Half Inch Scale: I have upholstered furniture, bassinets, slippers, plants and woven baskets in half scale which I will be premiering at the St. Louis Show. Some of the things can be seen on my web site under Small Scale. I will be working on more items after the show and eventually everything will be on my web page http://MrsArt.homestead.com.

Jennie in San Antonio TX

¼ Scale: I have just completed a new catalog for 1/4" scale only. I now have available items from Suzanne Andrews, Grandt Line, Model Builders Supply, Dee's Delights, Northeastern, Scale Card, Mustard Seed and Robin Betterley. If interested in this FREE catalog, please contact me directly Dollhousecorner@cs.com.

Marlene

¼ Scale: I meant to tell you about Pam Scott's Little Enough News also, Pam's URL, where you can see what her newsletter is all about, and find some free projects: http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html

Kaye in LA

Cars: I looked at the two die-cast car web sites that I have dealt with, and only found a different model of a Renault. Sorry. Here are the sites however, in case they would consider doing a special order....? http://www.toy-mart.com/ertl.die.cast.cars.html and https://www.ewal.com/index.html and type the scale you want in the search block. I looked under 1/18 scale, although I didn't know what you might want.

Sandra

Quarter Scale Sites: I love 1/4" scale and I know of several people that sell 1/4" scale houses and furniture. Of course, I want all of them!! Here are a few:
Sally's Originals
http://members.tripod.com/~SallysPage/index.htm
Pamela Scott Miniatures
http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html
Robin Betterley's 1/4" scale kits
http://miniatureconcepts.hypermart.net/RobinQuarter.html
Suzanne and Andrew's Miniatures
http://www.andrewsmini.com/
BJ Miniatures
http://www.bjminis.com/
Quarterkits
http://www.shawneelink.net/~umbrger/Quarterkits.html

Nancy in Ohio

Quarter Scale Kits: I carry 1/4" scale furniture kits from Mustard Seed.
http://JBsDollhousesMiniatures.comJB's Doll Houses and Miniatures, Yuma, AZ

Jackie

1/4 scale dolls: First I use a softer clay (I like pro-sculpt). I then put it on something to hold it so you never have to actually touch the face or head, such as a toothpick or putting it on foil, visit http://perfect-touch.com/ or visit my website http://BitsnPiecesOnline.com I am linked to them, and invest in some of their sculpting tools. They have war gaming tools that are incredibly small. I have the size up from that. They make all their tools and are very, very nice.

Joni

¼ scale Fimo head: Why don't you try to put a skin of Fimo over an already baked small circle or head form, so that it does not lose shape while you are working on it. You can also use a pea sized ball of tin foil as the armature.

Mary Kaliski

Cutting Eggs: Thought I'd jump in on the egg discussion to tell you about the breed of chicken known as the Araucana, also known as the "Easter Egg Chicken". These hens lay various shades of green, blue, and sometimes even pink eggs. We raised several varieties of chickens and I can tell you these are also the hens with the sweetest personalities. Now if you take care of your little hens properly and feed them good food and let them in your garden to eat the bugs they will all have eggs with nice hard shells - not at all like the eggs you get from the grocery store. I made a little house in one of the Araucana eggs. I used a drill to put small holes in each end of the egg, then blew out the contents. I outlined the area I wanted to cut out with a pencil line and drilled a starter hole just inside the line, then used the smallest Dremel router bit to cut out the hole. The scale for the egg (in order to make a two-story house inside) worked out to about 1/8" (1:96) but I suppose if I had thought about 1:144 I could have put in an attic too! Anyhow, if you want to have a look at the egg it is on my web site http://www.minimotion.com under "Miniatures". The green color of it is the actual color of the egg as it came from our Araucana (well, after the egg was washed of course)! I did coat the inside with several layers of acrylic paint to help hold it together, and also touched up the outside where I cracked it (not saying how many times).

Tori West

Cutting Eggs: It's Science Fair time in Virginia. Last year my granddaughter did a project with eggs. She soaked an egg in vinegar for about 2 days. The shell becomes soft and rubbery. She used whole eggs, but you could use blown out shells and weight them down in some way to stay under the vinegar. Or you could just let it float. If it stays in the same place, you would have a soft side that you could cut. When you leave it out of the vinegar, it hardens again.

Martha

Eggs: This tip came from an egger friend of mine. The paper thin shells of chicken eggs can be strengthened by using corn starch mixed in Elmer's glue. Just mix some corn starch in the glue and using your fingers, spread it inside the egg shell and let it dry. I can't tell you how much corn starch to mix in, but you need enough that it is not runny. You have to use very sharp scissors to cut the opening to keep the shell from cracking. She also used cuticle scissors to cut openings in finch eggs. I usually ended up crushing the very fragile finch eggs, but they are the right size to make decorated eggs for you mini scenes.

Wanda

Strip paper shingles: The quarter scale strip paper shingles are great, too. I painted them with my window trim color, then sponged on a cream color very lightly - aged them nicely.

Carole Pierce in TN

Whitening old lace: Biz is the best when it comes to taking out stains! For something like your lace I would just fill a bucket with some water - toss the Biz (a laundry additive found in grocery stores) and leave over night- or as long as it takes Marvelous stuff Even gets out old baby food stains!

Renee Kutcher

144 scale furniture: Look at http://www.anitamoriginals.comfor fantastic furniture, kits to make, and metal minis. Anita does great work and is a member of this digest.

Debby

Micro miniatures: Those interested in smaller than small should check out this site. http://www.microart.kiev.ua    Click on the British flag for the English translation and then use the arrows beside the menu button to scroll through the incredible works of art.  Makes 1/144 scale look gigantic.

Rose in HI

To all 144 scale modelers: I have a suggestion if you happen to be looking for detail items, windows, doors for your 1:144 model.  Check out the N scale model railroad detail parts at your local hobby shop or on the net.  There is a wealth of small things available out there if you look around.  Yes, N scale is a bit smaller than 144 (1:160) but over 10 scale feet, that makes a difference of exactly one scale foot, or a little over 1/16" in real measurements.   How many people are going to slip their fingers inside your nicely detailed scene to measure whether something is 5' long or 4'-6" long?   If you don't care whether something that small is EXACTLY to scale or not, then why worry about it?

David

Animal-less Pet shop: I don't 'do' animals, so when I built the 1/4 scale pet shop from Debbie Young featured in DM, someone suggested I have a sign on the window saying "Opening Soon"

Martha

Egg Art: For Helen whose inquiring mind wants to know what to do with her eggs: http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/cs/eggart/index.htm

Jude in ND

Cutting Eggs: To cut a hole in a chicken egg, lightly pencil the shape of your opening. Take ordinary white glue and apply a thin bead around the penciled line. Let dry thoroughly. Drill a tiny hole in the center of the area to cut by rotating the tip of a sharp Xacto blade around until you get a small hole. Then, you should be able to cut with those curved cuticle scissors. The glue will prevent the egg from cracking beyond that line. You should be able to lightly sand your opening smooth. Put the egg into a bowl of water with some bleach. This will kill any bacteria and remove the white glue at the same time. You can wipe it off with a damp towel.

Bonnie Gibson, Tucson, Arizona

½ Scale Miniature Cars: Just got a catalog in the mail called "Catalog Favorites". For those of you that are doing 1/2 scale there is a 1923 Ford Model B in either black or red. There are also some miniature pedal cars for 1" scale, but they seem to be on back order. Anyway, this is the address if you want to check it out: http://www.catalogfavorites.com or their toll free # is 1-800-221-1133.

Sharon in Watsonville CA