Slate floors: I have another way to use the artist medium Gesso (suggested by Anne I think for wall preparation). I used it to create slate floors for the kitchen in my kit-bashed Newport. I had added about 10 " to the side to create an elongated house which gave me room for a full kitchen. I wanted slate floors but wanted something to be textured (slate is smooth but has irregularities). I didn't want to use the real slate I had as it was too thick and out of scale. I had the black tape used by artists to create print lines (it comes in various widths from very wide to very thin - I used 1/16").I had originally gotten it to create lines on the windows (like for leaded windows) but used something else instead. This has a thickness to it though so made a grid on the floor with the tape extending; about 1/2" outside, then spread gesso over the floor. At this point you really don't have to worry about texturing - just get it evenly spread over the floor. You may have to do it twice as gesso tends to flatten out as it dries. Then I painted it a battleship grey and sponged various shades of grey over it to look mottled (real slate even has rust stains on it sometimes and comes in shades of grey, green and a maroonish red so here is lots to play with here). When it was dry to the touch I pulled up the strips of black tape (this tape is tough being made of some sort of plastic material) and it left the slightly rough irregular edges to the squares. I then coated it with a shiny finish (any gloss finish would work I think (I used gloss Liquitex because that's what I had on hand) and it looks like a well cared for waxed slate floor. It was great fun to do.

By the way, if anyone has a few slate shingles lying around (on the east coast you can find them fairly easily - - look for old buildings with slate roofs that are starting to come apart - you'll find whole shingles or pieces lying on the ground especially after a rain), break them up and use the pieces for wonderful foundations around your houses as a variation to brick or flagstones in your gardens.Slate is really tough stuff so get something to tilt it against (like when you want to break a stick). Use an old trusty hammer and go at it (a great way to get rid of old aggressions!). BUT BE SURE TO WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. I wouldn't want anyone to lose their eyesight or get hurt by flying bits of stone.

Ana

Masonite: For anyone who may not know, Masonite is a brand name for Tempered Hardboard (kind of like a high density fiberboard). To answer your question, it holds up pretty well. It is near impossible to wire (can't get brads or eyelets into it worth a darn - its too hard). It is usually on 1/8" thick, windows and doors are for 1/4" or 3/8" thick walls, typically.

Tom Berkner

Regarding Wood Movement: Solid wood moves with moisture content. In a heated house it will lose moisture and shrink a little, but not evenly. If you could see the growth rings on the end grain of a board they would be curved. As the wood dries out the growth rings tend to straighten. The only way to stop this is either to maintain the moisture content or capture the lumber by force. This is why dovetails on full scale pieces are marked and cut the same day the lumber is milled. This is also why it is proper to have the concave side of the rings on the outside faces of a box or drawer to keep the edges from pulling apart as the lumber dries. Solid wood is not like fabric.... You can make it flat by ironing it or training an elephant to dance on it, but, unless you stress the wood and damage the structure, it will reassume its original shape. It may stay flat for a while, but beware... unless you glue it or fasten it in some other manner it will almost always resume its bow. Why this doesn't always happens is one of those mysteries that makes woodworkers talk to themselves. Do what you can to straighten bows and warps in solid wood and plywood, but remember there are many, many horror stories in the full scale wood working world of the terrible things that have happened to projects when the builder ignored or didn't understand the principles of wood movement.

Pete Boorum, On Sebbins Pond, Bedf

Strips of wood. --model air plane shops carry balsa and basswood. Balsa comes in assorted sizes and lengths. when you cut it with the grain you can be exact but to cut it across the grain use a craft saw or cut a little larger and sand it down to size. air plane model shops sell these saws and miter boxes. basswood is harder to cut but sturdier.

To cover a seam when papering --molding of wood at the base, ceiling edge or chair rail cover up irregular edges. wooden coffee stirrer pre-stained or pre-painted work fine if you cannot fine any thing else.

Jane n Arkansas

Stonework: I made my own "stone" for the patio. It looks like the slabs of limestone they use in "real" landscaping. I made it by mixing plaster of Paris, glue, paint and water so that the mixture was a doughy texture. Then, I rolled it out between 2 sheets of waxed paper to about 1/8" thickness. I peeled off the top layer of waxed paper and let the mixture dry. Then, I broke it into pieces. To add more color and texture, I used several color washes in different hues of browns, and burgundy. I laid the pieces out on the "patio" to get an idea where I wanted them to fit and glued them in place with tacky glue.

So, tonight I needed to "grout" around the stones. Again, I used the same mixture as before, except I mixed it to the consistency of frosting. I started to smooth it on with a spatula - - but, alas, I ended up using my fingers! After being sure I had gotten it into every nook and cranny, I wiped off the excess with a wet towel. As a final step, I sprayed the whole thing - with the "grout" still wet - with a matte finish sealer. And,....surprise! It looks great. Very realistic.

Sloan

log cabin "chinks"--I just finished a small log cabin and had the same problem--daylight (and mini drafts)! As I started with an assembled kit, sealed in light wood with glue already in the cracks that would not"take" the furniture stain that I used on the rest of the exterior; I tried acrylic paints (bit of green and dark brown mixed) with some white glue and used coffee grounds "painted" into the chinks with a small brush fully loaded. It not only filled the cracks and covered the light spots, but gave a convincing look to the "mud". I took my finger after filling the cracks to smooth the stuff and remove excess from the logs. Any color that strayed was easily rubbed into the wood as it was close to the other stain in color. You could probably use spent tea, also--something to give it texture and covering quality. I was happy with the results. I am using oiled parchment on the one window, in a frame that will open "out" for a full view of the "lake and the mountains"--which are on a piece of oil painting cut from its frame and standing on a backdrop behind the cabin.

Xmas Carol

Foam Core: I built a 2 story dollhouse for my daughter over 20 years ago before I was ever into miniatures. It was a simplicity pattern that I used in conjunction with real good toys. That dollhouse lasted through her and countless # of friends playing with it over several years, and then when she grew out of it I took it over and put it in our living room and changed it and added to it over the next several years. Even added a 3rd floor to it. It held up beautifully. I also use foam core exclusively to build my room boxes.

Kathy

IN PRAISE OF THE LOWLY YARDSTICK!!! Consider the poor thing. It gets left out in the weather, hung in the hot stuffy garage for years, propped behind the refrigerator, left lying on the cement blocks outside for weeks at a time, used to retrieve lost items from beneath the bed - fridge- couch- car..... it is a most versatile and under appreciated item in our house. Does it warp? no Does it twist and bend with moisture? no. Does it rot? no. How many years has it stood, silent and neglected without visible change?

It's made of wood my dearies.... excellent wood, Great wood! Thin pine usually, HOBBY WOOD!!!! I've been cutting and using yardsticks for years for mini building. . . all the qualities mentioned above are inherent in this often overlooked source of excellent wood for hobby builders. A saw and a handful of cheap yardsticks can make you a master of all you aspire to in the mini world. Windows, Doors, framing, furniture, plank floors, house trim, etc. I found a hundred of them at a yard sale for .05 each. Find THAT in a hobby store. A light sanding to take the numbers off and you have one of the finest quality hobby wood planks you can imagine.

They paint, sand, stain, glue and cut like a dream. . .

Judie - Daytona Beach, FL

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.

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

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

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

Gallery Glass (by Plaid Enterprises) has a "Bevels Mold," which is a sheet of clear, stout plastic with several circular or rectangular raised patterns. The concept is to coat the patterns with Gallery Glass Window Color, let dry, and then peel off a patterned piece that resembles beveled glass. These are not sized for dollhouses, but I'm pretty sure some of the smallest designs could be used effectively on a window. But the Window Color itself (and that is its name; it's not glass stain) is the real Wow item. It may be cousin to assorted acrylic gels (it has water cleanup) but it dries faster, and to a tougher film, than any of those I'd experimented with. The sample disc I molded is quite clear but, because of unevenness, slightly distorting, which I think is a plus. There are other related items - other Window Colors, leading, pattern booklets, etc. - but I want to try tinting the clear with acrylic paint first, as well as coating the surface with paint and with permanent inks. Worth trying for water. Worth checking to see if it will stretch across small gaps and dry solid. Worth seeing if it can be molded over a shallow bowl. And so on and on! I'd love to know how others have been using it. Oh: where, and how much. I met up with it at a JoAnn's Fabric/Craft store, but Plaid Enterprises is everywhere. The sheet of beveled glass patterns was $3.50, Window Color was $2.00 for a two-oz. bottle, but $5.00 for eight oz.

Mary

Log cabin logs: I've been planning to build a log cabin from scratch for my first dollhouse. I got books on real log cabin design and construction; it's amazing how many different techniques there are to build a cabin. You can use the logs vertically (called 'palisade') or horizontally--or use both together. You can peel the logs or leave the bark on--but the bark encourages bugs and the cabin won't last as long. And there are several ways to notch the logs, and endless ways to chink them (my favorite look is 'chinkless').

The books recommend using 12"-14" diameter logs--that would be 1" to about 1-1/8" sticks or dowels in 1" scale. To figure out how many logs you need, measure the length and height of each wall you're building. If you're using 1" diameter logs, you'll need as many logs as the height of the wall in inches, and each log should be the length of the wall, plus any bit of log you want sticking out at the corners.

So for an 8" high, 20" long wall where you want 1" of log sticking out at each corner, you would need 8 logs (one for each inch of height), each 22" long (20" for the wall, plus two 1" sickouts for the corners). So a four-wall cabin 20" by 30" with 8" walls would need sixteen 22" logs and sixteen 32" logs, plus the shorter logs that form the pointy section of wall supporting the roof peak (is that called a gable wall?)

I've been considering using dowels [because 1) I haven't found any trees available to me with enough of the right size branches, and 2) I don't really want to peel 800+ inches of branches]. But dowels are awfully smooth and milled-looking, so I've been coming up with ideas for making them look like hand-peeled logs. I haven't experimented yet, but will let you know my results when I get that far. I'm thinking of using dowels in a range of diameters--maybe from 7/8" to 1-1/8". I'll stain each dowel brown, then figure out how to scrape off bits along each one, to make it look peeled. (Hand carve them with an exacto? Maybe line up all the dowels together and hit them here and there with a sander? Have to contain the dowels some way so they wouldn't go flying around the room.) Then stain the new bare spots with a yellowish color to look like inner wood. (Stain colors would depend on what kind of tree you're representing.) I suppose I'll have to stain the notches after I cut them, too.

Lee Menconi

If you use OAK dowels and stain them, the graining shows through very nicely. This looks very realistic. Don't know how to simulate the bark.

Marlene

Wiring: You should prime with paint before you do any wiring. The way I do my ceiling fixtures is to either use a canopy (designed to plug in and hold ceiling fixtures) or run the wire through the ceiling to the floor above and attach to electrical tape (it's hidden under the flooring or carpet).

Jan