LauraLark

I'd snap it up, but I live in Maryland :(

(Sorry, can't seem to get rid of the quote. This is LauraLark) I love that quirky little house more every time I see it! Anyone know if it's a kit?

Yay!! Thank you for asking for me And glad to hear your goodies are in the mail.

Oh wow, that's so great of them! And I will definitely get that book, thank you for the recommendation.

Absolutely! I'm afraid I haven't made any yet though. I meant that your post got me into them - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be confusing. I will be ordering Cobblestone Snicket as soon as it's back in stock though and I'll make sure to let you know when I get going on it.

I bought some readable books from this seller recently (set of Harry Potter first year textbooks heh). They're quite nice. Cinderella (and a lot of others) are on my wish list.

I am now! I need Cobblestone Snicket Ahh, someday.

Laser cut wood. Actually, the packaging doesn't specifically say wood, but I'm certain it is.

Thanks guys. I want them to be sturdy enough to hold their shape while being assembled and moved around a bit (I'm a perfectionist and also a rearranger, heh). I'm careful and not particularly clumsy but I can easily see myself accidentally fumbling a bit with them while handling them and just want to protect them just in case.

I bought kits from sdk miniatures for building furniture for my 1:144 house and am wondering if there's a way to make them sturdier. The wood is sooooo thin (by necessity, I'm not saying it's an inferior product. They're beautiful little kits and well priced, but they add up and I don't want to end up having spend the time/effort in vain). I worry about the furniture being easily bent or not standing up straight. I'm brainstorming ways to add small bits of hidden wood to some of them but it won't work for most of the bendy pieces (chair backs, bed posts etc). Is there anything I can coat them with to make them sturdier? Or any really really thin material I can glue to the backs/undersides that would help? Thanks.

Ooh, didn't even think of the removing wood thing. Thank you!

Thank you! And I hope you find your Beacon Hill soon

Hi all! I've got a 1:144 Beacon Hill I'm excited to start working on. I've been doing research to try to minimize mistakes since this will be my first dollhouse (or second, depending if I get more excited about my approx. quarter scale one instead in the next day or so) and have a couple questions. And general tips and tricks are more than welcome too! 1. I know it's generally not a good idea to prime/paint pieces while they're still in the sheet, but I went through a gallery here where a member didn't seem to have trouble doing that with a 1:144 Beacon Hill and it definitely seems like it'd be easier to handle painting tiny pieces that way. Thoughts? 2. I've seen mention of using weights to keep pieces from warping. How do I do that? Paint, then cover with wax paper or something and then put something heavy on top? Seems like that would interfere with the paint drying. Or do you do it after it's dry? Though I could also the painter's tape trick (attach it sticky side up and then put the wood pieces on the tape before painting). 3. I was planning to use latex as a primer, but will acrylic paint be ok? I only have acrylic paint on hand this weekend and I'm itching to get painting. 4. On pieces this tiny, is it pointless (or overwhelmingly difficult) to sand a bit between coats of paint? I can't decide if it's more important or less to do it on small scale models lol. (Harder to see things in general on smaller scale but that makes imperfections look even bigger proportionally-speaking.) Thank you!

That'd be fantastic, thank you so much!!!

I bought this kit years ago and opened it to get the instructions out so I could start planning the interior and never put them back , and now I can't find them. Does anyone know where I could get a copy? Or alternatively, is it simple enough for me to be able to figure it out from detailed pictures of it being constructed (courtesy of a gallery here, thank you Smallscale!) or maybe even from looking at the full scale Beacon Hill instructions? Thank you!

Ooh...good sleuthing! A second kit actually exists in my house - my sister and I each received one as gifts from our parents when we were kids (I remember the boxes being opened, starting to lay out the wall pieces, and then everything going back in for 20+ years. Lol). Maybe she'd let me have hers *fingers crossed*

That's what I was afraid of...I suppose I should just accept the fact that I'll end up with a small village's worth of houses either way and just go with it, heh.

I can't believe I'm asking this, but how hard would it be to do all my intended alterations as well as raise the ceilings? Lol. I'm so so tempted to trade it in on a Beacon Hill, I love the idea of 12" and 10" ceilings on the first and second floors (I think that's accurate, anyway) but I already have this kit and I love the detailing. And the fact that it doesn't have a Mansard roof - I'd end up with 3 dollhouses with that style roof if I went for the Beacon Hill (though to be fair, one of them is only 1:144 scale). Plus I think I'd have to bash the Beacon Hill too to make it big enough for my picky intentions. Sigh. Sorry, thinking out-loud.

Thank you! You have a beautiful home, btw. As do your dollies :)

When I checked the other day, it was to make sure it wasn't the MDF version. So definitely a 550 or 555, just can't remember which. I'll haul it out tomorrow and get the actual model number.

Oh, ok. Yeah, I haven't gotten the instructions out yet. I'm just still concerned about the wood expansion thing. And was hoping it'd be simple to swap those walls out for plywood, this kit is intimidating enough on it's own without adding expansions lol.

It really is, thank you! And thank you everyone Thought of another question - how hard would it be to replace the tricky wall construction with solid plywood? I've never done a dollhouse or any woodworking before and I have no idea how hard it is to figure out exactly what size those wall pieces would have to be.

I have a San Fran kit (almost certain it's the 555 but it's in my basement and I figure it probably doesn't matter for my question) and have imagined the occupants and interior designing and decided that they need 9 or 10' (in real size) ceilings. Could someone measure their completed San Fran for me to see if the bottom two floors have 9-10" ceiling heights please? Also, the future occupants need more space. Interior furnished shots of the San Fran that I've found online look pretty cramped. I gather through reading threads here that the walls are assembled in pieces (and that for wood expansion and contraction reasons it'd be better not to glue the wall pieces together horizontally but instead to glue them at the ends into the slots at the side. I think I'm getting that right) rather than in 1 solid piece and that this kit is difficult to begin with. How complicated would it be for me to add an extension to both sides? One side would be a circular/hexagonal conservatory and the other would be a square 2 story bump out with a simple pitched roof. Both would require a cut in the wall shaped like a rectangle with a triangle on top. (I'd also put a dormer or two in the attic but that shouldn't be too difficult, right? Oh, and a basement. But disguised as a giant rock - they live on a cliff, apparently - so architecturally not complicated. I hope.) The alternative is trying to find a different Victorian kit altogether that is bigger but I'm not finding anything I love. Thank you everyone.

Ooh, great ideas!! I didn't get a chance to open it up today, really excited to now though :)

Thank you everyone! It just arrived today, so I'll open it up tomorrow and give it a look. And I hadn't thought about lighting, I'd definitely want it to have some kind of light in the interior. I'll have to see what the simplest way to do that would be.