.....And she's OFF!

Despite waking up this morning full of a chesty cold lurgy, I decided to hit the ground running, so I cleared a space on my desk in the workroom in order to familiarise myself with my new half scale kit.

I'm not overly familiar with 1/24th, having been loyally wedded to 1/12th for most of my working life.  Admittedly, my little wee toy doll's dolls definitely qualify as 1/24th but working with tiny dolls is very different from buildings, accessories, furnishings etc.  

I'm also painfully aware that my last go at 1/24th ended in ignominy (see previous post) and that the unassembled Willow Cottage kit is back in its box, awaiting its fate.  I'm consoling myself with the notion that it was simply the wrong kit at the wrong time.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it *ahem*

This new shop/house kit is a very different proposition.  It's rather more complex, and a cursory glance at the instructions has alerted me to the fact that I'm going to have to follow my own advice and read everything very carefully first, rather than going all 'gung ho' and forging ahead willy nilly. 

First rule of making anything from a kit.... familiarise yourself with all the bits.  As this Petite Properties kit is laser cut, the instructions contain vital 'parts identification' diagrams, so I've just spent the past hour carefully identifying and marking each part with its corresponding letter.   This proved to be somewhat easier said than done, as some of the parts are quite similar, but by a painstaking process of elimination all the bits are now marked up and accounted for.

I've also printed off a high quality image of the style I'm aiming for to refer to as I go along.  I'll be painting many of the components before assembly, so that's the next job on my list.

Otherwise, I've been researching distressed brickwork and Ashlar blocks... yes it's amazing the amount of work involved in making small buildings.  Also, I want to emulate the Blue Roof style of the antique doll's house in the reference photo so I'm hitting Pinterest big time.

I'd quite like to have a canopied porch with first floor railings along the front... I'll have to have a rake through my bits boxes to see if I have anything suitable which I can cannibalise.
I'll also be making pediments for the upstairs windows, and if humanly possibly, I want to decorate the sides of the building as well.  I might have a go at copying the windows by cutting out layers of card to build up the profile.... the upstairs windows are lovely, with intricate latticed panes, which might be a bit tricky to execute by hand, so I might try using my cutting machine. 

Also, in a move known as 'getting WAY ahead of myself', I've even found a lovely free font for the shop name.....

So far, (although possibly benefiting from being lulled into a false sense of security) so good....