A little here and there, and a cabin.

Entry posted by rbytsdy September 20, 2014

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So the gables are affixed, as well as the bottom trim for the house. Ready to start siding.

Inbetween the Willowcrest, a "quick" project :prop: for one of my little nephews, who apparently is quite jealous of all his sisters getting a house but nothing for him! I've only got 'til November, when his birthday comes along. This has to be a very manly house; no lace or fine Victorian trim here. So I got a Corona Concepts Shadybrook cabin off Amazon, a very simple kit; it's made of 1/4"-thick plywood, so a bit different here than the kits that I'm used to:

These plywood pieces are very coarse, so I didn't sand on them much because I'd have had to sand the whole piece away to get it totally smooth. I stained the main pieces in Minwax cherry, and the trim pieces in Minwax English Chestnut. Also here you can see the occupants, the Calico Critters hedgehog family.

Mr. Hedgehog looks very comfortable here, but I am thinking that a slightly lower chair will suit him better (Calico Critters are closer to a fat 3/4-scale).

Here I am affixing the little squares that are supposed to make it look like there are logs sticking out the ends, as well as keep the house together. Well, okay. (I had decided that I didn't have time to do up the house in half-round, so decided to go with what I had.) I had lined up all the squares on a piece of masking tape to keep them together while staining, and they all took up the adhesive on the tape so they did not want to glue on very well. Still popping off occasionally (with a sticky tape layer remaining) so will have to add some glue here and there. Also you can see my chinking; I started out with piping on a paint-spackle-water mixture but it globbed on too much, so I ended up applying spackle by hand. Then I sanded it all down and fixed it with some matte spray. It didn't start out well but I'm satisfied with how it ended up.

The front door in my Valspar pomegranate tea; I think this color does very well here.

My railing is 1/4" and 1/2" wooden dowel cut to size; I drilled the bottoms and put toothpicks in so that I could affix the posts to the floor more securely. You can also see that I have cut holes for dormer windows in the roof, and a hole for a fireplace in the right wall. Also you can see my rafters, and the idea that I had for the lighting using Al tubing and little glass jars with corks.

I fashioned the chimney out of foamboard; the power strip will be hidden behind the chimney.

The kit doesn't come with any "window glass" so I dug some transparency out of my stash and made some additional trim-- sort of craftsman style, I think.

Getting the fireplace ready:

And a hole in the chimney to work the power strip:

The fireplace, with a painted foamboard base and a surround made of scraps (including curlicues leftover from my 1/2-scale Rosedale kit):

Here's what the other side of the 1st floor is looking like:

And here is why two of those railing posts had hooks in them; hammocks made of what was actually a Christmas ribbon, bits of dowel and string:

I had some difficulty threading the lighting wires through the Al tube and after a failed fuse, was afraid that I had shorted the wires somewhere along the line; dreading taking everything apart :ohmy: , but one new fuse later B) :

So since the wiring was done, I could finally get that chimney in place and stoned. I know, it's not regulation height, but this is a whimsical house. This is DAS paperclay, which I glued on in individual little balls; it's time-consuming but I like the finished product. It's drying now, then I'll start on the paints:

No flowers in these window boxes; mushrooms instead (I made them from DAS):

Some fowl in a coop; birds from Michael's (one of those plastic animal tubes), coop made from square dowel, screen from a screen door, and corrugated cardboard roof:

Looked for a large antlered plastic animal at Michael's to decapitate, but all I found was this moose head in the Christmas section (turned out that Hobby Lobby had an entire half-aisle devoted to plastic animals of all sizes, but oh well); I found some birch rounds at Michael's also that I think I will also use to mount some pictures:

Did get some nice cotton prints on sale at HL though:

Don't think I'll use the toile here, but the orange prints will do very nicely.

Edit: I should add that the plywood base is not part of the kit; it's actually a (nicer wood) 1/4" birch from Lowe's with a 1/4"-dowel border glued on.