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Has anyone done these 1/4 scale houses?


KaySadler339

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My birthday is on Labor Day, and my husband bought me the Greenleaf Village, the Greenleaf Town and Santa's Village. I can't wait til they arrive!. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could tell me if 1/4 scale is too small to decorate on the inside?

Also, I would love if someone can share pictures of what they did with any of these houses.

For now, I am planning on making a whole town with each house on its own little section of wood cut like puzzle peices to form blocks and streets. We move a lot. That way the pieces could be moved around too.

I just know for sure I am not doing Christmassy stuff to the whole village. i mean sure, around the holidays i will decorate but i want them to be on display all year long.

Thanks for reading :)

Kay

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ok Linda cullen is doing those kits

and one of them came to her decorated on the inside. I believe you have to hinge or just leave off the back wall to decorate.

and somewhere on her webshots are photos of some of them.

congratulations on your new adventure!

I hope you post some photos for all us eyecandy addicts.

nutti :)

http://community.webshots.com/user/lpcullen-date

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There are a number of people in the mini world who build & decorate in quarter-scale (1/48"). I would like to see more DIY projects in the smaller scales (besides the Michael's hutch houses) in the dh magazines.

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Kay, these kits are the most wonderful kits I have run across! I can build them all by myself! I do have pictures, including the one that was built and sent to me, but they are not on my webshots at the moment. I am revising all my filing systems, but I will get you some pix up this evening and provide a link. You can either hinge the back wall (like the tudor house), or you can leave the roof detachable (like the stable). On one story structures, I generally leave the roof detachable, but I also left the roof detachable on the mini Arthur because it had been partially built by it's prior owner and the pieces had warped horribly! I do STRONGLY suggest that you build them BEFORE you prime them. Because the pieces are so small it is very easy for them to warp.

I too am doing a village, or actually a series of villages using different kits (if you go to my upcoming projects folder on my main webshots page, it will show you what kits I have). CatColorado also very graciously agreed (or she might have got tired of me whining about it, LOL!) to build an HO scale house for me from Classic Miniatures--I couldn't figure out the instructions and so I sent the whole kit to her and she built it for me to add to my villages to be placed on top of the cabinets of my other house. I will try to get you some pix of that one as well.

Right now I am doing one of the Duracraft villages, and I am in the middle of the hotel, woodshed, and sheriff's office. One of the great things about these is that you can build several at one time, and while you are waiting on glue to dry on one, you can build on the other ...

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It is indeed possible to decorate the interiors of these buidings. I once did a full interior on a 1/48 scale railroad dining car. Using the village buildings you will have to add interior walls to cover the window glazing edges. I would make the roof removable on most of the houses (add stiffening triangles to help maintain roof pitch and mount any lighting in th removable roof. Hide the wiring in a corner as well. GO HAVE A BLAST with them.

Here is a link for good detail parts http://www.bowser-trains.com/ look in the 1/48 scale or O gauge sections

I built the entire greenleaf village and town and will be building more structures in the spirit of these over this winter

Ed

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also have the village and would love to make a town with the buildings But I also want them to be furnished inside.

My Question is... Would Quarter scale furniture be too big or too small for the houses. As with the Arthur it is supposed to be 2 floors so I would want to have the second story and attic, Please let me know if this would be workable. I would love to see picturethese houses finished.

Thank You

kelly

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The 1/4 scale furniture kit should fit. There is a scale in between that Ladybug does with her Bespaq baby house class, and it is 1/90th! I watched the class at Maryland show and they even flocked the sofa and chairs to look like velvet. All of this furniture is cast, or resin, and Sue Thwaite has someone design it for her and then cast it, but I would say it would be too small for the greenleaf village houses.

Chris completed the 'sweet' shop but did not furnish it--it's in webshots in from the workbench album. He wanted to furnish it, but went ahead and completed it and wanted to get the stuff to do it next time.

http://community.webshots.com/user/lisan204

The best thing about the sweet shop and the other buildings, they don't have to be what they are named...Chris said his looks more like a train depot than a sweet shop. I would also try the train store for accessories, like people, etc. like Ed said. I went tot he DOllar tree and found alll sorts of wonderful trees, lights etc. for christmas villages all for a $1

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There are tons of O Scale (1/48) items on the market. THe Greenleaf RR Station with full interior detail wouldbe fantastic. I amthinking of the station agents space in the front bow window with a desk chair and telephone and telegraph system, Waiting room with a pot belly stove and benches and in the baggage room a scale baggage carts etc

That could be interesting to start.

I tried to put a Model Power Mack Firetruck into the firehouse the opening is just too small. I will probably end up using it as part of the Christmas Parade with Santa riding on top of the hose bed....Great firehose can be made with baby shoelaces. Getting back to the firehouse add a dalmatian dog outside with a fire hydrant and a brass pole and a spiral staircase and a watch desk just inside the dor (Leave them open)

Ed

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Check these links for vehicles, figures, and detail parts for the Greenlleaf Village and town

http://www.bowser-trains.com/os_menu.php look in the Selley items and painted people

http://www.arttista.com/ Look at the fantastic figureshttp://www.modelpower.com/site/519087/page/293621 Figures

Check these out for great usable village items

Ed

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  • 4 weeks later...

Started ours. We have three "village" type kits with six buildings in each of them and while waiting for the trailers latest application of wood putty to dry I decided to start one of them. I just grabbed whichever one was on the top which turned out to be a Corona kit. While I'll do a lot to dress up the outside I have WAYYY too many projects going on to think of doing the inside of them.

I'll be finished with the Large House this evening. I cut slices for "boards" from a manila file folder and added siding. Added some "printie" type shingles for the roof. And I "drew" on the boards for the front porch. It's coming out pretty nice I think.

Mel was waiting for another house to work on and has a few other personal things going on now so she wasn't quite ready to try a big project. So she picked one of the small buildings from the kit and decided to build it. She chose the Bake Shop. She originally was going to turn it into an Ice Cream Store, but decided it was easier to make mini cakes. We built a fake "display" for the big front window and put two shevles in it and Mel made some miniature cakes to put on display there. Like above we used a "printie" for roofing and she added a stucco type finish to it. She made the front patio area (sidewalk?) brick, also from a printie.

On both buildings we added extra corner trim work to cover the tabs and we painted the "foundation" of the house a nice gray. Later on today I'll shoot a few pics and put them in my webshots in an album called quarter scale.

Darrell

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I built mine box stock as far as the buildings went. For the porch floor you could ise scribed basswood sheet from Northeast. I would mount the light fixture for illuminating the house in the attick and make the roof removable so interior details can be added later and the bulb changed

I am thinking of making one of mine a "Tacky Christmas House" by overdecorating with christmas lights and decorations most from either Dept 56 or LeMax

The church may get an interior before many of the other buildings. I am thinking of red flocked contact for the carpeting (aisles and chancel only) organ console and choir loft, and fully furnished alter with vestments of the proper color

Ed

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All the liturgical colors & change them with the seasons? I made a full set of 1:1 white vestments once including tabernacle cover & bourseboards as well as chasuble, stole & maniple, designing the chasuble to appear seamless. All the trim was a pattern of laden grapevines twining around ripe wheat clusters I embroidered.

The ensuing fracas (not from the vestments, but they were involved indirectly) made me swear off or ecclesiastical needlework, even in 1:12, much less 1:48!

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I was thinking of only doing a white set appropriate for christmas. How can I simulate mini pointsetta plants. A 3 manual pipe organ would be a blast to build as well with a hiddenspeaker playing an old Virgil Fox Christmas album

Ed

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I like the idea of the manila foldders for siding. I have been looking at building articles published in Lionel's "Model Builder" magazine from the late 30s and 40s and have been looking at some of the articles and plans for ideas for add ons for the village and town. I was looking at the plans for overall dimentions etc but will use modern materials

See my barn plan in my potos

Ed

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Ed,

Barn plan looks good. But the thing that really interested me was the rig you built on the dremel drill press. While I bought an "off brand" rotary tool drill press to save a few bucks it works just the same with my Dremel. (I picked mine up at Sears) It looks like it would work very well to help me make crown (and other kinds of) molding for my 1" scale houses. Could you explain it in semi non-technical terms to help me build one?

Darrell

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OH, and Holly...

Melissa made the cakes. They're actually pony beads with some glue, paint, sawdust, pin heads and whatever she found that she thought would help it to look like a cake. LOL!

Darrell (who remembered using manilla folders similarly to build slats into the Beacon Hill window shutters and that's where the siding idea came from)

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"off brand" rotary tool drill press to save a few bucks it works just the same with my Dremel. (I picked mine up at Sears)

I can't reall say that Craftsman is an "off brand", DH got me the Sears version of the Dremel router table for Christmas one year & I love it, although I have not yet made moldings with it; I've routed tabletops to place the stringers.

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Darrell:

I built the whole thing out of Baltic birch plywood. The base and top are 1/2 thick the sides are 2 layers of 1/2 thick to better nail or screw into with a cutout for the speed control. All joints were nailed with small finishing nails 1" I think aswell as glued using Elmers yellow glue

The oversize table was cut from 1/2 Plywood and anchored to the metal drill press tablwe with 4 flathead machine screws and wingnuts from below. The fence is made from a straight piece of hardwood with a masonite facing . Make the cutout large enough to allow your largest bit to be flush with the front of the fence. drill a hole big enough for the pilot of the cove and rabbeting bit to cut down to table level Clamp the fence to the table with 2 small clamps I have 2 tiny xacto metal c clamps on mine

Ed

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Of course Craftsman isn't really an "off brand" when you're talking about wrenches and such. But Dremel is "the" brand for rotary tools and Craftsman has only gotten really serious in later years about them. But because of this, their stuff costs lots less than Dremel branded accesories so yes, I consider them an off brand. LOL!

No, I hadn't seen the article. Mel confiscates the magazine as soon as it arrives and it's usually a while before I see what's in it. But I made her hunt it down for me after you mentioned the article. It's pretty good. I can't wait for the next installment. Thanks for the heads up.

Darrell

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