A trio of houses

Post by **Lee** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 9:25 pm

Hello everyone...
I haven't posted lately with a new house but I always keep up with what the rest of you are doing. You are all an inspiration to me!

Months ago I started a trio of houses for my best friend and his two sisters. The House is in Preble, NY and is the old family home. The house is being sold now so I am making three of the same house for them to remember it by...

Here are some starting pictures; I will post more in the days to come. As always what started out as simple I have been successful complicating it as you will see soon.

Post by **PutzinVT** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:07 pm

Great start.

Steve

Post by **BrianB** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:57 pm

Cool Lee, I agree, great start! Should make a neat putz house!

Post by **Lee** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:42 pm

Thank you guys... After I had the three cut out I painted them white and started on green trim for the windows. These were the colors the house was years ago... The houses are about 3" tall and 5.5" wide. This is where I started complicating things... I wanted to paint frames around the windows... so I carefully masked off each window so I could make sure the lines were straight... I am my own worst enemy sometime...

I don't know if this ever happens to any of your but when I paint these houses they look fine to me, but when I do close up photography I see all the little flaws and then I start obsessing over details. Sheesh!
Anyway a progress picture...

Post by **PutzinVT** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:58 pm

It's amazing how much glitter helps hide the small imperfections.

No one will even notice.

I'm always my worst critic.

Can't wait to see the final results.

Post by **paulrace** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:02 pm

That's great work, Lee. For a 3" structure, that's very good detail painting.

Post by **Howard** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:41 am

Lee...great job...as usual...You have captured the spirit and character of the house...

having a good, clear straight on picture is so important...it takes out a lot of the guess work...

your drawing tells me that you fully understand the value of graph paper...

Yes...glitter does has "magical powers" when it comes to hiding things...believe me...i know...

Here's a tip I saw in a model railroad magazine years ago...

It works for me...but you might want to test first and see how you like it...

after the tape is applied...and before painting in the color of the window frames and foundation...

paint on coat of CLEAR acrylic that covers the edge of the tape and a little ways onto wall..let dry...

then paint the color...the clear will help seal the tape and prevent the vast majority of paint bleeding...

slowly remove the tape pulling it back over itself...not in a quick jerk at 90 degrees to the surface...

Looking forward to seeing more photos...I personally like "progress shots"...

My very best regards...Howard...

Post by **Lee** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:34 pm

Thank you again for your kind words...
Howard, I have heard of that technique but I have never tried it. I will need to do that on the next one.
I did make the windows and door. The door I did in Paint since it was an odd size. My friend wanted a more realistic representation of the house so I used clear acetate, a green paint pen and wax paper from a cereal box. I will be lighting these houses with yellow LEDs.
Here are a pictures of the door and some of the windows...

Post by **paulrace** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:04 am

Lee, that will look VERY nice.

Post by **Lee** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:48 am

Good morning, happy Saturday!

My next step for this trio of houses was the porch. I wanted there to be some discernible Victorian details to show.
I agonized over this porch for weeks, trying to figure out how to make the porch resemble the porch in the picture. Keep in mind the porch is only 2.5 inches wide and 1.75 inches tall. I just didn't think I could do the detail all out of card stock and cardboard.
I finally came up with making the porch out of balsa wood, cardboard and small round stock I found at Michael's.

The gingerbread I made out of some scrap left over from one of my paper punches. The railing I used plastic needlepoint mesh that I trimmed.

The porch is gray and the supports and rails are white. I used a fine glitter so that the details would show better...

Why do something simple when I could complicate it... That is my usual way... I start out to do something simple and I get caught up in the details... sigh...

I will caption the photos...

If these are too many pictures please tell me and I will scale back...