A newbs off the wall approach

[doogster]

I've acquired a Garfield, the house not the cat, from me better half. She's got into RGT and DHE kits and the Garf sits in it's box, untouched, waiting to be built. Me better's list of to do kits (sitting in the family room) includes the Faxhall Manor-with extensions (kinda like Cher), the Queen Anne, and Grosvenor Hall. Those are for after the Front opening Federal already under way. Impressive kits yes, but they kinda look like big square boxes with flashy front fascades. I thought the Garf was a much nicer design than any of them and it bothered me that it might not get done. So I straight out asked for it. So now it's mine. May hafta ask Greenleaf for replacement instructions, but otherwise I aim to prove it can be made as nice or better than one of those poncy 800-2000 dollar kits.

Here's my plan, trust me it's insane, otherwise I wouldn't do it. Overkill. Planning on constructing the carcass using: hot glue? No. Aleene's? Pulease. Wood glue? Tastes better than it works. No, I'm thinking polyurethane glue. AKA: Gorilla Glue. Actually Elmer's is half the price for exactly the same thing. And it's Norm Abram's current choice, so you can't go wrong. Relieve the edges of the stair spindles and porch railings, get rid of the flat cookie cutter look. If it aint getting stained no way I'm using desperately overpriced wood filler, Bondo! Hey, it's cheaper, sands finer, and you can get stoned off the fumes, what's not to love? Airbrushed finish.

Actually I'm a newb to building these things, but have been making models for 30 plus years. My last project was a scratchbuild of The Betty from Alien:Resurrection and another I'm working on is the Dreamworks Time Machine. Anyway, great to see such an active and positively focussed forum. I look forward to building this kit, and really do want to show up me better half's super expensive kits. Hey, it's a guy thing, and I think it can be done. Any suggestions welcome.

[wenlaine]

Hi doogster and Welcome to the forum. First off, WOW!!! You're definitely right about the impressive kits your wife has and I also agree that the Garfield can be made to look just as good as any expensive kit. Secondly, good luck, and have fun. With your terrific sense of humor, I would love to be a fly on the wall in your home. Make sure you take lots of pictures, I would love to watch the progress on all of these houses.

Wendy

[LPCullen]

Hey, it's cheaper, sands finer, and you can get stoned off the fumes, what's not to love? Airbrushed finish.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LOL! ROFLMREO!!!

Thanks for the laugh this morn, Doogster, and welcome to the forum! I like your approach thus far, and look forward to seeing progress pix!

[Minis On The Edge]

Welcome to the Forum Doogster and I can't wait to see what you do with this Dream house.

[Nameless1]

I look forward to building this kit, and really do want to show up me better half's super expensive kits. Hey, it's a guy thing, and I think it can be done.

This I wanna see.

(That's not sarcasm.)

You may want to just cut/build your own trim for portions of the house (people also buy upgrade doors, windows, and stairs, but that sounds a little wimpy for you).

Since the plywood grain isn't to scale anyway, may I suggest not staining anything? Bondo the gaps, prime, and then do a faux finish to resemble whatever wood grain you like at the scale you prefer. Or build your own parquet floor from basswood and such. (Again, there are to-scale wood floors out there for sale... but that might be too wimpy...)

[doogster]

Well we've found the instructions, what little there are of them. I was thinking about milling some detail into the doors and windows, but don't know how the plywood will stand up to it. I've got fine enough end mills but there may be a lot of tear out and splintering. MDF, evidently, mills really well. As I said I want to build it using as much of the actual supplied stuff as possible. I don't want to go the replacement bit route, as stated it's the easy way out.

Besides it gives me a great reason to further raid Harbor Freight, man they love me there. Need clamps, lots of them. possibly and band saw and table saw. Not decided on that yet, may go the Delta route for those though.

I've seen a Beacon Hill build-up, prolly quickly knocked off for the shop, and none of the end grain was filled, a trivial job but makes the end result far superior. Wood filler is awful to stuff to use, IMHO, won't stick to a thing, and stains like hell anyway. It LOOKS like filler. Bonda is less than 2 bucks for a huge tube-the red spot putty, I'm too stupid to figure out the 2 part stuff-polyurethane glue is amazing, I glued the metal stud back into a screw on leg off a desk, solid as a rock. Doesn't work at all on plastic though, there I prefer solvent, like Ambroid or Tenax. Works amazing on those plastic kit stoves and the like. Tube glue is too messy, though it is quite tastey.

[gemlady]

welcome

it looks like you have the experence, So the garfield should be a great project for you .

Harbor Fright is my friend or at least to hubby every time I think of a new thing to do " WE" need to make a trip to HF so " I" can by the tool to do the trick looking foward to your chats

Donna

[ilovecats]

Me better's list of to do kits (sitting in the family room) includes the Faxhall Manor-with extensions , the Queen Anne, and Grosvenor Hall. Those are for after the Front opening Federal already under way. Impressive kits yes, but they kinda look like big square boxes with flashy front fascades. I thought the Garf was a much nicer design than any of them and it bothered me that it might not get done. So I straight out asked for it. So now it's mine.  I aim to prove it can be made as nice or better than one of those poncy 800-2000 dollar kits.

I look forward to building this kit, and really do want to show up me better half's super expensive kits. Hey, it's a guy thing, and I think it can be done. Any suggestions welcome.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As to this better half's opinion...have alot of fun building the Garfield, it's a gorgeous house...as to poncy and showing me up.... :o :lol: Marg

[MiniMadWoman]

Welcome doogster! It takes a while to catch onto your techy lingo, but it sounds like you know what you're doing?!! :lol: As far as clamps though, you may want to invest in masking tape! It's a great way to hold things together until the glue dries and it's just too much fun messing around with afterwards (sorry, no fumes though!!). :lol:

Can't wait to see pictures of your progress!!

By the way, by your flag are you a transplanted Canadian?

[doogster]

Kinda, lived in Ontario for 20 plus years as a transplanted Brit, now in the US. What can I say, I'm an RN, and like to work full time. That just aint happening in Ontario.

[annamommynous]

Can't wait to see the Bondo! I love that stuff - it was the only thing holding my first car together! I wish I could use it on myself!

[doogster]

As I said I'm too dense to go with the 2 part stuff, but their red glazing putty is great. I've been spending a lot of time planning, I prefer to plan for a while rather than bash into it then wish I'd done something different. Fer Instance, the windows aren't usable IMNSHO. Rather than try to work sommink with a curve at the top I've decided to square all the windows, hence the spiral saw. I've seen some pics of a custom that's close enough to the Garf to use as a model. I'm currently debating between cedar shakes and asphalt shingles for the roof.

[havanaholly]

milling some detail into the doors and windows

There's always gesso, although I've had quite nice results with cardstock & even paper layers.

Wood filler is awful to stuff to use

I've been quite happy using premixed spackling compound, Bondo sounds great, but my respiratory equipment doesn't do well with fumes any longer.

Need clamps, lots of them. possibly and band saw and table saw

So far I haven't needed a tablesaw, I use DH's bandsaw & my scrollsaw & lathe, and I found a mini tablesaw mount for my Dremel (I have a few sawblades) at a HF wannabe. As for clamps, you cannot have too many.

I'm an RN, and like to work full time

I'm a retired RN, if you ever tire of the ER you might try public health nursing, I was an elementary school nurse and many days I felt like an ER would be a nice rest! :lol:

debating between cedar shakes and asphalt shingles for the roo

You can get the cedar shakes online, but imho they look a bit chunky for scale. I have had acceptable results for asphalt shingles using a fairly coarse grit sandpaper, although next time I'll glue it to construction paper first to get a more in-scale thickness.

[doogster]

I actually used acrylic spacle for the Voyager, worked great amd no smell. Voyager was made from styrofoam so Bondo or filler would just eat it.

As for the windows, I've actually seen a decently done Garf with the stock windows, so it can be done. Though I'm thinking of adding trim above the windows and filling out the sill. I stated my idea to do it as new construction with a Victorian theme, I was planning to do the windows like our real house, with the inside just finished smooth with no interior casing. This was an in-construction set of pics, and that's how they were, don't know if the builder is planning on adding interior trim or casing, but with the curved upper part the interior looked really nice. I'm sure the spiral saw will come in useful, besides it's a really cool tool to have. Actually MBH wants to open up some doorways in one of her houses, so it will definitely come in. The stenciled acetate still has to go.

I was thinking of doing very simple opening in the openings between rooms that don't have door, but the wood's so thin it would look weird.

Thanks for the info on building the doors out. I think the ply is too thin to mill into, adding really thin layers to the door sounds like a better alternative. Not quite veneer sized bass would be real easy to cut, either with an X-acto, or at least with the scroll saw. Given what was said about the Luan staining seems out, but it'll still add nice features to the otherwise simply flat doors.

Keep suggestions coming!

[havanaholly]

Please take pictures as you go, I didn't do it building the Dura-Craft San Franciscan for DGD, but I have ever since I got myself hooked into minis. Of course our eye candy "police" will ask you to share them here, and that's a good idea because so many members are building "Garfs" now y'all can give each other ideas & answer questions.

I've built several Buttercup & Sugarplum kits & thought the lack of interior trim on most of the windows, doorway, etc, left something to be desired, so that's when I discovered tracing the trim pieces onto card, the card pieces painted & glued in place looked much better/ more finished. Narrow braid or ribbon could also be used, too.

[doogster]

The kit does come with interior trim, but it's pretty much the same as the outside. I'm thinking with exterior siding sheets plus the outside trim, all filled and sanded should look good, very modern. Though that may change too. I changed my mind about the roof, well actually went back to my first choice, I'm gonna do a slate roof on it. ;)

[havanaholly]

Given what was said about the Luan staining seems out

For some reason I just caught this on rereading. Why? One way I like to finish floors is to simulate hardwood. As I have posted elsewhere, I do this by marking & scribing the boards directly into the plywood (I use the back of the utility knifeblade to do it, probably the only use for a dulling knife blade in all my mini-making ;) ), first lengthwise and then crosswise between, staggering the cross-scribes every 2" offset. Then I go back with an awl & poke "nailholes" in the ends of the "boards". Finally I hit it all with a coat of stain and when it's dry I sand it smooth. If I like it I hit it with sealer and sand it when dry with a wad of brown paper bag; if not, I stain & sand until I do like it. I'm in the process of scribing floors as part of the McKinley prep.

Judith used the vinyl tile to make roofing slates, she cut her own. I had gotten some really thin ones from one of the $ stores (Family Dollar, I think), but then "flashed" on trying to simulate slates with black construction paper & chalk pastels, which I used on the Glencroft pub, suggested by one of my English books on making minis. I'm not too sure if I like how they look, but were lots easier to cut than the vinyl sounded & scribing floorboards wreaks havoc with my osteoarthritis in my hands ;)

[doogster]

One of the Mods said the luan grain is too out of scale to stain, it's in one of the early posts, Though for staining I did see an interesting article in 'Country Living' I think. It was in the bathroom at work (that's true that is) and you know how things are, need 5 mins away from it all. ANYWAY, they had a how-to thingie, of how to make a simulated checkerboard type floor. They started witha floor they stripped, of course you would be starting with a fresh floor-possibly a cheap pre-done thing- then stained the whole thing in a light colour, pine or maple. Then they masked off diamond shapes and stained the diamonds with a dark wood, I think it was mahogony (mah-hah-goeny). Clear coated the whole thing, looked amazing. You could see the linear arrangement of the boards through the stain with this really neat pattern of what looked like light and dark wood. Got to thinking a medallion might be made that way.

[gemlady]

I have seen that done with the floors. on a smaller scale that would look great but make sure that the tape is secure or you will have bleed throu I would scribe the wood so it will not seep to the other design

also in my scroll woodworking book they told of using RIT dye (for clothing ) to get diffrent colors just brush it on to the wood like you would stain.

[doogster]

One way to prevent bleeding is to airbrush it, haven't tried stain but definitely will. I got a dirt cheapo airbrush from Harbor Freight for 5 bucks, it's a knockoff of a Badger 350, got it just for metallics. I think I'll grab a couple more next time they're on sale. Use one just for stains.