The Lady Modeller

WOW! Oh...my...Gawd that is amazing! Sara

I went to a small show/sale today. Truly some amazing projects on display! But what is up with the bowls of chocolates? Almost every single vendor had a small bowl of Hershey's kisses or other miniature chocolates. Since I've been watching what I eat, I was distracted by the candy, rather than by the vendor's wares. I might have missed out on some good deals because I was too busy engaging my willpower! What's next, racks of BBQ ribs? I am sooo there... Sara

I will be going, will be my first mini show that is not a plastic model or military model show! Sara

Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions! I think I have enough ideas now to guide my way through color selection. Thanks guys!

I would design a boring, plain, rectangular ranch house. With a slide-out basement and a lift-off roof for the attic. And a big foundation for the pool, garden, RV port, and lawn.

I build all my trees out of wire and grout. The type of tree dictates the gauges and lengths of wire used. If the trunks have a lot of roots that start higher or are like a butress, I add on resin or balsawood slabs. I make mine like these: http://www.samtrees.com/cchanpin.asp?a_xia...%20Wire%20Trees http://www.salvillano.com/ The latter has some images to help get started. I have a modelling masterclass on terrain somewhere, with instructions on how to twist, bend, and grout. Then paint and cover. If you want, I could scan those photos. I mean, someone could scan them and send them to you, since I wouldn't want to infringe on any copyrights... Sara

What a wonderfully gorgeous and cozy room! Any man would be proud to have that study! Love the cats! Sara

Paint chips, like the sample cards from home improvement stores-instant drawer liners Backing for shelves and cabinets instead of real or molded bead board,placemats, picture frame mattes, pages for mini scrap or photo books, pages for greeting cards , stock to glue printable minis on. Very thick knit print fabric?

I'm coming from the military modelling domain, and a lot of the "tricks" that work in real life don't really work on that scale (armor, 1:35). Like black doesn't always make something look less weighty, and sometimes the viewing angle has to be changed to look larger. What about with dollhouses? I am curious, specifically, about size of houses and rooms. I have an RGT Princess Anne to work on once I complete my "practice house", which is still undecided. I was thinking about a light butter yellow for the siding color. For example, if I paint a smaller house lighter colors, will it appear larger (desired)? And if I paint a large or huge house dark, will it continue to appear massive. I've seen pictures of the Garfield where it looks like a huge house in dark colors (because it is), but looks more demure in lighter tones. In small rooms, does having mirrors help, and how do colors and patterns in a room change the perception of size? Mind you, I'm not having any skills in interior design, and my basic color palette with modelling involves olive drab, flesh, and mud/rocks/sticks/grease, and dioramas tend to have as much stuff packed in to them as possible. I would like to know what you guys think about the role of color and perception of size. Thank you for your advice! Sara

Wow, that looks *very* posh! Also makes the room look a lot bigger. Way to go! Sara

I can save you a lot of money here...just build one yourself and model it after a real-life attic stair. All you need is a rectangle, a piece of string, and part of a ladder. You can slap together a four rung ladder out of coffee sticks. Glue the string to the rectangle, and use two bits of modelling or braces wax to secure the two back corners (away from the string) underneath the attic opening. Put the ladder on top of the rectangle, on top of the attic opening. Now when you give a good snap yank, the whole thing will come apart and the ladder will fall down, and you will be left holding a piece of string and dodging the rectangle and ladder. Just like a real life one! Ok, maybe *my* real-life attic stairs. What a terror this old house is. Though, I'm with Dave, it looks not too hard. Do you have one of these in your attic? If not, I'm sure me and others on this board can take photos if you get tempted to build one yourself. I can tell you though, that the ends of each ladder section are cut at angles where that V-shaped hinge is. That is how it folds up. You could easily use a fabric hinge and then add a decorative hinge to emulate the V-shaped pressure hinge. Sara

I can't add anything here, but I can't wait to see your creations, and I wish you all the luck in getting your mini outfits together! Sara