Small Scale Kits by Jane Harrop and The Art of Mini......Fun but Fiddly!!

 I have recently been playing with a couple of smaller scale kits I bough with the Beach Hut in mind. The first is by Jane Harrop  and is in 1/48th scale I think. I thought it would be fun next to my 1/12th version.

 The parts are all very easy to assemble if a little bit fiddly for a bit of a sausage finger like me. I painted everything before putting it together as advised and used extra tacky glue to hold the pieces in place.

 I used matt emulsion paints because of matching the colours and I think this type of paint may be a tad too thick to use, or I should have thinned it down a bit

 The package includes very detailed instructions, a lovely coloured postcard of the finished item and a clear picture of all the pieces. Jane will be at the City of London Fair in February so I hope to be able to pick up another of her kits then.

The second kit is from The Art of Mini a miniaturist whose work I have looked at for a long time and whose stand is completely mobbed at the shows she attends. I think she is also having a stand at the February show which is amazing and I will definitely be joining the queues.

 This 'dolls house' shelving kit can be used for shelving or as a 1/48th house display I think. Again these pieces were all very clearly labelled and the whole piece went together very easily. Well apart for the roof dormer which looks a bit rubbish.

 I am terrified of touching it though in case the whole thing falls apart!! I will probably just touch up the paint. Again I definitely used the wrong paint  but I have learnt a lesson.

 At the moment it is sitting outside the beach hut and filling a big gap quite nicely. These kits are great for when you have to hide all your stuff away and can only work on a tray in a secluded corner.....like when all my kids are home and the other half has decided to take a couple of days off work. 

I am also thinking they would be very easy to play with when on holiday as you need so little equipment. I have a long plane journey coming up in March and I quite fancy seeing the look on my husband's face as I start getting out my glue and brushes!!

 A trick I used when making these was to use Lego structures to create my right angles and hold pieces in place. I found this tip on a website many moons ago and have not tried it before. It really does work very well indeed.

I have also spent most of the day painting the wood for Honeydukes. I had forgotten how long all these jobs take. Luckily there was lots of tennis on today so I was able to sit and be entertained while undercoating.

 These three pieces will make up the extra deep cornice that goes all the way around Honeydukes.

 Of course I did not have enough of the straight piece so I had to take a trip to Hobbycraft for some more wood. 

This will be the look of the woodwork obviously painted in green. Only ladies tennis tomorrow, which bores me to tears, so I will be laying the shop floor and hopefully the cobblestones too.