havanaholly

Liquor stores sell packs of turned toothpicks, which make nice baluster posts and porch rails in 1:24., and HO model railroad tunnels are what I used for chimneybreasts: I found actual 1:24 chimneybreasts in a miniature store in Richmond, VA:

I still get the 404.

Welcome to the little family.

I use premixed wallpaper paste from the hardware store, even with pre-pasted wallpapers (some of the borders have designs small enough to work in 1:12). If you use scrap book papers, get an extra sheet and test to make sure the paste doesn't make the colors run. I have also used some gift wrap paper successfully, as well as pretty papers from gift bags.

If the warp isn't too bad and you have nice heavy books (I used my old Nursing textbooks to flatten warps), dampen the warped piece, lay it on a flat surface on a towel or absorbent paper, lay a sheet of waxed paper to cover it and weigh it down with heavy books or food cans. Sometimes if it's not too bad of a warp the construction process can straighten it out.

Dana, I clicked on your link and got a 404 error.

The plywood kits are mostly die cut and the plywood is 1/8" thick luan plywood, both to make the kits affordable and to make the finished houses lighter in weight for transport. Shaving, sanding and spackle can vastly improve the finished appearance. I make most of my doors and some of my windows, if I want them to work nicely.

When you have made five posts you can open albums in the Gallery. Why not make an album of the rehab of this house?

Welcome to the little family, Molly. I somehow wound up with two Fairfield kits, so I built one of them inside out and made them halves of a Bar Harbor summer cottage. It is 1:24 scale, so I found that all the furniture I had purchased for it was closer to 1:32 scale and much too small, and ended up making most of it, as well as the little family that lives in it.

Just be careful with the heat gun and, if you can find a mount to hold it to let it cool between uses, do so; or else invest in a heat-resistant pad to lay it on, and turn it off when not in use. Also, it's easy to scorch the wood if you hold it too close to the house whilst softening the glue. These are things I have discovered from my own use of the hubs' heat gun.

ROTFLMAO! Have you read my mantra "mistakes are learning opportunities when you have no other instructor"? Obviously I have made a huge number of mess-ups; I learned early on to forget perfection and go for realism, and if you pay really close attention to the 1:1 world and objects around you, ain't none of them perfect.

Welcome to the little family, Paula. I wonder if it would be possible to soften the glue with a heat gun or some sort of solvent to help disassemble a section of the roof for hinging.

Well, yeah, but I'm an occasional sheller and born beach bum... I grew up in West Palm Beach, FL and the hubs grew up in Gulf Breeze, FL, so hiking in sand barefoot along the water line is something we both could do all day long when we were a tad younger, and are good for a couple of hours even now.

Thanks for the reminders!

Havanaholly here. My personal wood glue preference is Titebond wood glue (with the red cap). The hot glue that is most available for craft work is not very good for holding wood to wood over the long haul. Back in the days of Dean's grandfather (Dean owns Greenleaf now; his grandfather designed many of the houses) the hot glue he used may have been better. I live in the southeast and between the ambient heat & humidity hot glue just doesn't do the job.