Roof and Attic floor: part 2; Kitchen Windows and Central Heating.

Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a great weekend. I worked on the Manor house all weekend and am glad to say the roof structure is done!

Last post I had just finished gluing the gable and cross beam structure out of 3/4" by 1 1/2"lumber.
I picked up the 1/4" MDF panels at the hardware store Saturday morning. The first step was figuring out where to cut holes for the dormers and the opening to allow access from one room to the next.

I penciled in where the pieces met, and I cut the opening about 1" smaller, just to make sure I didn't have any holes where I want to shingle. I cut all the pieces with a dremel. If you ever use the Dremel be warned, it is small but very powerful. The tip spins so fast it's very hard to go in a straight line without a guide. Whenever I use it this is the setup:

I use a large metal Square and metal rulers, and I clamp them to the wood or MDF I am going to cut. I use a  multipurpose cutting guide ( the round black base)  and  #561 Multipurpose Bits. Because of the rotation of the bit, it's easier to cut up to down and right to left. In the opposite direction the dremel tends to jump and make crooked lines.
When came time to attach the panels, first I covered the gable and cross beams with carpenters glue. I put the MDF panel into place and taped it down with masking tape. Next, I pre-drilled a whole for the screw. First, I used a large drill bit and went down just enough so the head of the screw would not stick out. Then, I used the smallest drill bit and went as deep as I could. All panels had 2 or 3 screws attached to the gables, and 2  screws attached to the cross beam. In the end I used 104 1" screws and 36 2" screws.
In the center section of the roof I will have an opening panel that leads to the stair and the nursery

The opening panel is one piece of MDF with 2 gables attached to it. This was a little bit trickier to figure out.
I had cut the gables and glued them to a piece of subfloor.

I then took extra lumber and cut one end to match the angle of the roof. In the picture above I just glued and screwd  2 of them to the sublfoor. I then took this and glued that anlged cut to the opening panel of MDF. In the next picture you see the entire opening panel as well as the 2 dormers.

For some reason Ozzy went right next to it, sat down and would not move.

I'm going to put up the room devisions before I attach the panel with a piano hinge. I took a few more pictures of the roof:

Any gaps where the panels meet will be covered with copper flashing before shingling.

Every once in a while I had to get away from the roof, so I worked on other little details. I finished the panneling in the entrance

I built a working window for the kitchen.

I built them the same way as past windows, exceptd I build a small seperate frame and attached it with hinges to the window frame. I used an exacto to cut into the wood so there would be no unrealistic gap between the frame and sash.

This will be the Only working window in the house. I have realized the more pieces actually move, the more people touch and break them...and it's REALLY hard for me to pretend I'm not bothered and smile and say "that's okay, it's nothing"

And finaly, I purchased some jewelry pieces that looked like old heating grates. In the late victorian times homes started having coal furnaces in the basement which heated the house using ducts. I used a black marker to draw a square on the wallpaper and glued the jewlery bit on

And that, dear friends, was my weekend. If ever my instructions are unclear please feel free to ask any questions. I usually write my posts at the end of long miniature days.
I hope evryone has a wonderful week.
Best wishes to all,
Giac

Roof and Attic Floor: part 1

Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well!
Monday was Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and I managed to take Tuesday and Wednesday off. Naturally, I spent all my free time on Dewell Manor. I had hoped to finish the whole roof before going back to work, but the hardware store was rather busy so the mdf panels won't be ready before Friday. ..but I did get the structure done:

Including the Loggia, the house measures 37 inches deep, 103 inches wide, and 50 inches high.

I made the roof in 3 section seperate from the 1st and second floor structures so that I can take the house apart if  I ever have to move it. The subfloor is 1/2 inch mdf, the roof panels will be 1/4 inch mdf, and the frame will be 1 1/2 x 3/4 inch lumber.

The first step for the roof was figuring out the angles I wanted for the gables. I wanted the rooms in the attic to be at least 8 inches high. Since I don't want the rooms to be too small, I figured for every 6 horizontal inches, I'd go up 8 inches....hummm...maybe this drawing will help

The drawing above is the gable over the Kitchen/ Dressing room section of the house which is about 21 inches wide. I used the "8 for 6" rule for each gable, this way they will all have the same angle.
Next, I cut out all the triangles in cardboard and had a test run to see if I liked the proportion of the roof with the rest of the house:

I was happy with the design so I took the lumber I purchased for the roof structure and drew it onto the cardboard triangle. This is how I created the pattern for each piece of the 13 triangle supports that needed to be cut.

I then proceeded to cut all the pieces I need to frame the roof. When they were ready, I just glued them onto the 1/2 inch mdf subfloor with carpenters glue and held everything in place with masking tape

When the glue was dry, I added cross beams,again with carpenters glue. This time I used parcel tape and clamps to hold the beams in place while they dry.

I then took out a measuring tape and figured out the dimensions of each of the mdf panels. I made a cutting plan and went to my hardware store to have everything cut. In total there are 16 panels to be cut in 2 48 x 96 inch sheets of mdf. Unfortunately I'll have to wait till Friday to pick them up.

The last step is to insert screws into each joint. The glue should be enough, but since some of the frame pieces weren't 100% flat on the mdf subfloor, I decided the screws would make sure nothing falls apart later on.

For the first time I can realy see my vision coming to life. I can't wait to get the panels on... however I'm scared tot hink how many shingles I'm going to have to cut and paint to cover the entire roof...help me!

I hope everyone has a happy Thursday and Friday, and I will definetely try to have the roof done by Sunday.

I wish you all the best and I thank you for taking the time to follow my progress... I really appreciate all your feedback and encouragement.

Giac

Bedroom Hall and Windows

Hello everyone.
I had company last weekend and didn't have much time to work on the manor. I've been working on the hall that leads to the bedrooms and the attic floor. In the picture below, the 2 doors on the right are bedrooms, and the door at the end of the hall leads to the gallery on the right and the grand staircase to the left.

The door below leads to the Dressing Room and Master Bedroom

I love the way it came out, but I am a little sad that you won't really see it. When the house is finished, you'll only be able to see it through the bedroom doors. Originally I wasen't going to make the staircase, but I figured even though you only get a glimpse of it, it really adds to the realism of the house.

My first step was to glue the floor on. The subfloor had chanels for the electric wires of the light fixtures int he room below, so I put the wires in the chanels and to make sure no glue got on them, I took strips of paper and, using a glue stick, just glued the sided to the subfloor.

The reason I did this is so I can pull the wires when the time comes to attach the chandeliers...I'm fed up of crawling through the great room!

After I finished the floor and the staircase, the big project was the windows. I decided to make the windows from scratch. In my mind, the manor house is on a cliff, somehere in England, and you can see the ocean on 3 sides of the house. For this reason most windows are 8 to 10 inches high . Since the house is late victorian I wanted double hung windows.

I started by building a simple frame out of basewood.

In the picture above, when the frame was dry, I added a smaller frame inside the openings. I then added quarter round molding to create each sash . One sash was build in front of the smaller frame and the second sash was build on the top of the smaller frame (sorry, hard to explain)...this way it looks like the bottom one can be pulled up to open the window.

On the top part of the window I added an arched piece. When all construction will be finished I want the 4 bottom sashes to have panes with tudor leaded glass in the diamond pattern, and a stained glass transom on the top arched sections.

Finally I painted them and added handles on the bottom sashes and a lock on the top.

I also built the window for the nook in the great room...more crawling!

3 windows down, 29 more to go!

I finished the bedroom hall because my next project is the structure for the attic floor. I'm on holiday till Thursday, so I hope to have it built by then.
I hope everyone has a great week and hopefully, you'll see Dewell Manor fully constructed by Thursday...but I'm not making promises. Oh  yeah, I 've cristened the house Dewell Manor, but I'll tell you about that another time.
Best wishes to all, and I look forward to seeing more of your great projects.
Giac



Great Room arched columns

Hello everyone,
I hope you had a great weekend! I finally finished the arches in the great room! I hope the following directions are clear...in my defence it's past my bedtime!

I'm very happy with them, but I must admit making the valances was much more trouble then
I thought it would be.

I knew the fabric I bought would cause me trouble the minute I touched it. Most miniaturists have always warned to use light, all nautral fabrics for miniatures. This one was a heavy upholstery fabric, 75% polyester and 25% cotton. The only reason I bought it was because, no word of a lie, it was almost exactly what I had imagined for this room...from the color to the pattern it was perfect. I figured I'd rather simplify the valance design and drapes then not use this fabric.
I took out my columns and pieces for the arches and tried out a few designs and found one I liked. Next I cut out all the fabric pieces I would need with a cardboard pattern I made up.

 There are 3 double sided arches so I cut 6 big valance frames in illustration board, one for each side, and 6 small half round pieces for the center of the valances.

I cut out 12 triangles in my green fabric and 12 in a burgendy accent fabric. I tried using one of those iron on adhesive tapes to glue the pieces together. When I finally finished, 2 hours later, the tape didn't work and they came apart! After using every Italian, French and English swear word I know ( my southern Italian heritage really came out) I had to take out my sewing machine and go over the 3 sides of each piece. Naturally, I was out of upholstery needles so the thread kept on breaking! I finally  finished sewing, flipped them inside out, ironed them flat, then folded them the way I wanted, ironed the folds and pinned them to a pillow to let them keep their shape.

Because the fabric I used was so thick the glue did not go through it. So I  completely covered one side of the valance frames and half rounds with The Ultimate glue, put the fabric over it and smoothed it out. I then flipped each piece, ran a line of the glue all around the edges, then folded over the fabric edge and glued it down tight.

Then came assembly:

I glued 2 fabric covered frames back to back

glued on a half round in the center on each side,

added a wood strip spacer in the center on each side,

added gold braid trim around the valence,

glued the folded triangles at each end,

and finally glued on the wood arches over that.

After I glued down the columns, I glued the arch pieces I just described to the top of the room with the Ultimate glue and gel super glue. I then covered the small gaps between the column and the arches with small wood panels with linen fold carvings I made. Then came a piece of ogee molding to top it off.

The final touch was inexpensive plastic cameos I purchased and painted to match the columns.

The linen fold carvings I made with my door frame molding. It's hard to explain..

On the right is the molding, in the center I cut out a notch...almost like a triangle with no point on the top, and in the left picture, I removed just the top part of the molding (follow arow and I penciled in the exposed area)...I hope you understand with the pictures

Well, that was it for this week...there is so much to do I'm not sure what to do next...

I hope you all have a great week,

Giac

Door Frames, Great room panelling and Library Carpet.

Hello everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend.

I finally put together the door frames for the 1st floor! I needed to get them installed so I could start work on baseboards and panelling.

Because the first floor is 14 inches high I wanted all the doors openings to be 8" high by 4"wide, and each one has an opening for a stained glass transom on top, about 1 3/4" high.

I started by gluing the basic frame together out of 1/8" bassewood and then I added the decorative molding, corner pieces and plinth blocks. To make sure everything was at exact 90 degree angles I used the best tool I could find...Lego building blocks.

 They help get perfect angles and then you just have to wash them in hot water to remove any leftover glue .
I then added miniature quarter round molding in the transom section to hold the piece of stained glass..eventually!

When they were dry I painted them according to the room they are meant for.

The next BIG project was the panneling in the Great Room. I cannot tell you how painful this was for me. The deepest part of the Great Room is 34 inches . I had to litterally get into the room to attach the moulding strips...I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she drank the "Drink Me" bottle!

Don't laugh! I'm 6 foot 2 and I was like this for over 8 hours today! It was like a sick form of yoga!

I started by gluing the bottom and top strips to the wall, as always with The Ultimate glue and drops of gel super glue. I then glued on the vertical molding strips using lego blocks to keep them as straight as possible.

Then came the long, long task of cutting the horizontal pieces.  Again I used Legos to help keep the pattern accurate

When all was in place,  I added the baseboards, decorative molding to the top of the panelling, and a picture frame molding strip at the top of the room.

I can now work on the columns and the arches that will seperate the game room area and the drawing room area. I took a break in the afternoon and went to a fabric store to look for curtain material. I found a beautiful red velvet fabric I thought could work in the Library. I got home, glued it onto my illustration board subfloor with spray adhesive (this is about the only time I use spray adhesive. I have had much trouble with it in the past. I loathe the stuff)

I love the look of the carpet with the wallpaper and think it will look quite good with my mahogany and black leather furniture, but I'm just not convinced it's exactly what I want...I'll leave it in for a week or 2 and make my decision then.

I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes...I'm just too tired to go over the post tonight.
Have a great week everyone!
Giac

Attic staircase step by step, Great Room Floors and Loggia

Hello everybody,
I hope everyone is well. I have been juggling 3 projects at once and am finally making some progress.

Many miniaturists seem to be afraid of making staircases from scratch. I actually think they are quite easy, if not a little time consuming. I already put up a post about the grand staircase, but this time I thought I'd give more accurate directions and pictures for the attic staircase. It is simpler, but the directions and the style of the staircase are the same. Here is the picture of it after faux-finishing, but I still have to add the wood strips to create panels.

The first step was to cut each step in 5/8 " MDF. Mine are 3 1/8 inches wide by 1 1/2" deep. I also cut the platform where the staircase changes direction. Once these were cut and sanded, I started gluing them together using wood glue and a drop of gel superglue. The gel glue eliminates the need for clamps. I glue them so that each step wil be 3/4 of an inch deep. I made a jig to make the process go faster.

Since the staircase will eventually get panneled, I added a spacer on the side of the steps, which you can see in the picture above. Next, I used spare wood pieces to make a support for the staircase. I then cut out pieces of illustration board for the walls under the steps and glued all in place, again with gel super glue and wood glue.

Next, I apply nosing trim to the top and the sides of the steps.

Once the nosing strips are in place, glue on the corner posts and the handrails. Let them dry properly because this is the main structural support for the balustrade. When dry, cover the steps and both sides of illustration board with acrylic gesso (if you only cover one side of the illustration board it might curl a little).  When that was dry, I painted everything with a base color, in this case, antique gold.

The next step is to add the balustres. I started by painting them with the base color. Before gluing them in place they have to be adjusted to fit. I cut the top of the balustre at about the same angle as the handrail, then I cut the base shorter to fit. The handrail I used has a groove to help hold the balustres. I attach them by putting a bit of wood glue and gel super glue on the bottom and top of each, slide them into place and hold them about 25 seconds for the gel glue to set.

When all is dry, I mix a little oil paint and liquin and brush on the walnut faux-finish.

The second project I worked on was the Great Room floor. I did it the same way as all the other wood floors, finishing it with dissolved shellac flakes, then covering the whole floor with wax.

I will attach the wood floors shortly, but not the columns. I made them to support arches and linen fold panels, but the room is very deep and if I glue them now I won't be able to comfortably apply the wood panels to the back walls.

And last but not least, the Loggia. A loggia is a covered porch , usually with one acces. I made mine off the dining room with a master bedroom balcony above.

I started by cutting an mdf bottom and top pieces and some 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" columns and foundation pieces

When that was glued together, I cut out the low side walls for both levels and the castellation pieces for the top. Finally I cut out steps and arches to complete the design

It will eventually be finished like the rest of the house, in red brick and beige stone detail.
Sorry, this was a long post. I hope you all have a great day and I look forward to following your projects.
Have a great week,
Giac