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.