My goodness, but these lights are tiny! Today I finished wiring in the lights on the lower and middle decks and have (successfully!) connected about half of them to the tapewire. I'm following Tracy's (Minis on the Edge) lead and using her idea to combine round wire and tapewire. The wires from each light fixture run through holes in the deck and are bradded and soldered into the tapewire. Most of the wires go through the bow or stern walls. They'll be covered by siding. This is one build where
Today I played. Thought it was time to stage the rooms to see how they're shaping up re furniture and accessories. Found that some rooms are nearly complete, a few have some work to be done. Once again it hit home that instead of a 3-room houseboat, this is a 12-room mansionboat (if you count the foyer and hallway as rooms).
While I'm waiting for some bits and pieces from HBS, I've been doing some accessory stuff. The plain Colonial chandelier has had crystals and doodads added and is now fit for an elegant ballroom. Note that there are only 5 bulbs. How did I know to order extra? One of them hopped like a piece of popcorn and tee-totally disappeared. Even sweeping the floor with a soft brush didn't it turn up. Here are before and after photos:
The shelves in the Captain's li
Today I did a lot of fiddly things ... wallpapered the music room & installed the tile focal point, went through the stash of fabric from Beachpeach and found the perfect carpet for the nursery and a vinyl for the bathroom, glued the stern wall in place and added the doors. Door framing needs to be added, but am ready to add the top deck and celing lights for middle deck rooms as next step.
Am thinking about changing color of dining room/parlor walls from yellow to a pale yello
Here's a roundup of the past few days' efforts. Have been working on the middle deck.
Ballroom walls are up. Balcony needs to be finished. Haven't decided on window treatments.
Boy's cabin wallpaper is up. Very patriotic! Walls are leaning at this point, not glued. Hallway light is installed.
Nursery is papered. It's a busy pattern that may get changed out.
Bathroom was going to be white with blue Delf
Today I made window frames for the harem screen that will go between the master cabin and the ballroom and put together the circular stairway that connects with the upper deck (where the wheelhouse, playground, BBQ area, and garden will be).
The stairway treads, brackets, and base are cut from balsa wood. The centerpost is a wooden meat skewer; it will be trimmed when I figure out what it will look like above deck. The base and treads are stained walnut; the post and brackets were c
Today I finished painting the furniture for the boy's cabin and started placing the walls bulkheads for the middle deck. Painting the little bitty stars was a challenge, but I think the overall effect is nice. Sort of rough and tumble for a boy's cabin. I'm thinking cheesecloth fishnet draped across one wall, maybe part of the window treatment.
Before I could start constructing the middle deck, I had to run the wires from the kitchen and library ceiling lights down bel
Tonight I worked on the furniture for the boy's room. It's all laser-cut wood. The background will be shabby chic white, stars will be red, stripes blue. So many tiny pieces! The pencil and finger are there for scale.
The loose pieces will be made into a night stand that matches the dresser.
Am searching for a 3-hair brush to paint with! :whistle:
Back to the boatyard after a little vacation. Have been working on wiring. I'm using Tracy's method of running round wires down to the bottom of the boat, where they will be soldered to tapewire. This is a bit tricky in half-inch scale, as tucking wires into corners of rooms too small to accomodate large hands is a challenge. I decided to install all of the ceiling lights into the lower deck ceiling before attaching it. I figured out where the wires would have to run and had at it. The kitchen c
Wall treatments includes gluing the walls in place. I spent a good bit of Mother's Day playing with the boat. The "marble" on the ballroom walls turned out even better than I'd hoped, and the first light fixtures (2 sconces in the ballroom and a picture light in the library) were installed. The wires run down through holes in the deck and will be attached to the tapewire under the boat. Still have to work out lighting in the parlor, and the stern wall (which has the front door in it) won't be at
Day Three: I put layers and layers of clear satin water-based poly on the deck, shelves and door, and stained the stairs. No pictures. Will make this entry cover multiple days as I do the tedious stuff ... like painting the windows and doors.
Edit May 11: Here are a few progress photos. I seem to hop from one task to another with this project -- floors, walls, furniture, doors & windows, stairway. I ought to be adding electricity to this deck but have misplaced all the lighting
Today the contractor made some executive decisions. The Pantry is gone. It was serving no useful purpose and was blocking/limiting the space for the parlor. No contest. The kitchen was made a half inch smaller and is in better proportion to the appliances. There's a table & chairs coming for the kitchen, also white, which will make it comfortably full, I think. The first floor is shaping up. :whistle:
Here are some photos of the Bullrush Family checking out their
In the past few days I finished the pontoons and glued the main deck to the struts. The base is now ready to begin building the superstructure. Some walls will be wooden, but many will be foamcore. The cardboard mock-up is a good model, but I'm finding I need to make adjustments, now that I have the components. For example, the library was to be 8" x 5", but in order to fit in 4 bookcases and a door, I had to add a half inch, so now it's 8.5 x 5. I'm going to shave some off the kitchen and pantr
For the past few weeks I've been working on a cardboard & wood mock-up of the houseboat in its 1:24 configuration. The three photos below show the lower deck. The top two are the starboard side (fore to the right); from left to right is part of the parlor, pantry, kitchen, and captain's library.
On the port side is the bottom half of the ballroom, with dining room in the middle, and foyer/living room to the right. The "front door" will be on the aft wall.
I did a dry fit of the houseboat and discovered I have a hard time thinking in 1:24 scale while looking at a 1:12 scale model. This is harder than switching to Daylight Savings time!
So, I got out the trusty graph paper and plotted out the bash. Don't know how well these scans will show, but you may be able to get an idea of the plan. One thing that became apparent is that about 2 inches needs to be added to the height of the wall, so as to add about an inch each to the lower and m
First there was the Hobby Builders Supply 2007 Creatin' Contest, a challenge to turn the Corona Concepts Houseboat kit into something extraordinary. Then there was a desire to create a mini display for my niece, who loves frogs. Then along came the Sylvanian Bullrush family: Walter, Lydia, Algernon, and the baby, Moses. It all fell together -- sort of.
The challenge: the houseboat kit is in 1:12 scale; the Bullrush family is in 1:24 scale.
This should
I just received from photos from my niece. She says the pet shop is getting some nice comments. They put it near the counter but high enough to be out of the reach of small children.
Here are some pictures of the front part of the shop. The grooming areas are in back, just as in the mini shop.
My work here is done.
The background for this vignette consists of 3 flats, similar to the panels used in stage sets. The base and the two sides are bolted together, so it can be easily dismantled if necessary.
Here is Lloyd airbrushing the buildings and other background. The building on the right has some dimension to it with balconies overhanging the street. The little orange rectangles are marking where the shutters will go. It doesn't matter if some paint gets behind them, as the shutt
This part of the blog has a selection of pictures. A lot of the mis-starts and redoes have been left out so the readers don't glaze over!
The fours figures for the top of the float (Poseidon and three horses) had to be constructed. I used Sculpey to make a mold of a plastic horse's head, and put thin slabs of Sculpey into the molds to form the heads. I wanted them to be hollow, to reduce the weight. Lloyd made the armature for the largest horse from toilet paper tubes; it was cover
Mardi Gras floats need people ... that's what Mardi Gras is all about, really. We figured six riders, three on each side, plus people on the street. (We later added a driver; more about that in the Tow Vehicles entry.) Since I'm not a dollmaker, these had to be fairly simple. Because the regalia the riders wear covers them entirely, I figured I could get away with some man-sized stuffed sacks, a lot of fabric, sculptured hands and masks.
I bought this Santa doll to use for scale (an
I thought about jumping into Hobby Builders Supply's Creatin' Contest when it occurred to me that the Corona Travel Trailer would make the perfect base for a Mardi Gras Float. When DH Lloyd agreed to help, it was a done deal! We began this adventure on October 8, 2006.
INSPIRATION
Having been to several Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans, I had a good feel for what I wanted: a big upper story with a gigantic statue of Poseidon driving three dashing seahorses through r
Today I added the interior light, a roombox light from Cir-Kit Concepts, the Roman shade, and several details.
Interior details include a little bookshelf and a calendar marked with the date the pet shop began operation: August 1, 2000 -- the day my niece started her grooming business.
The back wall lifts out entirely, making this a very easy vignette to work on, especially if you glue down all of the bits and pieces!
Finally, back to the Pet Shop & Grooming Parlor. The shop has been built since early September, waiting patiently for attention. All of the steps below were accomplished in two days. I was painting the building, building a shelf and making items to fill it.
Primed:
Trim and inside painted:
Roof -- Painted dark gray, then orange sand added. Why orange? Because that's what I had on hand. When the sand dried (Modge Podge), I hit
