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Half scale lover, building first dollhouse


Debsrand56

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Hello.  I am a newbie from California.  My current love is half scale.  I have built room boxes, but am now building my first house--the RGT half-scale craftsman bungalow.  (Yes, I have seen some of the amazing pictures in the galleries.  They're what drew me here.)  I am very good with soft furnishings, good with kits, and terrible with polymer clay.  I am just getting ready to dry fit the bungalow, but am waiting until the weekend because I suspect it will take a while.  So far, I am very much enjoying the process (even the fiddly bits, like the balusters on the front porch railings). I used the steel wool and cider vinegar process for dying the shingles (which I think I found on these forums) and love how they turned out.  The only thing that terrifies me is the process of electrifying the house, but I am going to watch videos and give it my best shot.  I am very much looking forward to learning from (and someday participating in) the online community here.

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Welcome to the Forum Deborah :) It's nice to meet you and I think HalfScale is my 2nd love. My 1st is 1" scale but with half scale, you can have more houses to display. I look forward to knowing you and your miniatures better!

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Welcome! What a treat...another half scale lover named Deborah from California! It's good to have you here, and by the way, you ARE participating :) just by posting!

If you've been checking out the forum as a guest, you probably know that after five posts you can start a gallery. I'm looking forward to seeing your builds. :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello all.  I am also new to this forum and am getting ready to purchase my first kit.  I purchased a 1:12 scale dollhouse fairly cheap from Craigslist that was already put together and I was going to paint it and finish it up but I decided it was just too big for my house.  I decided that if I'm going to put that much time and money into something it should be something I love so I think the 1:24 (1/2") scale is better suited for me.  So now I'm just trying to decide which one to purchase.  I'm torn between the RGT half-scale bungalow or the RGT half-scale Farmhouse.  Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to put it together.  I'm sure I'll be searching for YouTube videos as well.   If any of you have any good resources for 1/2" scale furniture let me know.  They don't seem to make as much stuff in this size unfortunately.

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Hi Glenna! Nice to meet you. I agree that half scale is the way to go size wise. I am hoping to start selling half scale furniture kits really soon and have some photos in my albums of my prototypes. Greenleaf also has kits for half scale furniture, and there is a whole thread here on the subject of where to buy half scale items.

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When I built my Fairfields I noticed that all the "1:24" furniture sets I'd bought from HBS were MUCH smaller than the 1:24 DIY and kit furniture I made, so I used the patterns in my 1:12 furniture books and scaled them all down.

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Thanks Shannon.  I am still trying to figure out how to use this site and find the threads regarding 1:24 scale items.  I was able to find some things on Ebay.  Holly, I would love to see some of your half scale houses.

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I have another question to you all.  What do you think about leaving out the staircase in order to have more wall space for furniture?  I know it wouldn't seem as authentic maybe but many kits don't have a staircase that leads to the attic portion.  I saw a farmhouse that someone put together and decorated on Pinterest and they left the staircase out completely.  I'm thinking it's not a bad idea.  Thoughts?

 

 

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Deborah - have you already built the 1/2 scale RGT bungalow?  If so, can you tell me the dimensions of the rooms?  Or does anyone know if I can find that info somewhere on their website?  I can only see the overall dimensions of the house itself.   I'm trying to decide which kit to purchase.  I really like the looks of the bungalow but it has fewer rooms than the 1/2 scale farmhouse.  I really like both of them. 

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1 hour ago, Glowworm said:

...I really like the looks of the bungalow but it has fewer rooms than the 1/2 scale farmhouse.  I really like both of them. 

Glenna, it seems to me that the logical solution is to buy one and build it, and then buy the other one and build it.

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Welcome to both of you! The more half scale, the merrier. :)

Glenna, not sure which of the RGT farmhouses you're looking at, but if you look at the page here you can compare the dimensions of the different houses. They're exterior dimensions but by looking at the interior pictures you'll get a sense of the room size. My guess is that the "country farmhouse" has the most interior space, and then the "farmhouse" first and second floors are similar to the bungalow's, but the farmhouse also has a third floor. Of the three, the bungalow probably has the least space for displaying furniture. That said, I like the bungalow best! (And, I have one in my stash.)

I'll probably leave out the stairs in the bungalow because I don't like the stairs that came with it. I'd rather use that wall for a fancy craftsman fireplace.

 

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Thanks Emily.  I was looking at the smaller farmhouse and not the country farmhouse.  I agree with you - I like the bungalow best, however, I like the farmhouse because it has more space to display furniture.  So I'm leaning towards the farmhouse and then taking Holly's suggestion and purchase the Bungalow next.  (We will see after I build the first one- haha)  I'm a little scared as I've never built anything like this before.  I was wondering - what do you do to cover up the hole in the second floor where the staircase goes?  I like your idea of a fireplace instead.  :)

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With a die-cut kit (like Greenleaf makes), you just don't punch out the hole. For a house that has the hole already cut, like the RGT houses, you need to cut a piece of plywood or foamcore the size of the hole and glue it in. You can cover it up with ceiling paper downstairs and flooring upstairs to make it virtually invisible, or hide the seams with wood filler if you're painting.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Glenna--

I am so sorry I am late replying to your question.  I have not been checking the site.  My excuse is that I have had some time off and have actually had the opportunity to work on the bungalow, which is not yet finished but has come a long way. 

The room sizes are not fixed.  You get one downstairs divider and two upstairs dividers, but you can place them anywhere you like.  During the dry fit, I was placing some of the furniture that I already had, to get a sense of where the dividers should go.  I think if you place the upstairs  dividers so that they exactly frame the upstairs window, you end up with three rather small rooms.  (The width of the undivided floor is about 14 1/4 inches; the depth is 6 5/8 inches.)  Based on what I had seen other users do, I moved one of my dividers over and took some of the space from the room where the staircase comes in.  This makes for an asymmetrical central room, but gives me a bigger room to use for the bedroom.  The "staircase room" is more of a hallway now, but I have some space in it that I will be using for a little sewing corner.  I've seen people move the staircase to the center of the home, but that is a little too much for me, given that this is my first build.  I do think the bungalow is a good first build, because it is relatively simple and goes together well. 

I, too, love the farmhouse, and may do that one next, and someday move on to the Fairfield. . . .  Oh, and everyone who says to finish the interior of one floor before adding the next--listen to them!  :-)  It made things so much easier.  If I can figure out how to do it, I will try to post some of the pictures I have taken.

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No problem Deborah.  I ended up ordering the 1/2 scale Bungalow and it's suppose to arrive TODAY!  Hopefully after the holidays I can dig in and try to build it.  I have never built one so I'm a bit nervous.  And I plan to cover up the staircase hole and door openings on the second level.  I feel this will give me more room for furniture, etc.   So it won't have a staircase.  :(

Just curious - do you plan to electrify yours?  I can't decide if I want to tackle that or not but I do think they look cool with little lights in them.

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Congratulations!  I hope you have as much fun with yours as I am having with mine.

I did electrify it.  I used the tape wiring starter kit from Cir-kit.  I also bought the little brad placement tool (and am thankful I did, because those brads are teeny!).  I have an electric fireplace insert, ceiling fixtures in the kitchen and bathroom, a sconce in the staircase room, and plug-in lamps in the living room and bedroom.  I am absolutely astonished that everything works.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be; mostly, it's just a bit fiddly, because the eyelets and brads are small.  For the ceiling fixture in the kitchen, I ran the wires up through the ceiling and along the bathroom floor.  For the sconce and the bathroom ceiling fixture, I used the plug-in adapters, which work really well.  In the bathroom, I ran the tape up the slant of the ceiling, to a piece of wood about 1" wide and long enough to fit from wall to wall.  I put my eyelets into that, then glued it in place under the peak of the roof, and covered all with wallpaper.  Then I just plugged in the fixture.  I've seen other people do sconces in the bathroom, too.  I think if you electrify it, you will be pleased. 

I agree that the doors and staircase take up a lot of room.  I think it will be just fine with those openings covered.  I've seen builds like that, and they do have more space.

Enjoy!  Enjoy!  I was nervous, too (and still am, because I still have shingling to do), but there is a wealth of really good information on line (particularly in these forums), and that really helps.

 

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Wow - you sound like a pro.  I will check out the wiring kit you mentioned.  I'm assuming you do the wiring once everything is built but before wallpaper.   I also would like to make the lower columns and foundation to look like bricks instead of the stucco.  (I'm trying to copy the look of this house - pic attached).  Do you have any ideas on the best way to do brick on a 1/2 scale model?   And I also can't decide on shingle color.  Gray or brown tones.  Oh well - that's a long way down the road.  haha.  I would love to see pics of your house sometime.  Sorry for all the questions.  I'm sure I'll have more as I start building. 

bungalow.jpg

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Not a pro at all.  This is my first dollhouse and the first time I've wired.  I completely finished the interior of the first floor before adding on, so I wired the first floor, but left a length of tape, with the paper backing on, ready to go up through the stairwell.  Then I papered and added the next floor, at which point I was able to finish the wiring on the second floor.  You may want to leave a small gap, when you fill in your stairwell hole, for the tape wiring to go through.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how you'd connect the wiring.  (Wiser, more experienced members on this board may have ideas.)

That is an absolutely gorgeous home!  No wonder you want to copy it.  For the brick, I would probably buy the pre-formed brick sheeting, available from several vendors.  (This is an example, but there's lots more out there: http://www.miniatures.com/124-Scale-Common-Brick-Latex-Sheet-P18948.aspx  ).  There is also a technique for making bricks from an egg carton.  It works amazingly well, but cutting and placing all those tiny bricks would make me crazy.  I used the cider vinegar and steel wool method for dying my shingles (scroll down on this post:  http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=37247 ), and they turned out a nice gray-brown (they do smell a bit, though, but I'm sure that will dissipate).  Good luck!  And I don't mind questions at all. 

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