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.