I started out in a mellow mode rubbing pastels lightly over 240 grit sandpaper to color "bricks" and sprayed them with lacquer hairspray afterwards. I did four sheets with different combinations of colors on them. I calculated that a 1/12" scale brick face is approximately 3/16" x 5/8"; after I get them all cut I'll put them into a bag or box & shake them up really well & glue them on in random colors. I also calculated I shall have to do this sitting down with a FRESH knife blade and a SHARP pencil.

Then I was ready to install the the back roof support. Do other people's walls try to go their separate ways? While it dried with lots of masking tape and staples we ran errands.

The rear roof went on just like it was supposed to B) !

The right front roof, on the other hand, was going NOWHERE. I checked the blogs and noted one that showed Wall O before that part of the roof went on, and it didn't have that funny triangular bit with a tab on it for which there was no corresponding slot, but I had meticulously spackled figuring all would be revealed in good time. What was revealed was how easily my 2-sided draw saw could cut off that triangular bit! and that piece of roof went on.

The left front roof, however, required I chip off every bit of the thick spackle "stones" I had carved onto my chimney in Arkansas and then I performed surgery on the chimney opening on the roof piece to get it over the chimney, and then I "persuaded" it (with the hammer, I don't use no rubber mallet...) onto the thickly glued edges of the left inner & outer wall and stapled them in place and reinforced with approximately a foot of masking tape.

Next was the left gable. OK, I figured the right side piece of the left gable roof was gonna be a bear because it curves down along the wall the front door is in and I had read complaints about getting the wood to curve, so I first tried to fit the left side of the left gable roof (this was before my final battle with the left front roof, which had a delicate & precarious hold on where it was supposed to be). This was so not going to happen, I set the left gable left roof piece aside & literally beat the left front roof into the aforementioned submission. OK, I had read a posting from Judith that she had scored the right side of the left gable roof to get it to curve... Well, duh, the Dura-Craft Cambridge's mansard roof was scored, of course that was the way to go, so out came the steel carpenter's square & craft knife & hobby saw and by golly I scored that puppy below the gable and I tapped it into place and stapled it to the gable's right side and used masking tape to hold it to the edge of the curved wall and it went right on. When I'm done installing the half-timbering I'll take a bit of spackle on my finger to smear over the scores so they don't show.

While I was feeling sure of myself & not likely to try to install it any more today I tried a dry fit on the left side left gable roof & found I needed to remove a bit of the edge that will, by hook or crook, fit against the left front roof's inner edge when I do install it.

When we came home our old refrigerator decided it's time to act like it's dying, so DH is trying various strategies to avoid going out to buy a new one and all the perishable food is out in the camper fridge, so I need to stop & put on some clothes and go see about fixing supper. Maybe I'll prep the card templates for bricklaying later...

complements of havanaholly