Panda Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 My daughter is building her first dollhouse (age 11). And this is my first time too! Questions. Do you really need to seal the wood? Is it a ton easier to paint the pieces before assembly? Hot glue isn't the best? We should should just use regular wood glue? What is the best tool to cut the pieces out with? What grade sandpaper? What else should we ask/know before starting? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlene Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Hi Panda -- Congratulations to you and your daughter on your Magnolia -- you'll both have a blast building and decorating it. Most of the questions you ask boil down to personal preferences -- Sealing? Don't seal any surface you plan to stain -- stain won't work thru sealers -- some folks don't seal at all. Hot glue is pretty useless in mini -- most things just eventually fall off/apart, use a wood glue or a good pva glue. I paint after assembly (in 1:12), some folks paint before. You really shouldn't need anything to get the pieces out -- they're die cut so they should just pop out of the sheet. Use a fine-grade sandpaper but you only need to hit the rough or splintery areas since most of them will be covered when you're finished. The only thing I'd add is that if you plan to electrify, do it before you cover your walls. Read your tip sheet and just follow your assembly steps in the paperwork and you should be fine. One addition: Do post pics so we can see your progress -- we love to ooh and awww. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Hi Panda and welcome to the forum! The magnolia is a gorgeous house and you and your daughter will have a wonderful time building it. I do the wallpaper, paint and windows before I assemble the house just because it's the technique that works out best for me. Whether you do it before or after assembly, I recommend that you do a "dry fit" of the house before you start to build. As you take the pieces out of the sheets, lightly write the name of each one on it in pencil. The magnolia has doublehung windows, so that means there will be a lot of pieces for them. It helps to sort out the pieces for small things (windows, trim, staircase, etc) into individual ziplock bags or envelopes and label them while you're taking them out. Once the pieces are sorted, fit the walls and floors together with tape so you can get an idea of how it all goes together and how it will look when it's done. The dry fit is when I pencil in the lines for where the wallpaper goes for each room and where it meets at the corners, ceilings and floors. The magnolia has quite a lot of trim and fencing that you'll want to sand on the edges to make them smooth. Get a large supply of emery boards and use that on the small pieces instead of sandpaper. It's a lot easier to handle and you'll get that finer grit for a smoother finish. Linda built a gorgeous magnolia and has some great pictures on her webshots at: http://community.webshots.com/album/550912179wNFoCv if you want to see some close ups of the house. That can help a lot for knowing where things go. If we can help at all, just yell and we'll be right there for you. ;) Deb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydroped Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Hi Panda, There's some good advice there - Hot glue is not the thing to use. As to what kind of glue Wood glue work great - I like using Tacky glue - it just depends what you like but hot glue is messy, thick and really not meant to do the job of putting a dollhouse together so I'd forget about using it completely - at least as far as assembly is concerned I've heard of some using it for the shingles but I still prefer just plain ol' tackey glue even for that. Painting before - you can or you don't have to. It's a good idea to dry fit things together if you can before gluing them in place so you can see where areas are that you won't be able to reach to paint after assembly - and if there are any paint those before assembling. I think it's always a good idea to paint the trim seperately and before gluing in place too. As for tools to cut out the pieces... like Charlene said you shouldn't have to cut any pieces out they should pretty much pop out with gentle direct pressure - I did have one house that as a kit had been stored very badly (in a barn) for several years and was exposed to heat and cold and moisture - the wood had gotten brittle in some places and spongey in others and I had to use an X-acto knife to help in spots where the wood was still attached to teh sheet. But normally they just come out really easily ;) Hope this helps some, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Hello and Welcome to the Neighborhood Panda! The Magnolia is a Beautiful House and everyone already answered the questions you had posted so I have one for you.... Have you picked out colors yet? Are you gonna take tons sof pictures so you can cherish the memories forever? If so please share them with us too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panda Posted August 26, 2006 Author Share Posted August 26, 2006 ;) Thanks for the assistance. If I followed the advice a dry fit means just taping it together before we glue? Tape the whole thing - or just step my step tape and then glue? I don't know if we are going to paint or wallpaper - sounds like either way we just may wait until we have it built. I guess we'll just use regular old wood glue. No sand paper - emery boards? I don't think we are going to seal the wood either - sounds like we'll be okay not sealing. Thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlene Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Hey Panda -- Have you started yet? Dryfitting just means not to glue anything together until you've tried all the pieces and make sure you have a good, snug fit. This is when you find out that you have a tab that's 1/64th off or that you're trying to place the second floor onto the ground floor, or that you're fitting the wall in reverse ;) I don't usually tape a dryfit since everything has to be removed to glue and I detest doing anything twice. I dryfit the walls, make sure they're right and glue. Then I move on to the floors, etc. Emery boards are easier to control than sandpaper and they're really fine grade so you won't be sanding away half your wood on a tiny trim piece before you realize what you did!!! I do find that sandpaper is better for slightly enlarging a doorway or cleaning up the edges of a door, but you might find an emery board works better in those situations for you. Do, please, start soon. I wanna see what you do!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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