Simulated Wood: I have directions on how to simulated wood on foam core on the DIY page on my personal website. http://studio59.homestead.com

Jennie in San Antonio TX.

Log Cabins: To weather my log cabin, I began by using a variety of wire brushes on the siding to give it a weathered appearance as if the wood were really old and splitting from drying out. I then used a solution of india ink and water to give it a light wash. It came out a beautiful weathered grey. After it dried, I mixed up another batch that was just a tad bit darker and had a bit of brown paint mixed in and went over certain areas such as below window sills, up near the roofline and randomly along the bottom of the cabin. This was to indicate areas that were a little more protected and weren't quite so sun bleached.

Finally, I mixed up a light wash of a bit of brown and black acrylic paint in water and used a dry brush technique to go over the logs a bit.

After the final drying, I used 220 grit sandpaper on the walls to knock back the color a bit more and smooth everything out. I then used silver craft paint and, using a tiny, tiny little brush, put just a few streaks on two sides of the house. I'm not sure if this is even noticable or not but that is how I did it.

I gathered up tons of scrap wood from my kit to test the different wash mixes before I actually applied them to the cabin.

I am *very* pleased with the final effect. I am still debating whether I should use a toothbrush and spatter a bit of india ink wash near the bottom of the cabin to show that nice dirty look that has resulted from years and years of rain spattering mud up onto the bottom of the cabin! My lazy little fisherman has taken really lousy care of the cabin. I'm extremely frustrated with him!

Reva Losiewicz

Microbrushes: "Microbrush. Very, very fine plastic applicators with a minute bit of fuzz on the ends. "

I love mine to pieces. Got them from Sandra Wall (I think) at a mini show. They come in "fine" with a red handle and "even finer" with a gray handle. They can be easily cleaned and used over and over, and when they are finally totally worn out, the handle itself can be used for any number of purposes. Did the original posting mention that they can be bent so that the brush head is at right angles to the handle? This is sometimes very useful. They provide so much more control than a fine paint brush, and they hold onto the paint so that it doesn't drip.

Janet in Baltimore

Shiny paint into dull: A friend and I were talking about using shiny paint the other day she had used it on one of her consignment houses and I had used it on the the store I am building...and we both agreed we didn't like the look, well what do you know I accidentally found a cure for that problem.

While working on the store I dropped a large drop of glue on the paint and when I whipped it away it was dull. Using this hobby glue I added a little water to t and wiped all the green shiny paint with the glue and then wiped it off. Now it is dull except in a few places where the siding lap each other. I now looks like it has faded with age.

The stable base will make the move & re-assembly of the total dollhouse much more manageable.

Sclarise

Removing gloss ... I tried to use alcohol on my IRL woodwork to remove a stubborn bit of detritus and took the gloss off as well.

Chrissy the Hyphenated

Wing Back Chairs: I made wing back chairs using the instructions in How to Build Miniature Furniture and Room Settings by Judy Beals.

Chris W. in humid Minnesota

Simulated Concrete Flooring: I use mini mortar. I apply it with a foam brush. It's the same way I do the foundations of my houses.

Carol

Simulated Concrete Flooring: This is what I did for a cellar work room roombox I made. I took a new sheet of fine sandpaper and painted it. Then just glue down like wallpaper, weight down with a heavy book to prevent warping. Looks very realistic but I have to warn you, it is NOT easy to dust!

Linda in GA

Simulated Concrete Flooring: I would use paper clay with a little gray paint kneaded in to the right color - roll it out fairly thin - maybe use an oldtoothbrush to help create the texture you want

Chris W. in Minnesota

Simulated Concrete Flooring: You could first paint the surface with a few coats of gesso (allowing each coat to dry and a light sanding in between), then paint the floors with a steel/concrete grey acrylic paint, then if you like you could put a matte finish on it to give it some depth.

Kim from Canada,

Simulated Concrete Flooring: My product of choice is Durham's Rock Putty, available in any hardware store. I add a bit of black acrylic to it for a new cement look.

Becky Holliday

Simulated Concrete Flooring: To do concrete for a floor or a house foundation, use a product that is used for patching real concrete. It is sold in one quart cans and larger.

Spread the patching compound on the surface, then place a piece of plastic wrap on it and smooth it down with a credit card or something that wont tear the plastic wrap. Before it dries, slowly pull of the plastic wrap. You will notice it looks like real cement. You might want to practice on scrap board first, to see if you like the look.

MAP in Puyallup

Simulated Concrete Flooring: Use gritty white paint - let it dry. Give it a second coat to build a thickness - let it dry. Use small amount of black acrylic paint with a lot of water - making dirty water - paint the 'dirty water' over the gritty painted area and allow to dry - repeat if the effect is not 'dirty' enough.

Joyce Betts

Simulated Concrete Flooring: when I want to simulate concrete or even stucco, I use Sears Basement Waterproofing Paint . It is latex, nicely gritty, and I already have it :)!

Linda in Leroy, OH

Simulated Concrete Flooring: I made my concrete walkway using a mixture of white glue, water and sand. if you want it gray looking you can add a few drops of gray paint to the liquid before adding the sand.

Jo

Simulated Concrete Flooring: I was waiting for someone else that attended the Gulf South Show this past March to respond. We did a vignette of a garage sale, garage and all. Braxton Payne conducted the class, as always, and the concrete floor was simply painted with ordinary gray house paint. Then, while still wet, take a Kleenex, carefully take it apart to get one ply of tissue, and lay it into the paint. Concrete. To get stucco, do the same thing, but kind of scrunch the tissue in the paint, to get that stucco look.

Olivia

Concrete floor: (Some great ideas out there from everybody!) Here's my contribution" I made a concrete driveway in one DH scene using grey grout...the same grout you use when laying tile in RL. I had some left over from RL remodeling. It can be purchased at any home improvement store (Home Depot, Lowes) and most hardware stores, in large or small quantities, premixed in a can or dry powder in a box or bag, comes in a variety of colors, with sand or without. Just add water to the dry mix for the consistency you want. I used the powered type with sand for the concrete look and a small spatula shaped like a butter knife to spread it. It can be spread pretty smooth but still looks gritty the way real concrete does.

I use a lot of RL home improvement items for minis. Self-adhesive linoleum floor tiles can be purchased individually for under $1 each and have wonderful, realistic finishes resembling marble, stone and tile. I've used them for DH flooring as well as landscape scenes. They cut fairly easy and are scratch/scuff resistant.

CRWhidbee

Concrete flooring in a garden shed: How about trying the lid from a cardboard egg carton. It may be too rough but it sure can pass for cement.

Dr bob

Lantern Scene: Sharon asked for suggestions for making a scene in an antique lantern, 12 inches high by 8 square. Depending on your lantern's appearance, you could design a scene such as one I made in a Mexican tin lantern of somewhat smaller dimensions. This was a gift to a dear friend, who displays it near the front door of her Southwest-style home in New Mexico. It shows a statue of Mary outside the arched stained-glass window niche of an adobe church.

I painted the inside top of the lantern pale blue with very light swirls of white to suggest sky and clouds and painted the bottom of the lantern brown. I used graph paper pressed into the lantern and creased to make patterns for the gessoed and painted Styrofoam for the church window wall and the two partial side walls of the niche. My stained glass window was made from one section of a three-sided stained glass panel enclosing a votive candle, but you could also buy or make your own stained glass window, using suggestions from the SS Archives. I can't remember now whether I used black or a golden color of paper behind the window; I just remember having to experiment to make the colors show up better.

Two graduated stacked Styrofoam half-circles, gessoed and painted like the adobe church wall, were used against the wall underneath the window to make the raised platform/flower bed for the statue, one of those small inexpensive magnetized figures designed to go on dashboards. I painted her coppery green, with antiquing washes for an aged look.

Dried flowers and preserved greenery were used in the half-circle flower beds which formed her base. Off to one side was an octotillo (instructions for which are in the SS Archives, I believe) "planted" in a small mound of Styrofoam. A vine made of beige buttonhole twist threads, covered with glue and dragged through a mixture of shades of railroad foam greenery, was on the other side, extending up the wall and arcing over the curve of the window. I painted a thick coat of Tacky glue mixed with beige paint on the base, over the plant mounds and at the edge of the flower beds, sprinkled on sand to cover, shaking off the excess when it was dry.

Wanna in El Paso

Gluing shingles: I have been building miniature houses for over 20 years and have never used anything other than white glue to attach shingles. In that entire time I think there might have been less than a dozen shingles that warped. Anyone familiar with Noel and Pat Thomas will find that they also use white glue to attach shingles. I just recent finished a RGT front opening kit for a customer and used shingles supplied by RGT. They were very thin (1/32") split pine shingles and as usual I used ordinary white glue and out of approximately 1400 shingles applied only 3 of them warped and then only slightly. I apply a thin line of white glue just below the pencil line I have put down and a thin line of glue along the top edge the already applied row of shingles. According to how long the row of shingles is I wait a few seconds or so for the glue to set and then start the next row of shingles. I also stain or weather the shingles after they have dried for a couple of days. To prevent the possible loosening of the shingles, an alcohol base weathering solution should be used. A good one is made by dissolving a little India ink in alcohol.

Garry Cosine