Jump to content

first timer with a Fair Field


Recommended Posts

Hi!

My name is Nikki and im new around here...well new to the whole miniature thing in general. I have always wanted to complete a doll house and recently purchased a Fair Field house. Im so excited and cant wait to start plugging away at it.

Any help, tips or advice would greatly be appreciated!!!

I dont know much about this stuff at all, im not sure where to buy things or really what i can make on my own. I guess this will all be trial and error. Hopefully not to many errors.

Im sure i will be on here at least a few times begging for help and tricks.. im not going to lie, the bag of shingles scares the poop out of me....

Wish me luck, or at least pray that i don't end up gluing myself to the table.

Thanks a ton in advance to all the wonderful mini people on this forum, after looking through different threads, i can see i chose the right place and the right people to team up with on my Mini (huge) venture :)

Nikki

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the little family, Nikki. I built two Fairfields, one of them inside out, to be halves of a single house. First of all you realize that there are different scales for dollhouses and miniatures, and the Fairfield is 1:24 scale (1/2"=1'); check scales before buying items for your Faifield, because most houses are 1:12 scale (1"=1'). I got several room sets of furniture from Hobby Builders Supply that were shown in the catalogue as "1/2" scale" that were actually closer to 1:32 (too small). I had made up some furniture kits and made dolls that were true 1:24 scale, and had to go back and make all the furniture that's in my Fairfields. It was great fun, though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Nikki :)

I'm building the Fairfield at the moment - in quite dispersed chunks of time! I do a bit and then get distracted or bogged down by something. Stop for a month or three and then start it up again. Currently paused as I have to do the inside window trim next and can't entirely decide what colour to do them! (All one colour throughout, or different ones depending on the rest of the trim in the room/hall??)

Definitely dry fit everything first by putting it together with masking tape. That way you can make sure the slots and holes are in the right places (sometimes need a little tweaking to fit well), and also see what you need to decorate before gluing. I've had my house in and out of dry fit at least 5 times already as I do the various bits of decorating :)

Muriel

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dry fit my houses repeatedly. It seems like the more I build these houses the more dry fitting I do, even though most of the time I'm champing at the bit to glue the house together right away. :D

Dry fitting helps me analyze additional steps I need to do before the final gluing. I figure it's good practice for the tiny scale houses that really need finishing prior to gluing (like quarter scale or smaller).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forum. I also have a Fairfield, but mine is still in the box. RL has interrupted my fun. So, all is on hold. But I will

be following your progress. Any questions just ask, the people on this board are knowledgeable and friendly.

Gail :bear:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the fun,Nikki! Your intuition was so correct,this is the best place ever for learning and sharing anything about the dollhouse and miniatures world! I'm still new at this myself, but from what some of the members have said,they actually love shingling,so don't fear it and know that anything you need help with,you are in the right place! Kat

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi!

My name is Nikki and im new around here...well new to the whole miniature thing in general. I have always wanted to complete a doll house and recently purchased a Fair Field house. Im so excited and cant wait to start plugging away at it.

Any help, tips or advice would greatly be appreciated!!!

I dont know much about this stuff at all, im not sure where to buy things or really what i can make on my own. I guess this will all be trial and error. Hopefully not to many errors.

Im sure i will be on here at least a few times begging for help and tricks.. im not going to lie, the bag of shingles scares the poop out of me....

Wish me luck, or at least pray that i don't end up gluing myself to the table.

Thanks a ton in advance to all the wonderful mini people on this forum, after looking through different threads, i can see i chose the right place and the right people to team up with on my Mini (huge) venture :)

Nikki

The shingles scared me too. The Fairfield is my second build and im hoping it goes better then my mckinley im trying to sell... It's not all the way finished...:/ to big for my area... I wish you luck! If you want wood floors i would use skinny sticks you can buy cheaply in the walmart craft department by the Popsicle sticks. Takes a long time but, man does it pack a punch! Looks amazing when finished!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Skinny sticks are 'way thick for a 1:24 floor. If you don't want to scribe your floors directly onto the kit plywood (like I did) I think the iron-on wood veneer strip you can find in hardware stores like Lowes is more in scale; you can cut them to size; it's what I did with my little hacienda: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=21345 and http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=21347 and http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=21348

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you for all the wonderful feed back and words of encouragement. I was able to complete the assembly of the foundation and the chimney (which had to be ripped apart and redone, stupid mistakes) and the stairs all punched out and sanded, but im going to paint and such before i assemble them. I cant wait to post pics. I cant believe how addicting it can be. Cant wait to show off my "stone" foundation when it is dry.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you for all the wonderful feed back and words of encouragement. I was able to complete the assembly of the foundation and the chimney (which had to be ripped apart and redone, stupid mistakes) and the stairs all punched out and sanded, but im going to paint and such before i assemble them. I cant wait to post pics. I cant believe how addicting it can be. Cant wait to show off my "stone" foundation when it is dry.

You've made 5posts. Time to start a gallery! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used coffee stirrers for some of my Fairfield floors and skinny sticks for others. The kitchen and attic are skinny sticks. They are thicker than the coffee stirrers and a little bulky, but they're okay if that's all you have access to. Once the floor is in, it doesn't really matter how thick it is because the thickness isn't visible from the top (especially if you add some trim to the open side of the room to "close it off").

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

almost an Uh-oh!!! question on my Fair-field... I want to put "stones" on the foundation. should i do this after the walls go up or before? In the pictures on the box it looks like the walls hang over the foundation some (by the bay windows esp) and i don't want to glue them on and then the rest of the house not fit right... please let me know what you think would be best.

Also last night i painted the foundation and floor to look like "hardwood" im not sure im going to put in real flooring or not yet. and because i didn't feel good, i conned the "Hubs" into putting the stairs assembly together. he had fun and i got to sleep, so tonight project will be to paint those and get them all ready to put in

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want to move this thread out of the newcomer's forum or chop it up, but let's try to steer the conversation about the nuts and bolts of building the Fairfield into this thread in the Greenleaf-specific forum instead. That way the posts will be in the right place when others go to look for help with this house.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...