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1 hour ago, havanaholly said:

Find a photo of him you like and size it to scale, print it and mount it on chipboard and cut it out?

She wants a little 3 D Freddie sitting at the piano playing so a 2D cut out wont do :(

@Keifer what about doing a small themed scene for the holidays to put out in the house? That might be a quick build to get the mojo flowing again?

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Karin the one thing that is puzzling me at the moment is because the house has wood shingles and I never saw shingles on a roof till I came to Canada,this is a very common design of house and it would have had tile of some sort. The only thing like the roof of the dollhouse is one of shingle shaped slate tiles so maybe I could get away with painting them slate gray like the picture of the slate full size roof shown.

I am just glad I am starting to come back from where I was, I feel like I have lost most of this year and half of last year. I really thought I was either losing it or I was close to the bottom of the slope. Anyway it seems I am starting to come back from ??? Thank God. I can't seem to find things I thought I had and silly things like that but I am definitely better..nuff of that!! Going forward and back up the damn slope.

The roof shown below is a bit odd but the flat part looks very much like my shingles so I think that is the way to go. I have managed to fix all the broken parts on it  so first job finished. Now I have to unscrew the main house and put it back together with glue. I still haven't; christened it.

tiled roof.jpg

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24 minutes ago, SewMini said:

She wants a little 3 D Freddie sitting at the piano

I think your best bet might be a 3-D printed figure that you can paint.  There are a lot of 1:24 scale printed figurines on Shapeways, running around $10.00.  Many of the shop owners are willing to do custom work.  You could send a request and just see what they could do.  This is assuming you're going for half-scale.  At roughly 1:12 scale, there's a great, posable (but pricey) Freddie Mercury action figure out there, with swappable hands and facial expressions.

 

1 hour ago, Keifer said:

Been having trouble finding my mini mojo lately.... a bit of a funk.  I went out to the garage to cut some wood just to make me feel like I was doing something.  I figure I’ll build the base and see if that sparks a fire.  

Hope you get your mojo back, Keith.  I look forward to your pictures.  Miranda had a good idea--rather than a whole house, a small scene or room for now.

 

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Jeannine,I wanted slates for the roof of my pub without the weight of real slates, so I simulated them using colored construction paper and chalk pastels.  The UV sunlight bleached my "slates" tan, but I have since painted the roof a dark slate color and decided to quit whilst I was ahead...

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Jeannine, I can’t tell by the photo but do the wood shingles have groves in them? I ask because slate is very smooth. Either way when you first asked the question about the shingles I thought that the roof looked like it was in excellent condition and applied perfectly so my first instinct was to paint it slate gray. 

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On 11/9/2018, 4:19:35, grazhina said:
3 hours ago, SewMini said:

Want to help me fogure out how to make a tiny freddie mercury? :D 

I hope I can get back to the colonial house tomorrow and can remember how I finally remembered how to do the dormer

I'm glad to hear I'm not alone......I do this a lot!!! I stop working to mull an obstacle over, then have a plan and forget the plan

Aren't you glad you weren't tasked with fixing the microwave??? :blowup:

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2 hours ago, SewMini said:

She wants a little 3 D Freddie sitting at the piano playing so a 2D cut out wont do :(

@Keifer what about doing a small themed scene for the holidays to put out in the house? That might be a quick build to get the mojo flowing again?

Have you seen this video? My kiddo showed it to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_vQW3xQEhc

Edit, I don't know where I saw this video! I apologize if it was posted here already. (Yep, headed to dementia home sooner that expected)

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Jeannine, so glad to hear it about getting your mojo back. 

Another option with the tiles would be to cover them with a thin layer of paperclay. You could get them to look more like slate with a smooth surface then paint. Might be fun to play around with. I’ve done that on several different houses (went over existing shingles with paperclay) and liked the results so much better than the plain shingles. But I’m sure it will look fine whatever you decide. That’s interesting about different regions not using shingles. 

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1 hour ago, WyckedWood said:

That’s interesting about different regions not using shingles. 

Here in Florida there aren’t many wood shingles due to fire codes and although there are some asphalt shingles we mostly have concrete tiles because of hurricanes. I wish we could have slate like I saw in New Hampshire but the cost would be prohibitive.

 

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Thanks folks, it is the UK that I never saw use wood shingles but the picture of the real house roof has slate which are the same shape as the dollhouse ones.

Sable they are applied very well all apart from the last two rows on the dormers  I have removed the odd placed ones and lifted up the rows of the rest just a tad to make it even then I can put some roof trim on which will just land where the tiles stop so I think it will be OK. Thank you for suggesting painting them slate gray, I could make them look a bit more rustic and give a more defined line between them too  then with a bit of dry brushing over the first slate grey col they may look quite authentic.or.  Concrete tiles were very popular in the UK too. I should add they are quite thick, much thicker than I have seen any shingle here so that will help with the designing too I think. I am very happy so far with the repairs so next job is to get the house glued together and do ant repairs as I come to them. I need to find some stairs too, I think I had some but I may have used them on something else.

Holly I don.t want to remove them all as they are mostly very good.f I did I would have done them in slate

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19 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

I think your best bet might be a 3-D printed figure that you can paint.  There are a lot of 1:24 scale printed figurines on Shapeways, running around $10.00.  Many of the shop owners are willing to do custom work.  You could send a request and just see what they could do.  This is assuming you're going for half-scale.  At roughly 1:12 scale, there's a great, posable (but pricey) Freddie Mercury action figure out there, with swappable hands and facial expressions.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding me of Shapeways! I found a seller in France who has a piano singer on a bench and a grand piano that he's going to try to produce in 1:48 scale for me. We just need to add a figurine for his partner, Jim Hutton, out in the garden. If only we could get 3D printed cats that small :D Freddie had endless amounts of cats. I went through my stash last night and I have the perfect sized piece of 1/4" ply for the base so we laid out the house and where the landscaping is. Fingers crossed I can get that Shapeways Freddie.

Jeannine, I haven't seen a single shingle since I moved to Denmark. I was kind of shocked to realize that shingles are a bit of a North American thing. Looking back, most buildings I've seen in Europe are either tiled with some flavor of tile or flat slate. You could get them even more realistic by adding a bit of green drybrushing to look like moss growing. That seems to be a common issue here.

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12 minutes ago, SewMini said:

I found a seller in France who has a piano singer on a bench and a grand piano that he's going to try to produce in 1:48 scale for me. We just need to add a figurine for his partner, Jim Hutton, out in the garden. If only we could get 3D printed cats that small :D Freddie had endless amounts of cats.

Woo hoo!  So glad you found a possibility for Freddie.  I hope he turns out perfectly.  On the cats, Barbara Ann Meyer makes incredible cats in 1:48 scale, but she is in the U.S.  You don't by any chance have relatives visiting at Christmas or sending a care package that they could tuck a few tiny cats in?  :)

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Well, I think the worst of "the Move" is over. LOL  My mother seems to be adapting to life at the retirement home and my life seems to be coming down to it's normal level - - enough that I can begin thinking minis again!  :D 

Speaking of losing one's mojo....I sure lost it for my current client house (the Newport). :( So to get the creating juices flowing again I am repairing my DS and DIL's Christmas lantern I made for them last year.  I had kept it at my house because they were moving soon...unfortunately I managed to knock it from it's perch. Yup, broken glass and minis everywhere!  So while I have it apart I decided to do a little upgrading.  They are Disney fans, and this Christmas scene had a Florida theme so I found some Disney Christmas wrapping paper patterns online to re-wrap the little gift boxes.  For some additional tree ornaments, I am going to make a trip to the craft store to see if I can find some teeny tiny star fish to paint white.

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It was pricey but I was able to get a few things from Shapeways

Freddie: https://www.shapeways.com/product/DKHZRNEE6/printle-thing-piano-singer-1-48?optionId=75106282

Grand Piano: https://www.shapeways.com/product/H8QUSKCLM/1-48-concert-grand-piano?optionId=43241045&li=marketplace

Jim Hutton: https://www.shapeways.com/product/PPHNPBCA4/printle-c-homme-1119-1-48-wob?optionId=65598049&li=marketplace

Fingers crossed they are all actually 1:48 scale!

Maya picked out 4 cats from Barbara Ann Meyer's page but those will have to wait a little bit. These figurines from Shapeways were $50 and I still have no idea if I will have to pay import tax and processing on them. They were priced in Euros so fingers crossed they will just appear one day.

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Well I ordered the Shapeway figurines so that's the hardest part out of the way. I can cobble together the rest with my own supplies. Getting the Freddie and Jim were really important and I don't want to wait too long because i can't build anything until those come in. I want to make sure the house is big enough for them. She really only wants 3 rooms decorated anyway. The whole house will be closed off so you wont be able to access anything. It's really just there for a glimpse. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been taking a mini break for a few months. I think my stalling is due to challenges I've run up against with the Lawbre French country manor. So I'm now feeling the itch to get going again and have done 2 things....created a list of things to be done, and updated my blog on some things done in the last year. I also posted about these challenges - getting things to fit and making decisions about paint color etc for doors and windows. 

https://mini-madness.blogspot.com/2018/11/challenges-with-french-country-manor.html

 

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Heidi I did not know you had a blog!!! I'm so excited to know this, and am looking forward to catching up on the French Country Manor!!! I added you to my blog list, too, so I won't miss an update! I'm glad your mini mojo is returning and I hope you feel comfortable committing to the choices so you can keep moving forward again! It's such a great house, and I love the color choices so far!

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41 minutes ago, My Miniature Madness said:

Heidi I did not know you had a blog!!! I'm so excited to know this, and am looking forward to catching up on the French Country Manor!!! I added you to my blog list, too, so I won't miss an update! I'm glad your mini mojo is returning and I hope you feel comfortable committing to the choices so you can keep moving forward again! It's such a great house, and I love the color choices so far!

Thanks Jodi!

I've had the blog a while and its in my footer but some people turn the footer off and thats that. I've not been a prolific blogger, but I've tried to ramp it up again. When it takes me years to do a house, I tend to forget the challenges and ways I worked things out. And while I may have added stuff to this forum, before I joined this forum low those many years ago, I was on a forum that is no longer....lost those posts and techniques years ago.

I do have my photos, and have put some of them on Flickr, I'm finding I still don't have the backstory. Like the french doors here, I also had photos of them being placed from the exterior and I knew that didn't sound right. (Lawbre has you place windows and doors from the inside, and then trim on the outside). What I was able to determine after looking through all those photos with the doors placed wrong, was I was also struggling with the color, and decided to paint a set in tan, and placed it outside to see how the tan would look from the exterior. So....I'm trying to use this as more of a journal.

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I just this morning picked up a Duracraft San Franciscan kit (#550, which I believe is the first version of that house they made?) in a factory sealed box for $60. It was listed on Craigslist as for sale at a local thrift shop--the shop has a special Craigslist section where they sell certain "premium" items, *but* it was listed under "miniature" and not "dollhouse" or "doll house," (I always check both of those, but now I'll remember to check "miniature" as well!) which is probably why it was still available after being listed for a week. 

I'm not a hundred percent sure what I'm going to do with it--Victorian isn't really my style, and I'll have to think about how I want to change it up--but for that price and no shipping costs it was a no-brainer to go check and see if it was still there when they opened this morning. Last night I looked at some photos of the finished house online, and... I don't know, there was something beyond just "what a great deal" urging me to go for it. I do really like the Duracraft houses and their construction design...I'm halfway through a Heritage kit that my parents got for $18 one year and gave me for Christmas. Maybe with the SF it's the tower. My youngest niece is 3 and obsessed with both dollhouses and fairy tales, especially Rapunzel, so it may end up as a special project I do for and with her.  Maybe each room is a scene from a different fairy tale? Or maybe I just kidproof it as much as I can and let her go to town with her own imagination. 

It's sitting in the back of my car while I'm at work, so I haven't even had a chance to open it yet. I have a long to-do list for when I get home tonight, but I may just scrap it all to open that box and investigate a little!

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I've got the second floor of my 2 room 1700 stone farmhouse almost finished, have to work on the ceiling next. Every time I realize that I've made a mistake I sort of freeze and go into a short panic mode that lasts a minute or so, then I start working on - how do I fix this? Sometimes it takes a while to figure out how to fix my mistake. Offhand I can think of 7 mistakes I've made on the 2nd floor alone, fortunately I've been able to figure out how to fix or hide them all. 

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