Small Stuff Tips Archives

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Ceilings. I use watercolor paper on my ceilings. It is already white and has a very slight texture and is paintable. Hope this helps.

Barbara

Window with Changeable Scenes: Behind the roombox I created a frame at the sides and bottom of the window using some left over wood trim. The frame stuck out just enough to create a slot to slide pictures in. I cut a piece of clear plastic from a bubble pack to the right size for the window pane and slid this down into the slot. I then cut numerous scenes from magazines and postcards to the right size to slide in behind the window pane and mounted them on to card stock cut to the correct size. This way my sister can change the scene outside the window to suit her moods. (she's got lots of them!) She has a choice of a snowy neighborhood, autumn trees in a back yard, a back yard spring garden, a back yard patio with a furniture and barbeque, an in-ground swimming pool, etc. Oh yeah, I also included a picture of a real good looking guy with his shirt off and another with a train that looks like it's heading straight toward the window. (for those moments of impending disaster) The possibilities are endless.

Lorri in Manassas, VA

Porch Ideas: Tom of Earth and Tree has a book called Porches Across America, which sounds like just what you need: http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com/index.html. If you go to books, and then to miscellaneous, you will see a picture of it.

Kaye in L.A.

Porch Ideas: Houseworks has a relatively inexpensive kit for making a front porch in both 1 and 1/2" sizes. There is also a booklet called Porches Across America by Nancy Van Horn that would give you some ideas.

Rose

Scale Built House Needs Roof: I can think of two paths you might pursue. One is to continue on with the architectural accuracy of the house by constructing a separate roof from trusses you build or rafters and ridge boards, using, say, a 4"rise in 12" run ( a slope which would be typical for a ranch home). Is the house a rectangle? If not this can get pretty tricky. Even if the only projection is a porch, you'll need to fidget a roof over it and you may want to call in some "construction" help.

If you don't want to go to that much trouble and the house is square, choose a material that you feel comfortable working with for the roof "base". Measure your house from front to back and mark the midpoint. For every 12 inches of length to the midpoint draw a line 4" high. ie: if it is 9" to your midpoint, then your vertical line would be 3". At this point it would be helpful to me to make a scale drawing on a piece of scrap paper of the gable (Triangular) end of the house. Draw a line equal to the depth of you house from front to back. midway on the line, draw a vertical line that is equal to one third the distance from the front of the house to the midpoint. Connect the top of the vertical line with each end of the horizontal line. These diagonal lines will give you the vertical measurement of your roofing.

Add at least 1 foot in scale (1" if your working in 1" scale) for an overhang. Measure the width of your house, add 2' in scale (2" if you are working in 1" scale) for the overhangs on each side. This will be the horizontal measurement for your roofing. Cut two pieces of your roofing material to these measurements.

Using your gable drawing as a pattern, cut triangles of a support material suitable for your roofing material (Styrofoam for foam core, wood for plywood) they don’t have to be as tall as your roof, just tall enough for support. I don't know what your house walls are made of or how thick they are, so can't advise how to continue them up the gable end of the house, but you could either duplicate the thickness of them and add to the roof structure 1" in from each side to provide a way for the roof to sit on your house or you could attach the gables to the existing side walls and add a ledger strip of wood or foam to the front and back edge of the roof to support it on the house.

Kathy in Kentucky

Kaye in L.A.

Rose

Tin Ceiling: There are two sources that I know of for tin ceiling products. JR enterprises - 3D reproductions 53 Case Road, Port Jarvis, NY 1277l makes a raised 3D type plastic panel "tin ceiling". The one I have is #TC 153GLD (gold) I know they also make it in white and in several widths & patterns.

The other is Houseworks - Tin Ceiling #73l3 is small circles, Sheet size approximately 11x17. They also have 2 or 3 patterns. Houseworks phone # is l-800-24l-5818

Try your nearest Miniature shop first. They can probably order it for you. I have used both products. The directions say to install with double face carpet tape or silicone cement. I have used Bond 484 but Aleene's Super Tacky or liquid nails should work also. Check on a scrap for glue compatability with the plastic. Be sure to weigh it down if gluing. You might also check at your nearest Home Depot or Home Base type store or wallpaper store for textured ceiling paper. Ours here in CA carry several styles. All three of these products can be painted with acrylic paint with no problem. I used the plastic sheets for a ceiling in an old building (art gallery). I did have a problem with recessed lighting canisters. They got too hot (left it on too long for a mini display) and had some damage (melted close to the lights). Whoops! But for short term lighting I think they would have been OK. Or even regular light fixtures would have worked. Just not the spots. The tin ceiling is one of the focal points in the building everyone notices.

Diane in SF Bay Area

Gluing plastic bricks: I have used plastic bricks and glued them with Elmer's carpenter glue.

Carol

Metal Miniatures: There was a couple at the Cincinnati show that sold metal miniatures with the majority of the items being priced under $1.00. He had so many that I think you could have stood there for a couple of hours and not really noticed everything he had. I had to laugh when he handed me a box lid and asked if I would like a shopping cart. He does shows and mail orders so I would expect he would have a catalog if you inquired. The address is: Parker Miniatures 3231 E. Linda Lane, Port Clinton, Ohio 43452.

Elizabeth Cooper

Sheets of bricks & stones: Hobby Builder's Supply catalog has them also on their website at: http://www.miniatures.com

They offer plastic brick sheets 7" x 11" (item # 0016) and pebble (item # 0011) and fieldstone (item # 0018) sheets that are 7" x 24". I just used the pebbled sheets for the flooring in my garden shop. They all come plain tannish gray. . . and you paint them however you want.

John Medeiros

Facades: I have created exterior facades from cardboard, architectural details from molds made from my ornate costume jewelry, wooden odds and ends, styrofoam packing materials, paint, sand and cornmeal. (the tenement backdrop shown in my PP is made from the items mentioned here). I like using various items to create stone, bricks, stucco finishes.

Pearl

Slate floor. I made individual tiles for *outside* the basement. To roll out any medium to an even thickness, put 2 pieces of scrap wood on the tile and roll between them. The roller rests on them and you get an even thickness of clay between the scraps. Yes, it is a good idea to work on a tile. That way you can leave them to dry on the tile, or bake on the tile if it is Fimo. I think I used wax wrap paper for the Das tiles. I think I remember them sticking to the tile. I find Das or air drying clay makes better tiles for a rustic look. They have the texture of tiles. I rolled out and then cut individual tiles from terracotta coloured Das. Do not make them so regular in size. Then paint them with craft paint to get the different colours of slate. Then tile with them. The best feature of these tiles was the occasional broken ones that had cracked across a corner. Can't remember how I did the grout in these ones. Finished them off with a layer of water based varnish for a bit of sheen. They look excellent.

Barbara B.

Parquet floor squares: I have seen regular parquet floor tiles in 9" and 12" sizes. Usually 9", so that would be 3/4" for minis. The strips of wood for the parquet pieces would probably be about 1/8" with 6 strips/tile.

Jacqui in Hilo, Hawaii

Parquet floor squares: I made a parquet floor for my living room and used blocks of 48 mm. This was for a floor with a mozaik-motif called Versailles Etoiles. In real life the blocks are 50cmx50 cm.

Marina

Parquet floor squares: The ones I've seen done are 1 inch squares to correspond to l foot "real-size" squares. I expect this is not engraved in stone as parquet comes in many patterns and arrangements and I would think it would be essentially whatever size you want it.

SUSAN AT THE WHITE RABBIT'S HOUSE

Parquet floor squares: I have a parquet floor in my sunroom - the real sunroom not a mini one and they measure 6" x 6" so I would imagine in mini talk that would be 1/2" x 1/2".

Vi in Hamilton

Screen for Porch: Industrial supply houses very fine, copper, filter screening (140/inch) which works well in 1 inch scale. For 1/2" scale, the best I have found is silk screen available through art or graphic art supply shops. It comes in white and paint tends to make the mesh too thick - holes too small. Using wide tip, black marking pen does a nice job of coloring without disrupting the sense of scale.

For a subtle, copper highlight - hit the cosmetics counter.

The nice thing with silk span is that it doesn't sag (unless you make it so) and a little 90 degree rip will drape away very realistically. For a "patched" screen. Cut an additional piece to size and overlay AFTER COLORING and secure with a drop of diluted clear lacquer. A little bit of additional light is needed behind the screen to achieve a "see through factor" equivalent to real screening.

Mel Koplin, Las Vegas

Screens:Michael's Craft Store, among others, which also sells online has screen meant for supporting clay works as an armature, which is very fine and great for mini screen doors! If you can't find it there or online try art stores in your area which carry various forms of artists clay.

Alice Zinn

Screen for Porch: I just saw a beautiful screened in room and they used bridal tulle for the screen. It is very fine net like material. I was very impressed with it. Looked just like screen. I would think you would find it in the bridal department at a fabric store.

Carbomax

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