Parts and Painting

This is the first time I have tried blogging on my phone. I hope this works out.

I was having trouble painting in between the deck boards so I opted to spray paint the deck and privacy panels. I will add some color variation with craft paint. I used the tip of a ballpoint pen to make little nail indentations on the deck as well.

I've started to paint my Shapeways chairs. I can't remember the designer right off, but I will find out.

Nothing Like Waiting Until the Last Minute

I've decided to enter the Shapeways miniature contest.  If you are interested in entering here is the info.  The entry deadline is April 10.

I feel like there isn't much time since I decided to do a small build to go with it. 

When I bought the Citadel off of Ebay a few years ago, it came with a deck and hot tub kit.  I decided it do an outdoor scene using this kit seeing that spring seems to be taking a very long time to show up.

 This is the picture off of the kit box.  It's made by Betty's 

Wooden Miniatures in Chicago, which has been out of business for some time.

 Before painting.

 I painted it with a burnt sienna then went over it with a cinnamon apple to make it look more like redwood.  I'ts hard to see the variation in this picture. It still needs a lot of touch up.

 These are the privacy panels.  I decided to make the center panel little different than the one in the kit.

 I just made the frame then matched up and glued two of these little laser cut pieces that I found at Michael's to the back.

 My plan is to do a table and chairs and make a bar with bar stools.  I wanted to use these chairs, but I think they will take up too much room and not leave enough space for the bar.  They are more interesting though. I'm going to add some little lanterns and outdoor lights to the panels.

I may switch to these chairs instead because they're a little smaller.  

Spring Fever - CC 2015

After a lot of brainstorming I've decided what I'm going to do with the new Creating Contest Kit.  I'm going with a very modern tropical house.  It may be because it's been a long winter and it was 70 degrees a couple of days ago and it now it's in the 40's for awhile.  Call it Spring Fever.

I'm going to replace the sliding glass door with a folding glass door.  Hopefully I can figure out how to make it frameless like this one.

With any luck, it will fold up like this.

I would also like to make the doors lead out to an infinity pool with an ocean view and maybe an outdoor kitchen or modern outdoor bar.

I've got a good start.  I'm going to make the two partial walls on either side of the glass doors windows as to not limit the beautiful view.  I'm going to make the pool out of construction foam.  The foam is 1 inch thick and I'll probably have to use two layers to make the pool so I'll also have to beef up the base because it's only 7/8". (Did you notice that my workroom is still relatively organized?)

HBS Creating Contest 2015

Just last week, I got an e-mail from HBS...aka Miniatures.com asking if I would be interested in receiving the new 2015 Creating Contest kit Denise's City Cottage an blogging about it as I do the build.  Ironically, I got the e-mail seconds after I placed an order for the kit.  I had not decided if I was going to enter the contest or not, I just like the kit. The deal is that I cannot enter the kit that I receive free from HBS, but I can enter if I do a build with the kit that I purchased.  So, most likely I won't enter because I doubt if I will have the time or energy to do two builds, but we will see.

I think the kit is really interesting.  It can go so many ways.  I love the curved roof line and the fact that it comes with the doors and windows.  

My first thought was of course Palm Springs Mid-century modern, then I thought industrial modern beachy, then New York loft, Art Deco, a bar, a lighting store, a hotel room and the list goes on...now I just need to decide which type of design I'm going to go with.

Changes to the Citadel

I haven't worked on the Citadel in some time.  The last time I posted about it, it looked like this:

After the center portion falling on the floor and breaking several times plus the fact that I would have to figure out a way to reconfigure the stairs to fit without the curved section that came with the kit. I decided to make a few changes.  I think I am going to use the curved section, but add some windows or better yet, make it glass block.

This picture shows the house with the curved section attached.

I'm thinking of doing something like this:

Anyway, armed with a hot hair dryer and a putty knife I removed all of the siding.

 We have a lot of beech edge banding left over from our kitchen redo, so I decided to use it as the new siding..

 I know it looks a bit like all of the other Citadel dollhouses you see around, but I just wasn't feeling the other siding.  I do intend to keep the front center portion removable for taking pictures and I'm going to use metal to edge the the exterior walls.

Finish it Off Friday

I've had several scotch tape rolls laying around for over a year that I have been planning on making lamp shades with. So I finally got around to it.

 Here is the empty tape roll. I've been collecting them whenever I run out of scotch tape...Usually around Christmas time.

I added a strip of plastic on the inside ring and covered them with decorative paper and put some metallic embroidery thread around the edges.

I used decorative beads as the lamp bases and wired them with LED's.  I've found that the cheapest way to buy the LED's is on Ebay. I buy them pre-wired already with the resistors on them. I still need to add the plugs.

 I used cool white LED's

I think these shades would make pretty cool hanging lamps as well.

Finish It Off.....Tuesday!

Really, I have been doing some mini work...I took these pics of my progress two weeks ago.

Sofa cushions and chair frames.

 Working on a couple of fireplaces, but won't be able to spray paint them until next week when it gets above freezing here.

 MCM sofa and table set.

 Arms for chairs.

Modern wenge wood bed.

And here they are finished, at least most of them.

Have a happy Tuesday!