6/16/2013 Saturday

Finally got some more mini-time today. I love the explicit directions on this kit and the pictures that go with it. I seem to be moving very slowly on it, but I don't want to make a mistake. I pushed RL to one side on Saturday and minied all afternoon and evening - with a "Murder She Wrote" marathon going on the TV.

Here's the painted base and front and back steps, assembled, but not yet glued.

I still had a little trouble understanding "chamfering the edges" on the instruction sheet. The dictionary says it means (verb) "to cut a furrow in" or "to bevel" or "to make a groove". As a noun it means "beveled edge". These all are similar, but can be widely different in a miniature, especially a micro-miniature! After much study, I realized that I was simply to round the edges of the walls that will be part of the hinge. BTW the word "chamfer" originated in 1567.

Here are the front and back walls, partially glued. The little balcony is a dry-fit to be sure I've got the walls lined up. You'll notice a little protrusion on the outer edges of each wall. These will become the "hinges" and that's the edge I'm to chamfer on the four sides.

The instructions suggest painting the inside walls, but I'll have to use wallpaper to hide the lighting wires. And my lights arrived already! I has about to go to my email to see if the notification was available for the shipment, but the mailman drove up so I went outside first - and picked up the package of lights! Very fast service. If anyone wants the micro or chip LED lights for minis - please go to Evans Designs at modeltrainsoftware.com. I've been dealing with them for quite awhile now and they are great! I just picked up the phone for this order, told the man what I was building and he helped me pick out just the right lights for it.

Here is the ground floor with front and back walls - still dry fit. Do you notice the absence of masking tape? In previous builds I have had so much trouble with a dry fit in this scale because the tiny pieces won't stay put until I get the tape off my finger and onto the build! Very frustrating! But in this kit - the tab/slot is so precise that no tape is needed.

The picture at the top shows the above assembly placed on the base with the steps - still dry-fit.

I varnished the three floors. There is a fine grooving in the wood to resemble hardwood floors so I hope to buff them to a nice shine.