Kit Bashing The Cloud Palace....

Oh, What Have I Done....

This was supposed to be a Simple Easy Little kit, Dear Readers! It was going to be a Quick build.... with not too many troublesome Details.... but then I decided to make a few changes.... and that is where I get into trouble every time! Well, before I get to showing you what I am talking about, I must point out that I did make a couple more "Cloud Chairs"... so all the Bearys are sitting comfortably now! And because I had to interrupt their morning "Kaffeklatch" to get any work done on the Palace at all... they decided to Fly their Cloud Chairs off to the top of the Castle Dollhouse where they could sit undisturbed....

You may notice that Sir Orion cleverly moved his chair closer to Blue's chair.....

He is finding it difficult to think of ways to express himself.....

being a Great Hunter and Warrior, 

he is not used to sitting at a table with China teacups!

But I will let them have their time together...

I have work to do!

To begin with, I wanted to finish the decorative painting on the interior walls....

So I added the herbs to the planters.....

I painted Lavender in one of them.....

And in the other I painted a combination of Sage, Hyssop and Rosemary...

Of course, I had to add some more Butterflies....

A couple of Cabbage butterflies .... and a Common Sulphur....

And another couple of Tiger Swallowtails.

(They are giggling deliriously!)

And then I started to assemble the house and Glue it together!

This is harder than it sounds... 

because the pieces just don't all fit exactly as they should!

But gradually it started to come together....

and then I remembered that I still needed to make the front door hinges!

I like my doors to open and close, 

and the kit just has you glue the door in place!

I was very glad I remembered this before I glued the front panel to the house!!!

I needed to cut the wood away where the hinges would go...

You can see (above) the two small gaps I cut into the frame and the door....

I am using small pieces of leather for the hinges here...

Here you can see them glued into place with the door wide open....

The leather fills the gaps and folds easily to fit.

Metal hinges would do the same... 

but they would be harder to attach in this thin wood.

Here you can see the front panel attached....

the lighting is not very good... 

it is night again....

But that was just the Beginning, Dear Readers!

Some of you might remember my mentioning that there would be a Tower....

Made from Oatmeal boxes....

Well, I made a start by cutting one of them open so we could see the inside...

And Blue wanted to let you know that there was 

plenty of room inside for a small Fairy Beary....

(Bears do like cozy Dens, after all....)

The real Trouble began when we began to think of the upstairs....

"Up-Stairs..."   

"What stairs...?"

Uh-oh, where are the stairs???

This is a real problem for me, Dear Readers, 

I like my houses to have the realism of stairs!

And even though the Fairy Bearys could all fly up to the next level...

what would happen if they had visitors who could not fly?

And before we even get started on solving the stairs problem....

I realize that the "upstairs" will want to be accessible from the Tower upstairs...

Which means making a door through the roof...

Before I glue all the roof panels in place!

So I started cutting into the roof panels.....

(I hear some of you gasping in horror!)

But it must be done.... 

if there is going to be stairs to the attic...

Blue came to have a look through to the Tower....

We might have to adjust the opening a little.....

It is very complicated to make the shape fit the slanting roof corner!

And meanwhile I have also been making another adjustment to the kit...

I am adding silver trim around the ceiling edges....

Like a cornice only flat against the ceiling...

and also adding vertical trim at the corners to cover all the gaps and tabs...

I tell myself it will make the room feel even more like 

a "Pavilion" with a metal framework against the blue sky.

Here the vertical pieces are in... 

I still need to make the pieces for the rest of the Cornice.

Here you have another view of the attic with the gaping hole....

And the Tower from the outside....

So you can see, Dear Readers, the Trouble I have gotten into...

Oh, What have I done?

But there is no going back now!

Kit bashing the Cloud Palace....