Wood and glue: What is liquid nails? For most of my furniture I use a BOND Squeezable Tacky glue I purchase at Earth and Tree. It bonds quickly and seems strong. For my flooring I use Quick Grab. It can be messy, smells but I find it does indeed grab quickly. I also use it for siding. For my hearths and bricks, I use BOND 484 TACKY extra thick white cement. It is kinda like a silicon cement in that it does not get brittle. I had it recommended for flooring but the moisture content warps quickly. The answer I was told was to use weight. I don't agree with that. My tactic is use a glue that has minimal warpage on large areas to be covered. My guess is that if you are a piece of wood and you are destined to be a stir stick, or Popsicle stick, then that is all you're good for. When you make a basket out of these (did when I was a kid) warping was not a problem because you used a small amount of glue in a concentrated area. When flooring and siding, the amount of glue will cause these woods to cup. I use a lot of apple and pear wood also. They resist warping well. For pine I use the basswood. Finished correctly, it gives a good pine look. I have a limited amount of old poplar I save for special projects. I often use planks that are 1 1/2 inch or larger for my flooring. I do Early American and I like the wide plank look. That is another reason I say to use wood sheets. You get a piece 3" x 24" and you are not limited by the width or length of your floor planks. I try to offset the joints in a realistic manner. This is hard to do with 6" long sticks.

bill

Lightweight Bricks: I think I read the part about using balsa wood for bricks and stone in the tips section of NN or might have been in one of my books. The person used balsa wood (very light) and cut out the shapes, then glued them on. If you base coat the area with a grout colour, that is one step taken care of. I used to think I couldn't do these paint effects either but this is what I would suggest. Mix acrylic paint in several related stone colours. Take a small piece of sponge, maybe a quarter or less the size of the 'stones,' and give each stone one dab of colour, maybe two, depending on size. Then using the same sponge, do the same thing with all of your colours. I did this with cardboard to make 'stone' for the church in the Greenleaf village and it looked very good. If you go out and look at rock, you will see that what seems from a distance to be all one colour is, close up, many colours. If you're working with acrylic paint you know it dries pretty fast so you have to move quickly, no time to worry about mistakes or not getting it right. If you have some that you aren't satisfied with, just dab on some more paint. Using a light hand with a very tiny bit of black or white metallic gives that mica or quartz look. You can also dent the balsa to gave more of a stone texture, especially the sides so that they won't look as if they were cut out of balsa.

Gutterings and downpipes: The supplier in Australia's email address is warrener@pcug.org.au . They are, and I'm reading from their pamphlet, importers from Great Britain. So for the northern hemisphere people (who stand on our heads) the supplier is JSM Miniatures UK.

Moira in Sydney

Lightweight Bricks: several years ago at a class a person used bass wood cut into brick sizes and then stuck them to masking tape and hung the strips from a hanger, sprayed with paint (could use several colours I guess). When they dried they were removed and glued to a base painted a suitable grout colour and they were very impressive.

June Simpson

Lightweight Bricks: I've often looked at thin sheets of Styrofoam (they often come as part of packaging) and thought that texture looked very much like bricks. I'm not sure how to make it work: Possibly cut out little rectangles, paint each one, and "lay" them as one would lay bricks. Or.... Score a whole sheet of Styrofoam straight across the sheet... then vertically stagger your score lines to represent bricks. Now paint each one, leaving the scored section white to represent mortar.

By the way, I've found that "cutting" Styrofoam with a piece of thread seems to work much better than using a knife. Just hold the thread (one end in each hand) and stretch it across the area to be cut. Then "saw" through the Styrofoam with the thread.

Viola

I've seen a few posts from people about patching boo-boos in wooden pieces. Things like where two pieces had moved apart and there was a gap. The thing that worked for me was to pre-stain the sawdust and let it dry. I tried to use the same kind of wood dust as the wood I was working with, but it's not critical. However, it is better if you use the same color stain as the wood piece is stained with. After it dries, I mix it with tacky glue until I have a paste, then I treat it like spackle or wood filler. I force it into cracks with a palette knife or whatever, let it dry and sand it down. Works like a charm and can't be seen. By the way, I pre-stain the wood piece before repairing because if the raw wood gets glue in it, it won't accept stain.

Jeanne, San Anselmo, CA

Lightweight Bricks: I made an attic chimney for my farm house out of a chunk of smooth Styrofoam, that came in a packing box, for an appliance. Cut it to the proper shape, to line up with the one on the roof. Used a long bread knife to score lightly horizontally, then an Xacto for the vertical alternating lines. Paint the lines gray, then go over the bricks in your brick color, then do the gray again all over one side at a time, wipe off the gray. It gives a very realistic look.

MAP in Puyallup

"Lightweight" stone work: Have you tried working with the lightweight spackle that comes in a plastic tub; from any hardware or home improvement store? If not, you should check it out. It dries very hard but is very lightweight! You will, however, have to make an original mold to work from. You should find plenty of tips, etc for mold making in the small stuff archives. Any of the available molding materials should be suitable for the purpose.

Lloyd Cooper

Cold Press Illustration Board: Brooke uses Crescent brand I believe.

Bob Francis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Lightweight Stone; a method I learned in a fireplace workshop some time back might work for making "rock" siding for your castle.

Rita in Beautiful B.C.

Lightweight Stone: I made a castle recently and I painted the outside wall in a light grey and sort of "mottled" it by dabbing on with a small sponge some white and other shades of grey. Then I used that stone colour, that has this sand stuff in it and I put that on fairly thick as if it was an individual stone i.e. the base colour would be the grout and then I put on some kind of square stone (pretty irregular though) move a millimeter further and put on the next "stone". Another possibility is to cut up squares from a paper mache egg carton that has some "bumpy" structure on the inside and give this a thin wash of "stone-colour".

Heike Boam

Castle stones: A good way to make stone look things is to use a paper mache type stuff.

You can make a plaster mold by carving the stone shapes into it or by pouring the plaster over a clay representation of a stone wall. Since you are wanting to do a whole house/castle this way it would be efficient for you to make the mold. You can even do the fancy stone work around windows this way. Once the mold is dry you can grind up shredded up paper in a blender with enough water to make a oatmeal type goo. Drain it in a strainer so its not too sloppy. Put it in the mold and press it down well with a sponge to remove the majority of the water. Once it is dry it will pop out of the mold. Then you can glue it to the walls using regular tacky glue. You can fill in the gaps between sections with a flour paste like you may have used in kindergarten. To paint it you can use the sponge technique someone else mentioned or you can purchase a lovely acrylic paint from ceramic shops. Gare makes one called stone stuff and Duncan also makes a similar product but I don't recall the name of theirs. These paints have a multi-colored granite like look to them and couldn't be easier. You just brush it on and walla it looks like stone.

Marsha Hedrick

Wood Size: Sometimes we have to cut down from true scale to make it look right as you described in making your kitchen cabinets. You seem to have tried to use 3/16 stock, but 3/32 is close to 1" in scale. Full-sized wood that is called 1" is actually nearer to 7/8" or less, so the mini wood actually should be a bit thinner than 3/32nd.

June Simpson

Dollhouse Kits: As a general rule, I think the more expensive the kit, the easier it is to put together. The first dollhouse kit I put together was from Real Good Toys with Houseworks components and it was easily assembled and sturdy enough to be a family heirloom 20 years later. The second was a die-cut cottage; it took three times as long to finish and the result is only a quarter as good. My Dura-Craft San Franciscan went together easily and I thought their use of channel moulding for the corners was very clever. Then, I got to the roof where the pieces don't fit together properly around the tower and noticed the whole structure was leaning toward the left. They have since come out with a "new, revised version" but I'd guess the weight on the left still pulls the house out of shape over time. Laser cut kits go together very easily -- even the micro-minis. They're sturdy and the trim pieces are wonderfully detailed and elaborate. So for a beginner, I recommend going with RGT, Walmer or laser cut. Die-cut houses take more patience and skill...

Sally Cook-Thomas

Store Floor: Someone mentioned using wide craft sticks for plank flooring. If you do this there are a few things to consider. First is that these sticks tend to cup when subjected to water based(white glue) and they often tend to stain unevenly. If that is all one has, then go for it, but if wood like basswood strips are available I'd go that route. I just did a floor with nice old poplar and I used the pieces that were cracked. Once finished, the cracks added to the old look. I feel one of the most important decisions you can make when building miniatures is the wood you use! 1/16 works well. I used 3/32 this time around, though, simply because it was the thickness of the wood I wanted to use. If you use craft sticks make sure you sort through them. Avoid any with wide graining as these are the ones that tend to cup.

Bill Leimberger

Building MDF Houses/Kits: If you decide to use screws, (recommended), make sure you pre-drill and countersink your holes. If you sink the screws slightly below the surface, you can cover the holes with wood filler and sand smooth when it dries. If you use nails, pre-drill also because the MDF will split out if you don't. Use glue in both cases. Don't be scared. Go for it! Wood filler and paint cover up a lot of goofs.

Spencer Stall

Chinking for Log cabins: when I chinked my loghouse I bought caulking made by "frost king" it looks like a solid roll but actually its a strip that pulls apart in 1/4" strips, just place and push in seam then using a slim flat paring knife go along both edges and it smoothed out evenly and flat. Made a big difference in appearance.

Alice Prosky

Finishing hardwood floors: When using the flooring sheets from Houseworks or Miniature House, you must be careful putting a wet stain on them. The moisture can peel off the paper backing that they are attached to. So if I like the color of the wood as it is, such as Oak or Walnut, I just put a coat of Butcher's Wax or another clear paste wax on it. Wait a little while and buff it. Now if you want to enhance the color you can use shoe polish in a color. Just buff it. If you want it to really look great put another coat of clear wax over the shoe polish. I find the floors look really fantastic this way.

Lorraine Scuderi

Log Cabin Chinking: HBS sells logs made of pine that are perfect for facing a dollhouse shell.

When I put together a log cabin room box for the catalog, I made the chinking but cutting 1/4" strips of foam core. I painted them with ivory enamel paint, glued them with the foam facing out between the logs and then pressed them with the flat end of a cuticle stick. The foam compressed and the edges spread out unevenly and it had just the right look. My e-buddy, Pat Townsend, came up with a better idea: She used real caulk and squeezed it out into lines on wax paper and let it dry. She then was able to peel up the lines of caulk and press them between her logs. She said it looked great.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Chinking Log Cabins: Of course each region would use a slightly different mixture according to what is available at the site. Mostly it is a combination of clay or soil, grass or straw or even tree leaves and small twigs. Sometimes dung was added for stability.

The cabin I grew up in was chinked with clay mixed with straw. When that dried it was coated over with a plaster of pure clay. Then planks of bark were pushed into the wet clay so it acted like mortar to hold the bark in place. The bark acted like shingles keeping the rain (It rains a lot in Oregon) from washing away the chinking.

Chinking in miniature can be done using paintable caulk available from local hard ware or home improvement store. The caulk comes in several colors, Off white, brown, white etc. Cut the end of the tube off at an angle and as small as possible and still get a good stream of caulk. Run this between the logs. Smooth the caulk out with a wet finger then to add realism sprinkle with dirt or model rail road dirt. Some of the Eastern and even Southern log cabins were chinked with white (Lime) as was used in plaster.

Bill Hudson