone well...more later.

Conservatory Stone Walls

Not a lot to show for progress but what the pictures don't show is that I sanded all the pieces and repainted them. I've started to apply the "stones" to the walls. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together without having the help of seeing what the final picture should look like.
I have two sections of the walls glued with the "stones". I'll need to apply the Polyacrylic to seal them as the "stones" are made from high density casting plaster. I have to let that dry overnight and then I can put in the mortar. What you see in the pictures as brown will be filled in with gray mortar. I only painted a bit of the background to make sure I had a good coverage on the rails but no need to waste time or paint on an area that will be covered anyway. Getting all the walls to this stage will take a lot of time so this will probably be the last post for at least a week...maybe two.

Walls Are Together

More work done on the conservatory. I had two of the side walls completed and then realized there should be a post down the middle so had to tear them apart and make them into L-shaped components.
The M-shaped looked good but wasn't according to the plans.

Torn apart, remade and set up in the shape they will be placed. Next step is to paint them.

Side view of the same. I don't want to glue the posts in until I have the rock glued onto the wood. It will be easier to glue on the stones if I can lay them down.

Got them all painted...at least the first coat. I plan to sand, spackle any booboos and repaint before glueing on the rock. This is actually the view of the interior. The other side will have the rock on it. So that's what I have so far. Will keep you updated.

Next Project

No I don't know the results yet of how The Red Door Flour Mill has done but it is onto the next project. This one is through Miniatures.com and it is call the Strip Wood Contest. No kits allowed. You are limited only to your imagination. Strip wood basically means you start with miniature lumber and build something with it.
Here is a picture of some of the possible strip wood you can use. They come in all different thicknesses (1/8", 3/16", 1/4", or 3/8"), widths (1/8" up to 6") and 24" in length.

This is what one person made with strip wood to model for the contest. They call it a Day House and they give you the measurements, lumber list, and instructions on how they made it.

At first I thought there was no way I could come up with something from scratch. Then I thought maybe I could take those instructions and build a greenhouse instead of a cabin. Substitute glass (acrylic) for the walls and walla. I could fashion it after the actual greenhouse we have at work that we call the 'Little g' and make a 'Mini g.' I was surfing the net and figured hey maybe there are plans for making a greenhouse that might not be as complex as the Day House they have as the example. I found The Victorian Conservatory shown below.
I saw this and fell in love with it. I figured it would be a great addition to my Garfield (if I ever get that built). The plans are for a 32' side to side and 24' front to back. Being I like to work in 1:12 scale that would be 32" by 24" which is a bit too big for me. The Garfield is only 41 1/2" W x 40" H x 30 1/2" D and I wanted it to compliment the house not outshine it. So the first order of business was to draw up a scaled down version. Mine will be 22" side to side and 16" front to back.
Here you can see the stack of wood I've cut for the walls, the bowl of stones I will glue to the wood for the wall base, I've painted the posts (laying in the middle), and have the foundation laid out.

I've started the wall and while the glue is drying I came in here to update you. I'll try to remember to take more pictures as I build this. We have to submit one picture during the building process to show that it actually IS made from strip wood and not some modified kit. Back to work. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

The Red Door Flour Mill

For those of you wondering where I've been and what I've been up to it is called Greenleaf's Spring Fling Contest. The picture of the "Roof Options" is the kit we had to start with. We could make the kit into anything we thought up. I chose the standard roof option and went from there.

To make the container where the "grinding stones" would be I cut "Skinny Sticks" to size, taped them together and then glued it around an oatmeal container I cut down to size. Then I painted it and put a lid on it.

Here it is put together and painted. I did this while I was waiting for the actual kit to arrive.

Here is the kit put together and on its brick base. The bricks still need the mortar at this point but they are glued in place ready for the mortar. It was quite a process and very time consuming to glue all those itsy bitsy bricks to the wood making sure the spacing was right and that they were somewhat straight.

Another angle of the project. You can see from the side where I have added the board and baton siding and where I haven't. From there I went full steam into bringing my ideas to completion and I neglected to take pictures as I went. But the following three pictures are the ones I submitted as my entry.

The front view.

The front and wheel side view.

The interior.

There are a lot of great entries so I don't expect to win but for my first completed miniature project I'm pretty pleased with myself. The results of the contest will be announced the first week of June. Wish me luck.

Now it is onto the Miniatures.com Strip Wood contest. It is due September 30th so I'll be working on that from now until then.

Chrysnbon Cane Seat Chair

Some kits are made of wood like the trestle table and some are plastic and then you paint or stain them. The following is a Chrysnbon Cane Seat Chair. I thought I'd show you how it comes and then the next picture after it is painted and glued together. This chair will go by the roll-top desk in the bus.

The instructions said to paint/stain all parts before assembly and "Leave the smaller parts on plastic 'trees' for easier handling." Now everything 1:12 scale to me, at my age, and with my eyes???? EVERYTHING is small. I painted them all on the trees and then took a knife, cut them off and glued them together. Then all I had to do was minor touch ups where the pieces were attached to the trees.
So this is how it comes and....

this is painted and glued together. One nice thing about taking pictures of everything...it really shows up the flaws so I can then touch it up. I don't usually take another picture after touch up I just leave it to your imagination. However, this time I did because I didn't like how the seat turned out. Though you can't really see it in the pictures the seat looks like caning and so I felt it needed to be the color of caning too. I think I like this better.

Another Hutch from Michael's

I've been gluing. sanding, painting and varnishing items for the bus. Last time I showed you the hutch I'm planning to use in the bathroom. This time I have the kitchen hutch I'm using for the pantry and the trestle table and benches I'm using for the kitchen/dining table.

I used the same decal on this hutch as the one in the bathroom. I took the decorative piece of wood off the top, glued it in front of the bottom shelf because we all know a vehicle in motion needs shelves with something to keep the items from falling to the floor. I'm planning on getting some small wooden skewers to put in front of the upper two shelves for the same purpose and the small shelf (which was a faux drawer) I think I'll put linens in there.

This came as a kit of 26 pieces that had to be put together and then painted. I was rather impressed with the construction of this piece. The legs of the table are put together with dowels. Not sure if or how I'm going to add padding to the benches but we'll see.

Just another view.

Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

In my last post I said I'd been painting wheels. Then I got the bright idea to put lettering on the wheels. Love those water decals. Well sort of. I printed them out, cut them to shape, put them in water, took the decals off and had I thought about it I would have realized...the white isn't printed on the paper...it IS the paper so all I got was the black around the letters. Had a good laugh over THAT one. Though it doesn't look as good as if it were the decals, I printed them off on regular paper and just glued them on.

This is one layer. The wheels are actually four layers thick.

This is the side view of a "full tire."

Then I took one of the Michael's hutches I bought unfinished for a buck and painted it and added the flowers on the top using a water decal. I will fill it with towels and toiletries as it is for the bathroom in the bus.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone

I've been busy painting wheels and seeing what else I can get my hands into. I decided to try my hand at making some of the water decals. Since a big part of the exterior will be water decals I figured I'd better see if it works as described...lol I went to the Washington State Licensing page to see if I could make miniature license plates for the bus. I found one but it I didn't want "MY NAME" on the plate like it shows in this photo.

So I saved it to the paint program and got it to where it was blank.

Then I printed it on the water decal paper. It was still a little too big so I literally cut and pasted it onto the little license plates included with the kit, added WOLF, and here is the result.

My photography skills could still use improvement but I'm happy with how the plates turned out. They look better in RL then in the photo but I think you...pun intended...get the picture.

Bus Progress

Went out to dinner for my birthday and got the common question of, "how's the progress on the house coming?" It has been a while since I've updated you on my progress. Partly because there really isn't much progress that shows. I've finally sanded and painted (several times) to where the side of the bus is smooth enough...I think.

When I first joined the Greenleaf forum...a forum for miniaturists by the company that makes the kits...I read several places where people said either that "their house talked to them and told them [the people] what they [the kit] wanted" or suggested to people to listen to what the house tells them.

Now everyone here knows I'm in the mental health field so I immediately thought that some of the people were just plain crazy and that if a kit started talking to me I'd schedule a bed for myself at work. Well thank goodness we are at full capacity and don't have any beds available cause though the kit didn't actually LITERALLY talk to me I got this nagging feeling about the color of the bus. I tried to shake it, I tried to think of other colors but it seemed like it (the bus) wanted to be baby blue. Now I like blue...but baby blue???? For a bus??? I guess with the wolves being grey and not really much of the bus color will be showing...it might work. Either that or I really am going nuts and this is just the first stage. (I can see all the knowing nods as you are reading this...lol)

Well, baby blue it is...for now.

Then what held me up is as I started looking at the bus and how I sunk the floor so people (yes I know they aren't real...in case you were wondering) could walk...it put the driver up to where he would have to duck to look out the front windshield...not a safe way to drive a bus. So I had to figure out a way for the driver to have some leg room.

So cutting and gluing, painting and sanding and he now has room (although a bit cramped) for his legs.

The underside of the bus is now painted black.

You can also see the gazebo in the background. It is almost all finished with the base coat. I found some marble online that I think I can print off onto water decals for the floor of the gazebo and then the plan is to paint it gold and black and have a cleopatra scene with a leopard etc. for the contest in December 2009.

So, that's where things are at at this time. Having a blast and making progress although slow.