Nibbling in the corners

Been kidnapped by life for a few days, popping my head around the Potting Shed door from time to time to make sure everything was still there as it were.

Yup, still there

Did manage to play or should I say hide in there occasionally.

In the sitting room

The relationship of Great Aunt A’s moulded hand to the teapot handle felt a little uncomfy so have decided that for some unknown reason she will hold it with a small piece of tea-towel; not wonderful but a little less unsettling

Looking through the bay window at the scene I think I can just make out the tea coming out of the teapot – or maybe not.

In the kitchen

Hung a linen kitchen towel under the drainer

and while I was at it, put one up on the airer too

In the boys’ bedroom

It wouldn’t be a young boy’s bedroom in the 50s without a game of crash I don’t reckon. Here we have a Jowett Javelin crashing into

an old coach – wonder which will win.
What are doorways for if not to create a hazard to pedestrian traffic?

and the bathroom – which is where I’m supposed to be

Hastily assembled long handle bath brush using scrap strip wood and unravelled sisal string

Ditto with the shaggy bath mat but using corner of an old face-cloth and some wool, though I see that in my haste I failed to cut all the loops – oops

Then started playing around with the bits and pieces of dressing

but really ought to finish the tiling, make the shelves and do the doors and windows.

See you next week all being well 😉

 

Jumping back in

Dining Room – working on the missing furniture

Bought three Jane Harrop 1:12  furniture kits from her 30s – 40s era range; the drop-leaf table, the fireside chairs and the dining chairs, and thought I ‘d better start with the ‘simplest’ one.

Experience with kits?

Cooker kit with its covering photo

Four gas ring cooker covered in sticky film

I’d used one of her kits before for the cooker and personalised it to bring it more into the 50s with four metal burners and covered it with stick on shiny self-adhesive coloured film from Elf Miniatures rather than painting it.  I’d found the instructions very easy to follow as they included colour photos of various stages as well, so, before starting out on the first kit I have some idea of what to expect.

The dining chairs – parts for two provided in the kit

Marked as ‘for beginners‘ in her book “Thirties and Forties Miniatures in 1:12 Scale” (Amazon and Abebooks ) I set out to follow the kit instructions as carefully as I could.  (And yes, I’ve found these costs quoted for a copy of the book to be quite common, but if you look out for it, and are not in a rush, it occasionally pops up on auction sites at a less breathtaking price – which is how I recently acquired mine.)

Thirties and Forties Miniatures in 1:12 Scale

If you’ve got the book why buy the kits, I hear you ask?

The book has the same instructions and photos as the kits but I’m afraid there was no way I could produce the excellent and uniform cutting of strip wood to the required sizes listed in the book for the furniture and expect to produce anything like square sets of uniform lengths, whereas the kit has it all beautifully machine cut.

In the kit

Preparations

Fool-hardy and somewhat cavalier in attitude regarding my craftwork I may be, but not yet so silly as to attempt to do two chairs at the same time.  I like to work on the principle that if I make a disappointing mess of it with the first one (a) I’d have experience of how it works and what to watch out for and (b) one chair done more of less adequately would be better than two messy ones.

Items required and some to add

Tacky glue is advised on the packet of the kit.  I use a Bostik white glue (semi tacky) and a minute droplet of PVA – I find that, as long as you don’t keep moving the joint around, they make a very good set together and are not too immediately sticky to clear up any excess from the joints.

Shoe polish for colouring and finish of wood. We only have black and what is labelled brown but looks more like ox-blood colour so I went for Georgian Oak wood stain and a finish of Scratch Remover for Light Wood which adds a pleasant woody glow to the stain which remains even when burnished up.

Need to get a new bottle if I’m using it for the other kits!

Bottom three pieces seem to me
to now have a woody glow

Square drying needed

Next needed is a square jig of some sort.  I needed to try out the metal bars (see “Passing on the Word”) bought recently for use as a square jig.  Great weight and speedy delivery after ordering, my only disappointment is that the ends are not cut quite as square as I’d have liked so they don’t sit right.  I made sure of how I’d set them out with a set square each time I moved any of the bars.  I’d bought four so that gave me two jigs to work with, handy for sticking the first pieces to each of the two sides of a chair so that they could be drying at the same time.

Have to be careful which end I use and at what angle it’s placed

Marking and cleaning

I’ve added a propelling pencil for marking distances and centres, a thin stiff-ish bristle brush for removing excess squishy glue and a damp cloth for cleaning brush between times and my fingers all the time.

What is provided

In the pack, along with the necessary lengths of wood for the frame and the seat, there is

• a fine piece of sandpaper
• a beautiful and amply sized piece of glove leather
• plenty of wadding for the drop in seats

Laying out the pieces

Of necessity some pieces are similar to others. For instance here I’ve put the seat pieces on the wrong size checking squares as they differ by only a small margin. Also watch out for The top rail/stretchers and the three back slats and keep everything separate till you get to know the pieces better.

First chair – two halves drying

Never sure that the table I’m using is as flat as it should be, I used a thick-ish piece of MDF as a surface and placed a plastic mat under the metal bars so that any excess glue escaping under the kit pieces wouldn’t stick themselves to the MDF!

First stages in the metal bar jig

Second stages

Meanwhile I’ve had a go at the drop-in seat

All the instructions have been incredibly clear and the only juggling is has been with my fingers and small pieces of wood.

As drying is now the thing, that’s probably as much as is going to get done today I reckon.  As all the joints are flat butted and not pinned I must be more than usually careful (me being pretty clumsy) not to knock it as I go along.  Once the seat is in place it should be much stronger but there’s two more pieces to be squeezed in before I reach that.  And then there’s the second chair …

Kitchen dressing and messing

Kitchenette

Often used to refer both to a small kitchen or a kitchen cabinet which has cupboards, shelves and work surface all together. These days it appears to cover a small cooking area with fridge and microwave and possibly a little more.

In the case of this 1930s – 50s attempt we have a small kitchen – gone is the living room kitchen arrangement but what is left is a small cooking area and a dining room and sitting room.  We have a kitchenette with, on the left, a kitchenette in it (bright yellow and white piece of furniture at the front).

Wiring run

More a store cupboard than a larder
I suppose, built as a loose item in the back right corner

Balancing precariously and removed from its home

the major part with the shelves and the lights will eventually (hopefully) still be able to move forward a little

and very, very hopefully, the top bit should come out altogether

because the wiring all runs out down that shaft and through the slot down on the right at floor level

Starting to stock it up further and now lit. Awaiting a box of goodies to go on a lower shelf and for that jar of raspberry jam to be put straight

Somebody has been busy?

This kitchen is a bit of a Marie Celeste.  Lots has been going on but no one is around.

Boojars potatoes and peelings on newspaper – I’ve taken the liberty of adding three carrots for a little colour on that side of the room

Some one is warming good china – not so sure about that but the colours are good

Kettle on the stove and small (1:24) pan/casserole on the back light. Shelves above have the other pans and the colander is now in the sink so the veg can be washed

On the other side of the kitchen is the kitchenette cupboard with lunch-time sandwich makings. The larger slanting cupboard comes from Elf Miniatures and the smaller one is something I chopped up and halved, the front half is over the fridge.

A closer look at lunch. The cheese and tomato slices come from sashasstore as did those carrots

and there’s a large chip butty on the table, though someone’s gone off in a hurry leaving their floral pinny on the back of the chair

If you look very carefully at the yellow cupboards on the left, there are two old Bero recipe books sitting on the shelf.

Views all round

From the front door through to the kitchen

and from the kitchen to the front door

Through the dining room open door into the open kitchen

and through the dining room hatch too – though someone’s turned off the lights!

Still an airer to go in here

Have chickened out of putting it up before ceiling and now regretting it but will ‘go to it’ next time

Oh, and I forgot to mention the mouse trap under the front edge of the cooker.

Conclusions before explanation.
Or is that excuses after descriptions?
Lopsided as ever and whichever decorator the inhabitants had in to do the border must not be asked to do a border again.  Partially due to sloppiness and a lot more to do with small space and inability to tip head to one side and back again for more than a short time, (benign positional vertigo) though I did spread it all out over a week and a bits worth of sortings and stickings.  Self inflicted scrappiness …
Overall, as long as you can put up with wonky then it probably gives the feeling I’m after 🙂

— ~ —

Meanwhile

The two parts of the naked woman lamp are drying out nicely and still seem to fit together.

The search for –

a better lamp/naked woman arrangement

To clear that up for those who have not read previous, I bought a beautifully painted figure from jlon7197 on eBay and wanted to marry it to a lamp.  The one I’d got (a table lamp) looked monstrous next to her and so I’ve been looking for a more ‘torch’ shaped lamp, preferably LED.  I’ve bought a bronze coloured oil lamp and am working on a possible matching together at the moment.

Previous lamp and figure on edge of sideboard in dining room

Broke the oil lamp knob off and, making sure not lost sight of the on/off switch and the way to get the lamp out of any construction, I’ve wrapped base in cling film and started a small rock face platform

Painted up for the first coats and all still drying – once more on the end of the sideboard

Looks better with this lamp though not so sure about the look where rocks and lamp meet. Back view good on bookcase in corner

Now how to fix it so the lamp is handleable – working on it

and a crisper linoleum

New lino for old

Gone back to the kitchen at last.  All worked stopped ‘cos was brooding about the lino yet again.  Loved the pattern but not the fuzziness. I’d built it up from a web photo of a piece of original old lino of the time but our colour printer is not really up to anything that needs crispness of print and this design needed some crispness.

Then on Poppets Dolly Bits I came across the actual lino pattern beautifully printed out.  But, of course I found it too bright so I’ve stained it and messed it about.

The brightness of the bought in on left, the milkiness of home printed in centre and the dirtied down stained sheet of bought in on right

Set out pattern cross-wise and added extra stain round edges and the track ways left by years of use perhaps

Bit OTT behind the door but I like it 😉

Now for the removable larder and the walls