Brick slips in UK: Standard bricks in UK are 9" x 3". Richard Stacey supplies slips cut from real bricks (mini-sized 3/4" x 1/4" x 1/16") richardstacey@easthampnett.freeserve.co.uk (Fax/phone: +441243 533132 http://www.richardstacey.com He sells at fairs and through shops - not sure if he sells direct. I think that they are available from http://www.JoJays.com and http://www.maplestreet.co.uk Both supply worldwide.

The product is a delight to work with - easy to 'cut' and (I think) looks wonderful - after all they're real bricks!!

One of his styles / colours can be seen on the Flower Shop - took nearly 2000 slips to cover this wall hanging 1/2 house (front and 2 sides). Pictures at: http://www.picturetrail.com (view album = mini-jane)

Jane, Warwickshire, UK

Acrylic paints: I read about many techniques used with acrylics, but one way to keep the paint from drying out is to use a Masterson's Stay Wet Palette. You wet the sponge and the paper. When you use flow enhancer in the paint on this wet paper, the paint stays wet longer. I used this when I painted full scale landscapes with acrylics.

Susan Robbins

Painting small items: to make a workable surface take a large foam meat tray and pin masking tape upside down (sticky side up) place your things on this and they will hold while you spray paint.

Sue Groves From Cobourg

Puffy Paints paint: I have had much better luck using Jel-pens, or Gel-pens, as they come in Gold and Silver, and work well on the leather straps when I am making Carpet-bags. The silver works well for studs or buttons, and doesn't rise up to a peak. These pens also come in white, and almost all other colors, can be found in any store that carries school supplies, or art craft supplies, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, my local drugstore, etc. The colors and white work well for buttons when you need just that touch of extra trim.

Jan

Most of my dhs have stucco exteriors. I live in south FL so this is the way most real houses look here. I use textured wallpaper in any color because I paint it or sponge on a "natural" finish. It hides many errors in my assembly or kit bashed dhs.

I use greeting cards cut like fancy windows for roomboxes. I wait until the scene is nearly done to get the best placement and style. Pearl's sells a pack for under $6. Most of the dhs have exterior chimneys too. Hobby builders supply sells a block kit which I fit to each dh and cover with textured wallpaper which has squares in the pattern, then I paint it to look like brick and stencil tiny ivy to the finished piece. I suppose thick pieces of Styrofoam could be used for the base too. The square imprinted paper makes excellent tile floors and walls for bathrooms and other rooms where 4x4 tiles are used in real life. I splurge on working windows and other items with the $$s saved on the stucco and bricks!

I splurge on fancy wallpaper and accessories when I use paper windows in the roomboxes. Rhett Butler (by Peggy Nisbit) has a real leather top desk and resin office chair with a leather saddle in the corner of his study with Brodnax wall cover in jungle pattern. His antique celluloid St. Bernard is by his side. I'm still "placing" the paper window. All of the office thingies like folders, etc., are from Jim's printable minis.

Karen

Creasing lead tape: I think you could crease your tape more smoothly by running an old blade down the middle to "encourage" it to fold where you want it. You don't want to cut it all the way through, but depending upon your tape, you may have to experiment with how much encouragement is needed.

Dani, in Bradshaw, MD

Flat part of Mansard Roof: my childhood neighbors' house was mansard. The flat part was tar paper, which can be faked easily with heavy-weight black sandpaper.  Other options are metal (which would have ridges where the sheets were crimped together, and probably wasn't preferable on a flat roof) or rubber.   My current house has a flat rubber roof over the laundry room; it looks like a big heavy duty black tarp glued into place.

Loretta_Sniarowski

Mansard roof suggestions: the Foxhall Manor has a large mansard roof and I shingled the sloping edges and used Fleckstone paint in a charcoal for the flat part - looks like a flat roof that was tarred and had stones put on top which is how many flat roofs are done.   I think it looks great as it is in scale and blends well with the black modern shingles I used on the slopes.  Of course, my house is contemporary and if you are doing an older time period, I don't know if the tar and stone idea would work for that.  The paint is that granite look spray stuff and I don't know if it is available in your area.

Jo from the Poconos

Mansard roof:  In a Bluette Meloney class with mansard roof, the flat part was covered with black sandpaper, with molding strips around it, you could also use those little metal decorative strips, that look like small fences only much shorter, don't know what to call them, obviously. They give it a very ginger-bready look. Just cut four of them to butt up with each other.

Molly Cromwell

Mansard roofs:  we have a lot of mansard roofs in my area, the 4 walls meet at an angle at the top and have a slight drop to the center. the center is usually just tarred (is that right?).

Aletha

Roofing: In Home Depot I found what they call Non skid strips. These are made by 3M and are adhesive backed. What made me notice them is that they are textured. The black strips comes in rolls of varying widths. 1"or 3"   etc. The black is textured like sand. The gray color comes in same the sizes and is a more pronounced texture. Finally, the bone color (us girls know that color is) between the two as far as texture is concerned. It sells for$  0.85/ft. for the 1" size. You can purchase any length you want or buy it in complete rolls. I used the black 1" to shingle a roof. Cut it into 1" pieces and stuck it on the roof. Makes good looking roofing shingles.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Plank flooring:   we have used this and did not remove the backing paper, just glued the product down as it was.   so far after several years we have not noticed any changes and it looks as flat as when we did it.

Mary B

Fretwork designs: You asked about designs for doors. You did not say if it is a frame and the fretwork becomes the filler inside the frame or if the fretwork lies on the solid face of the door. What I have done is two things. For fancy screen work (grill work). I take normal window screening and rotate it 90 degrees. This results in the squares in the screen becoming diamonds. Second. I have taken paper doilies and cut out the paper fretwork and used that to fill in the frame of the door. Usually on a cabinet type doors.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

No brush strokes:  I only use foam brushes because I always had that problem.   You have to apply more coats but it gives a very smooth finish.  The brushes are reasonably priced and you can get them at a craft store.   Also, the paint might be a little too thick and you could try watering it down a bit.

Carol

No brush strokes: Acrylic paints dry quickly, which is one of their attractive traits. Another of their attractive qualities is that they can be thinned with water. Something to remember is that the warmer it is, the faster they dry. Also that in the winter, they thicken with the cold.

What I would suggest is thin the paint a little at a time until you can paint a coat without brush strokes showing. Two or more thin coats is much better than one heavy coat. Sand lightly between coats, a brown paper grocery sack is really good for the sanding.

Rusty in Ky

Painting your doors:  Just some thoughts here.  I usually paint everything with a sponge brush which does not leave brush strokes or I sometimes use a tiny-tiny artist brush.  I like the sponge brush better because I don't have to clean it, just throw it away when I am finished.   I sand after each coat of anything. I use either 150 or 240 sandpaper, I think you can probably get it even smaller.  I use a trick I learned in a furniture making class regarding sanding.  Basically we made tiny, tiny implements to fit in small corners and edges. We tacky glued some sandpaper to these and could just about sand anywhere. Of course you had to put a piece of wood on these to use as a handle so you could use them.   Sometimes the handle was bigger than the sander!  Oh also I wait for 48 hours between coats and sanding.

Kathryn from Virginia

Paper bag finish: I saw the question about using a paper bag to get a finish. Yes, it works. After using the final and finest grit of sandpaper; if you wish to get a glass smooth finish, use some paper bag material (Kraft paper; that brown stuff) as your sanding paper and do the same as with sand paper. It will impart a glass like finish for smoothness to your project.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Sanding or smoothing very fine details: If you are doing miniature carving work, and have areas that are rough and really do need additional smoothing, about the best thing you can use is some 400-600 sandpaper glued to a toothpick.   (Wrap it so it is as small as possible so it just covers the toothpick).  Even this fine a 'grit' will do immense harm to really small carving work - so you had better proceed cautiously!  Sometimes, the best thing to do in these really tiny areas is just to 'polish' the top as I have talked about doing in my 'basics'.  You can also get very small micro needle files from X-Acto   hobby/plane/train shops) or order from MicroMark  http://www.micromark.com    The tips of these files are about the size of a large needle -- but, once again, they will remove TOO MUCH if you are not careful with them!

Linda Gale, Artisan, I.G.M.A.

Getting rid of brush strokes: If you are plagued with brush strokes, you need to thin the paint you're using -- but don't use water to thin the paint, even if it is acrylic.

Using water will raise the grain of the wood you're working on and cause a "whole 'nother problem"!  You can get special mediums for thinning acrylics - - check labels and ask questions.  These are not the 'gel' mediums that will thin the color and make it more transparent.   You may need to experiment with different types/brands of medium/extender that will give you the effect you want.  You must also use a relatively expensive flat brush with very soft bristles.  (Clean it immediately after each use and it will last for years with proper treatment.)You can also use your fingertips to 'brush' - but don't pat -- or you will have.......  fingerprints!     ;D

For a really fine 'brush stroke free' finish, you'll need to build up coat after coat of color - using a thinned paint color - allowing each coat to dry very thoroughly (overnight), gently sanding or 'polishing', applying another very thin coat of paint, etc.  You can plan on putting on at least 3 coats of thinned paint, in this manner.  

Although time consuming, a LOT of thin coats work much better than a few thick coats - not only because they don't show brush strokes, but because, as you apply each coat, sand or polish, and apply another coat, you are slowly filling in the grain of the wood and making it less noticeable.....one of the primary 'give aways' in close up  photography of miniatures that are, otherwise, almost 'the real thing'.  (If using stain, instead of paint, the multiple 'finish coats' do the 'filling of the grain', while still showing it.  You just don't get the microscopic 'dented' effect that grain has when very closely examined.) This is the same technique as the Japanese/Chinese methods of applying lacquer finishes - though they use high gloss lacquers instead of the satin-finish paints miniaturists use.  A lacquer finish requires 30-40 coats of very thin lacquer, drying, sanding, lacquering, etc---to get a really mirror finish that is as smooth as glass.

Remember that each sanding/polishing step MUST be followed by use of a tack cloth to remove all the dust, before applying another coat of paint or stain.   If you don't remove every tiny micro particle of dust, it will be magnified with each additional coat you apply over it!

Finally -- if you want to get really 'obsessive' about what your finish looks like:  Shine a bright light on it so the light flows over the surface, from the side.   It will show up even the tiniest ripple in your finish coat. (Remedy:  Sand with 400-600, and apply another finish coat - or two.) Remember that a final thin coat of CLEAR paste-type floor wax (the type that won't yellow), carefully applied with a Q-tip and then buffed well, gives a wonderful 'mellow' look to your piece....but even this won't cure problems that started with a bad first coat of paint or stain!

Now that you know how very time-consuming achieving a really good finish can be.  Is it no wonder that artisans charge so much for their work? Probably 75% of the labor involved is not in the actual construction of a piece of miniature furniture - but in the finish applied.   It might take only a day to cut out the pieces of a small table and assemble it, but weeks to apply a proper finish!   

I hope this answers all the questions that I left out of my basic 'how to' that Mel mentioned.   If you are interested in these 'basics' that I always include with my bed or furniture classes, please let me know and I'll be glad to post it. 

Linda Gale, Artisan, I.G.M.A.

'Mod Podge' is a brand of decoupage medium. Basically it is a type of watered down glue that you use to smooth paper/decals onto your work. For example, say you had a little wooden box that you painted, and you found a patterned paper/nail decal that you wanted to stick to it. You would apply the podge to the entire piece, apply and smooth your paper/decal, then apply the podge over the entire piece to seal the whole thing. Podges come in different finishes, just like paint - satin, matte, gloss, antique. It's up to you. I used to work at a craft store and I do have a little advice on product selection.             There are a lot of different brands of decoupage medium, ranging in $2 - $8 (Canadian). The best one by far is by Plaid, called Royal Coat Decoupage Finish. It dries to a beautiful hard and clear finish and is easier to work with. Thus, the most expensive, lol. I have found that the cheaper ones always seem 'sticky' even after they've cured. So, if you just wanted to try it and see if you like it, get the cheap one ( you can pass it onto the kids later, lol - they love to do it too!) And if you find you like it and want to keep something for a long period of time, go with the pricier brands. A bottle lasts for a very long time especially if you only use it for minis! Good luck, and I hope this information was somewhat useful to someone! Cheers,  

Dawna in Vancouver, BC, Canada