Sunday 14 January 2007

Law of irrevocability

This will surely hit a chord with many miniaturists who experiment with 'kit bashing'.

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to turn the ground floor flat windows into large, square bay windows, in order to add interest to the front of the shop and more importantly to give me large areas of window display space.

I bought two extra windows, identical to those included with the shop kit, and set about cannibalising the spare windows to make side windows for the bay. The top and bottom of each bay will be solid wood.

So far so good.

I am sure you are all familar with the old adage.

"Measure twice
Cut once"

Sage advice I'm sure you'll agree. And advice which I take very, very seriously. You see I have nigh on 20 years experience of doll's house building, from kits and from scratch, and over the years I have made every mistake in the book, and even more which aren't. In fact, if I were ever to publish a book of my own mistakes, it would run to several volumes. I say this merely to illustrate the point that many years of miniature experience does not confer invulnerability when it comes to getting things wrong.

Not only do I measure twice.... I usually measure at least half a dozen times.
Then I make a cup of tea and gaze out of the window at the fence panel which blew down in the gales a few weeks ago and ponder on whether the neighbours will fix it (it is their boundary) or whether we will have to "get a man in"...........

But I digress. I think that is called displacement activity and it is something to be guarded against *cough*

So.

I have two windows. One will be the front of the bay, and the other will be cut and cunningly fashioned to form the two sides.

Simple.

Easy peasy.

HAH!

I will gloss over my FIRST mistake, which was very minor and which anybody could make.
In my defence, I am absolutely 100% positive that my craft saw is ever so slightly bent. Extraordinarily useful for cutting curves but not so hot for straight lines.

No matter.

Back to the job in hand, and bringing side A to front B reveals yet another minor, but unforseen and therefore extremely irritating hitch. The edges won't butt neatly together as I have omitted to take into account the 'framing' around the edges of the window, which would normally allow it to slide smoothly into the cut-out in the wall and stay there as if by magic.

"Easily done" I can hear you say.
"Something anyone could have overlooked" I expect you are thinking.

Plan B.

Wander forlornly downstairs with both pieces of window in order to seek advice from perfectionist partner, who, as I had secretly hoped, offered to perform a very nifty bit of excision so that the two parts miraculously come together perfectly. Even small dog is impressed enough to stop chewing some mdf offcuts in order to admire the now wonderful symmetry of the window.

Et voila.

The first window is very nearly ready to assemble, barring a few bits of sanding. I will also stain all the components before glueing, on order to avoid unsightly white patches, where the stain won't penetrate the glue. See, I sometimes do learn from my mistakes.

Just the other window to do now..............

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