Attaching dormers

Yesterday I decided to glue on dormers. I am far from finished with my previous tasks, but I like some variation, and with the dormers attached there will be a bit more finished look to the house.

It turned out to be consideraboy less straightforward than I had anticipated and than the instuction says, which is "glue and fut dormers". I left dormer assembly at the stage when sides were glued to fronts. When I started glueing roofs I realised that I had painted them grey on both sides, but of course the part of the roof on the inside had to be white.

 

This wasn't a big deal, but still took some time. I considered putting in some wallpaper to match each room. But then of course the roof itself is white on the inside (so far - I may add roof beams) so it didn't work. I am now glad it didn't because it would have made the whole project a disaster. Sometimes it's good not to be too ambitious.

Then I had to decide whether to take off the roof from its hinges and work on a table or try to do it balancing on kitchen steps. After a brief attempt with the latter I decided on the former. It has been a while since I occupied the dining-room table.

Let me remind you that I made the roof slates myself. What I hadn't thought about then was that I would have to glue on the dormers, and they would have to be glued on the roof itself rather than on card slates. Therefore I had to cut about 0.5 cm around the openings, and that wasn't easy because I had used very good glue!

For glueing on the dormers I should have been an octopus because it was hopeless to get them straight. Lots of patience and masking tape. Then it turned out that there was a triangular opening at the bottom of the dormer, where logically a window sill should be. Luckily, I can make window sills, but this is clearly a manufacturing fault.

 

There were also gaps at seams, but there always are. That's when I was glad I hadn't tried wallpaper because it would have been ruined anyway. I covered the seams with filler and sanded it smooth.

Then I made the window sills. Once again, I think they should have been included in the kit.

I made a mistake with the first one: I glued it to the edge of the opening, but of course it had to be 90 degree to the wall. Lesson learned (long ago): with repeated actions, try one first.

Then finally, I could put then roof back onto its hinges. I was a bit nervous, but it went well.

So this whole process, described in the instruction as "glue and fut dormers" took me about twelve hours. I just cannot imagine how I would have done all this if I had assembled the house before decorating.

On the window sills, I can put flower pots or ornaments, not too heavy and unbreakable, because even if I use super-superglue I wouldn't trust it to hold. Something like this, for the nursery:

 

And in the evening, it will look like this:

 

I was right: it does look more finished. But far, far from finished yet.

Dormers

I am always saying that miniature-making is highly educational. I didn't know what a dormer was until I was building Helen Hall and had to buy some spare parts. Now I know that Helen Hall had gable dormers, while Womble Hall will have flat-roof dormers.

I enjoyed making the roof so much that I just had to go on and make dormers. I started by painting all parts, white on the inside and the same light green on the outside that I have on the house front. I must admit: I make a couple of mistakes with the sides and had to repaint. Then I put in window frames and glazing.

I glued sides with the front and immediately realised that I was making another mistake.

It would be much easier to add curtains before glueing the sides. So this is what I did with the remaining four dormers. The curtains are bits of lace. It won't be possible to draw curtains in the dormers, and I'd like to be able to peep into the rooms through the windows, so I didn't want larger curtains.

To make it neat, I covered the side seams with filler and when it was dry I painted over it. Here you can see the three steps:

This is what it will look like - so far just fixed with white tack:

 

I estimate that it took me 15 hours to make the five dormers (the window frames had been primed, sanded and painted before). I say "estimate" because some of the time they were drying while I was doing something else. It will take more time to attach them to the roof.