Ravenwood .....

 

More Windows...

You Might Recall, Dear Readers, that a few weeks ago, before the Mayhem that is All Hallows Eve on this blog took over, I was embarking on the building of the 144th scale Ravenwood Kit designed by Sean and Robin Betterley. It is a wonderful kit! But soon after I started to build it I realized that I needed to make a few changes. The first was adding a window to the Tower attic, because I could not accept that there was an attic with no access at all. Well, no sooner had I added it, than I looked at the other two attic rooms on the sides of the house and decided that they had to have windows too. I hadn't noticed this lack when I was making the Secret Christmas House kit, many years ago, but now I just thought an attic room with no window was intolerable! So I started right in cutting the openings in the roof.

This was done in much the same way as the window for the Tower, 

starting by drilling a hole with an ever larger bit. 

Only this time the window wanted to have a pointed gothic shape.

So I used my small files to form the window opening into the gothic arch.

Then I added the cardboard "dormer roof" over each one,

 trying to match them in size as best I could.

(I am hand cutting all these pieces.)

Here you can see the position of the window when

 the "pullout" section is in the House frame.

It is on the side of the building rather than the front

 because I want to be able to see the dormer window

 from inside when I have the rooms "open".

The next step was to try to cut a window frame out of card stock...

And paint it black... 

it is easier to do this step before

 you cut it completely out of the card stock...

Then I glued it and the window pane... 

(cut from thick plastic packaging...)

into the opening, trying to be sure

 it remained as vertical as possible.

 

Here you can see the window with the light reflecting off it...

 clearly showing how uneven my window panes are!

(But who is ever going to be close enough to notice that ...?)

Here is the dormer seen from the interior of the room.

 I painted the interior of the dormer a color similar

 to the wallpaper which will be used in this room...

 we will see how it looks when the paper is added.

Here you can see both windows are done!

I really like the view through the window into the room!

And even better the "window shadow" on the floor!

And here the "rooms" are inside the house frame...

 showing the new windows in the attic rooms!

And I hope you will agree with me, Dear Readers,

that in spite of all the beautiful windows that came with this kit,

 it definitely needed a few more!

Long Weekend.... Short Post....

 

Small Progress....

The Back Wall of the Dollmaker's Studio, Dear Readers, is the weakest part of this project. You can see above the cut and patched wall assembled from the Sugarplum Cottage kit with my alterations clear to see. What was the front door has been (inexpertly) filled in, the once upon a time picture window opening has been enlarged so far it fills almost the entire wall (so the Dollmaker's kit can be inserted here) and now I have added a little window into the attic dormer. Because the walls needed to be taller and they sit on the base I built for the Ground Floor room, the one filled-in door opening extends below the rest of the wall, and actually provides some "anchoring" onto the lower floor walls. I know, it is really confusing! The picture below shows what I mean.

Here is the wall temporarily in place.

The left side wall has been glued and so has the arched alcove

(the original Dollmaker's Vignette kit)

Because there are so many rough parts to this wall,

 I decided to "pad" it with a layer of cardboard

 cut to fit exactly over the entire surface.

 This would allow the wallpaper to have a smooth finish,

 and would strengthen the joined pieces.

 

Here is another view of all the rough edges in this patched wall!

The "fitting" of the wall padding took a huge number of tries

 to get it to cover all the little corners and gaps and cover the entire wall.

Once I was sure it would fit correctly,

 I needed to glue it to the wall while the wall was lying flat,

 to ensure that the wall didn't warp and bubble while it dried.

 

The cardboard wall padding extends below the original floor line

 so it also will cover the extended wall section when in place.

Of course, I didn't remember to take pictures of the gluing....

Except for my one dark shot showing the elastic band

 holding the wall tightly to the final end wall which is not yet glued....

to ensure that the alignment would be right when the glue dried.

The following morning I was Amazed at how much

 the padding strengthened the wall! 

It was positively Sturdy!

I had made a paper pattern from the cardboard padding

 that I could use for cutting the wallpaper....

The section of paper I had was not long enough

 to cover the entire length of the arch...

and the small piece on the left was the continuation

 of the pattern on the left hand wall...

And the pattern was not going to match in the middle!

I console myself with the knowledge

 that the joined pieces at the top of the arch

 will be covered almost entirely by the crown molding trim....

And who is going to notice that the rest of the pattern is off by 1/4 inch?

Here is a shot of the two rooms together... 

so far so good!

I forgot to take pictures of the wallpaper once it was glued on....

(It was such a rainy and gloomy day!)

But this morning as I was rushing off to work,

 I had to try to grab a couple of pictures with the morning sun shining in....

You can sort of see my wallpaper patch at the top of the arch....

And a slightly better shot of the ceiling... 

without the lamp, of course!

So you can see, Dear Readers,

 in spite of my Long Weekend,

 It doesn't look like much got done,

But it is good Progress after all!

Scissors... Paper... Rock...

 

 

Where Do We Start....

With Kit bashing, Dear Readers, as I am sure you know, it is often difficult to know where to start! If you are like me, you have long ago left any instructions behind and must invent your own procedures for every step of the build. And as I am sure you have experienced, sometimes a small amount of work makes a big difference in the project, and conversely, sometimes a large amount of work seems to not make much progress at all. Now that I am working on the "upstairs room" of the Dollmaker's Studio, I am having to deal with the "junction" of all the kit pieces I started with.... which has required a lot of "bashing"! Above you can see that I finally added primer to the wall sections which were originally the "Sugarplum" kit by Greenleaf. If you are at all familiar with the kit, you will know that it is small (which is why I chose it) and very rudimentary (it doesn't even have a staircase in spite of two floors!) and the ceiling height is a barely passable 7 and 1/2 inches! (I have lived in old RL houses with about that much head clearance... so it is doable!) But I wanted extra ceiling height, so I added the ground floor "room-box" and made it extend up into the second floor by about 2 inches. Which causes a really awkward "join" between the stories part way up the wall! Now that I have primed the walls for the kit pieces, you can see where the join is in the above picture. 

 Add to that challenge, the "Dollmaker's Studio Vignette" kit by Sandra Morris which inspired this whole project, and my intention to blend it into the Sugarplum kit as an alcove at the back of the main room, positioned where a window was meant to be, and you will discover lots of places requiring adjustments! In pondering the "where to start" part of the equation, I decided that I needed to get the Vignette assembled and decorated as far as possible before I could actually move forward on the rest of the room. It would be way too difficult to access the alcove once it was attached at the back of the build. Above you can see the framework of the Vignette just tucked into the "enlarged" window opening of the Sugarplum kit. (Sorry, the pictures are a bit dark... it was a gloomy day...). The vignette is framed by a nice arch of "stone" which needed to be made a little bit more three dimensional to work in this build.

Here it is separate from the main room.

I needed to trim off the "corners" of the kit

 along the top of the rock arch.

Here you can sort of see I have added a  cardboard strip

 along the back of the stone arch.

This will allow for the "stones" of the arch to have some depth,

 and to hopefully fill the gap between the arch and the wall in a realistic way.

Because the two do not meet on the same plane!

 

The rocks are good old egg-carton glued to the arch

 and wrapped around the frame.

It required lots of testing to see if the "rocks" 

were fitting the gap properly.

They have more "weight" than the simple shaped pieces of the vignette...

 but that is needed here!

Sorry about the dark.... it got late 

and I didn't get good pictures of the rocks before painting.

Here they have been given the basic coats of paint....

 primer then two different shades of gray.

Here the rocks have been outlined with a darker gray in the cracks.

And I am test fitting the wallpaper.

I got so involved in fitting the pieces, I forgot to take pictures.

The wall paper is glued and the vignette tucked into the opening...

With the flash on is the only way to see anything back there!

(It is late and dark.....)

And another shot.... with the flash....

it starts to give a sense of the space.

The sides will have trim added below the arch...

and baseboard trim...

Once I get the alcove attached

 I will be able to work on the rest of the walls.

So you can see, Dear Readers,

 I did a lot of cutting and fitting paper

Hoping it turns into rocks.

And it doesn't look like much got done... 

but it is a start!

Framework Fixes.....

 

 

First Things First....

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that the Dollmaker's Studio construction has relied heavily on some securely fastened "posts" which support and strengthen the upper floors of this "kit bash" project. I thought I had all the posts I needed already attached. But upon close examination of the projected second and third floor structure, I realized I would need to add another supporting post. And I would also need to trim the upper ends to the desired length before I began to add the electrical fixtures... because sawing off the ends of already attached posts was not a delicate operation. Clearly, it needed to be done sooner rather than later! The above picture shows the front opening door support posts with the untrimmed tops. The third floor wall is not going to be that tall! And in order to fit the roof onto the walls, the posts needed to be a little inset from the end of the building.

Here the posts have been trimmed so the roof panel can be placed 

over the tops (which are hidden)

 and I am testing the placement of the supports for 

the opening wall (still to be built).

This is the view of the "back side" where the sewing alcove

hangs over the side... it will be extended vertically on the third floor as well...

partly because the access from the stair tower will need the head room!

The corner where the alcove meets the wall

 will have the added post which will extend to the third floor as well.

The back wall of the Sugarplum kit 

has no structural integrity with

 all the alterations I have made...

And then there is the little matter of the warped 

wall section where all the kit pieces join...

There is no way to un-warp it... 

and removing it would only require 

more added pieces with no structure...

So I trimmed off the inward leaning side as best as I could

(With my little razor saw.... 

and all the already attached posts getting in the way....!)

And here you can see the new post attached 

(as firmly as possible with glue and screws)

which shows clearly the degree of warp in the wall section!

Now the supports for the alcove are properly aligned!

The wall on the exterior can be padded to adjust the 

unevenness when I am adding the bricks.

And here the alcove is set in place....

And you can see where the Stair Tower will adjoin the structure...

and there is room for a door into the third floor!

 

And that's as far as I got on the weekend, Dear Readers,

Trying to figure out which things to do First

in order to get the Framework Fixed!

Decisions, Decisions.....

Kit Bashing Continued....

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that I was hesitating to add the stones to the exterior of the Dollmaker's Studio ground floor while I had not decided how to fix the warped floor. After much thought and second guessing my original plan, I decided that I did not want to raise the floor level by adding any thickness to it in the hopes that thickness would defeat the warp. I think that eventually I will be firmly attaching the building to a base and that will have to be the "warp reversing" moment. Until then I have too many other parts that still need to be wrangled, and I am choosing to ignore the floor. It is supposed to be an "Old" building, after all! With that non-decision made, I continued to add the "stones" around the opening for that lovely door. At least I was certain that I could do this without getting too far ahead of any of the other "corrections" I needed to make to the structure.

I added the keystones next so I could be sure

 they were mostly centered above the door...

I needed to pad the opening at the left shoulder.... 

my cutting for the opening was a little off...

and the stones need to be snug against the door frame.

I was trying to keep the stones roughly even in size...

I think they ended up okay.

And now the door looks like it was made for this opening

 instead of the other way around!

And because I had last week off from work, Dear Readers,

 I was able to take the time to fiddle 

with the frame work of this structure.

I apologize for the dark pictures... 

I was just testing ideas and not taking good pictures.

I wanted to see the "whole" structure

 so I added the kit roof panels.

You can see that the side walls of the upper floor are not straight...

 since the kit has been "expanded" the floor

 no longer holds the shape of the walls properly.

I was going to need to add a "framework"

 to tie the walls together sturdily.

Then I thought maybe I could reverse the end wall

 so the little porch balcony was on the opening wall side

 instead of on the back wall.... 

this would allow more solid wall space in the interior...

So I gave it a try....

It would also make the extension created by the "Vignette" kit

 look less cluttered and more like an old Tudor building...

This really is a small kit.... 

the ground floor with the warp ignored....

Upstairs room with the door closed in 

where the balcony would have been... 

now there can be a wall for shelves of some sort...

And the large window on the end wall 

temporarily placed using the kit pieces...

And the attic.... 

still in the very undesigned stage.....

The frame I will be using for the end wall window....

just propped in place for testing...

I might still keep the little dormer 

on this side and add a tiny window....

We shall see!

But meanwhile it became Obvious that

 I needed to extend the sturdy framework

 of the front opening wall....

Because the upper storeys would also need to have hinging doors to close...

There was only the small upper section of 

the plywood wall to attach the posts to.....

So I used extra screws.

And once the front posts were in place, 

I could properly measure for the crossbeam 

needed to join them at the ceiling height.

And I could see that I would also need to add

 another support post at the back corner where the 

Tower stairs would join the building...

 which also required correcting the 

warped corner of the plywood 

with More Screws!

Here you can see the two posts where the Tower will attach.

 The left hand door is the entrance to the tower stairs...

And the crossbeam that will brace the upper floor 

and the frame for the opening side doors...

Firmly screwed in place!

And after all that jostling and bumping....

I decided I better glue those stones onto the floor...

Before I lost track of how they fit...

See... I am ignoring the warped floor for now!

But here you can see the upper walls propped in place

 with the new sturdy posts... I just have to trim off all those tabs...

And I really wanted to get the rest of the front opening wall doors cut...

 I just forgot to take any pictures.

Here it is being tested for fit 

before drilling and screwing it in place...

Here the rough panels are attached. 

The little balcony will attach on the opening panel

 and the door will open inward....

Here the door has been added... 

the size of the balcony will need to be carefully fit

 within the opening part of the front wall.

That is as far as I got on the Dollmaker's Studio, Dear Readers...

Every step required three times of taking everything apart and thinking again...

but such is the Nature of Kit Bashing!

You get to take everything apart....

 and throw out the instructions....

But you need to be prepared

 to make lots and Lots of Decisions!

And in case you wanted to know... 

the day before Thanksgiving...

 all the leaves had fallen from the Lilac at The Folly...

And the low winter sun reached way into the room...

and then Last night it Snowed!

I could not resist having a little Snow Day....

But Alas... there was no sun to shine in....

I will be sure to let you know when it does...!