By George She's Done It!! Well Nearly........Honeydukes Window Update.

I have been working very hard since my last post with the three round bays for my Honeydukes project. It has been two steps forward and one step back, a lot of tweaking and painting plus a couple of 'put it down and think moments' but I believe I am nearly there.

 I chose to use plastic sink mats to provide the 'panes' for my tall Georgian windows which meant I had to fit all the other elements around the height and width of these mats.

My attempts to make my own circular plinths were not good enough so I had been waiting for some ready cut 3mm/10cm and 6mm/12cm circles to arrive. These were then cut, sealed with PVA/water, painted with brown paint mixed with PVA and the painted with 3 coats of my paint mixture.

 The bay 'tubs' are Chedders tubes cut to size and then covered with a top skin of thin cardboard cut from a cereal box. These then were sealed and painted and given an edge of very thin bass wood to give a panelled look.

 The 6mm depth of the panels was accommodated by cutting one of the larger circles and then topping the ledge with a 10cm circle. I made life harder for myself by choosing to have a lighter shade of the green inside the shop. This meant I have had to paint all the interior showing pieces a different colour.

 I have also built the two front bays sitting on a 1/32 piece of balsa to allow the front panel to open without too much scraping.

 The plastic 'pane' has had a number of coats of paint and been given a final coat of spray varnish.

 The pink shop sign has been cut to fit snugly over the window pane and reaches the top of the window opening.

 To finish the outside a top lid. 

 The almost finished look of the front panel. 

 The side window has the finished panelling detail on the bay tub but I have yet to finish the front two strips.

Internally I have carried the ceiling moulding through the top of the windows as this will not be seen from the outside but be hidden by the pink shop sign. I wanted the bottom bay to carry on into the shop to provide display ledges and there will be a display shelf under the moulding. I will probably have a tidy up around the windows once everything is finally glued in.

 So all is going well but I now have to get over the final hurdle.....the shop signage. The pink strips need HONEYDUKES in big dark green letters. I have decided to go with the Gloss Medium method after lots of research on Pinterest.

I used WordArt on my computer for the lettering and remembered to print it out as a mirror image. Then I made a photocopy of my lettering as my printer is an inject. I then painted a layer of the gloss medium onto the wood and the cut to size lettering. Made sure there were no bubbles and then left overnight.

The next day I sprayed the paper with warm water and rubbed off gently, very gently.

 Three bays, only one has come out well and even this has a few blimps. I am not sure what I did wrong so I have had to rub them down to start again. This time I have made spares so I am hoping to get the final two done in the next couple of days........more time wasted.

This will be the final, final look! I am hoping to start the exterior stone work next week if I get the windows done and finally glued in. I am hoping that this part of the project will be a lot less time consuming and progress will quicken up as I am off on holiday in a few weeks time and my daughter is also preparing to go abroad for nearly a year to work so I won't have all the time I want to play with my toys.

Flourish & Blotts is Showing Off!!

Gosh how time flies when the weather is awful and your three children return from a year at Uni! How do you get all the washing dry when it won't stop raining!!??

Well I have finally got out of the utility room, one end of my lounge looks like a car boot sale and the ironing board has been banished for the weekend.....so here are some pictures of what I have managed to fit in over the last few weeks.

 Lots of brickwork beginning with the front panel and the paving paviors from Richard Stacey

 Both side walls follow the same pattern and all the bricks have been sealed and grouted. This was a very long job but quite calming once you get into the swing of it.

 The roof is quite large on this shop and I wanted to avoid using ridge tiles along the roof joins as I didn't like the look of these joins on my previous corner kits. At the edge I  have sanded down the roof tiles.

Once I had finished the roof tiling on both sides, front and back I laid a line of over lapping roof tiles down each edge after sanding them flat.

I am really happy with this tile frill as it looks a lot neater than the traditional ridge tiles.

The top line of the roof still needed the finishing touch of traditional ridge tiles though so I wandered the streets of my village peering closely at various Georgian houses, with the dog so I would not be mistaken for a peeping Tom!!

This was very instructional as I discovered that the tiles were stuck on with mortar and this allowed them to sit proudly. 

 I built up a ridge of grout along the top and then squidged the ridge tiles in place. This worked really well once I had also added some PVA to the grout to make sure the tiles stayed in place.

This is a large roof space and tiling was very time consuming!!

 Although the roof tiles are a variety of colours I decided to try my hand a more paint effects after my roof research. This is the first layer of grime and I have gradually built up darker layers.

 This Sid Cooke kit comes with two lower round bay windows but I wanted top bays as well. Sid Cooke are now selling extra parts for their kits which meant I could add the extra bays with a bit of tweaking.

 The fit of the top bays is by no means perfect as the window openings are the wrong size but I am doing my best to hide this with paint and mouldings.

 Flourish and Blotts' exterior with the vast majority of the grunt work completed. Windows in, brickwork distressed and ArtMache render drying off nicely.

 This time I went back to the tried and trusted method of marking where all the mouldings would be glued and then laying on the ArtMache. I have not glued in the window panes yet as I want to be able to dress the windows from all angles.......eventually!!

 The brickwork and roof do look a lot more aged in real life but they still need a couple more coats of grime I think. The 'bashed' top bays were a little fiddly to install but a lot of PVA plus the render appear to have fixed them in place quite solidly.

 Once the render is completely dry I will be able to start the griming and ageing. These layers will really bring the whole shop together.

 The 'bashed' top bays were too wide for the pre-cut openings so I have painted and crackled a strip along the side to imitate the black/gold interior and wood work. This blends in surprisingly well although the interior will need a bit more work.

Lastly I have made this little oblong balsa box for the back door of the shop which will be a false hallway complete with book piles and bustling customer I hope.

I have commissioned the made to measure bookcases and they are due to arrive on Tuesday which is very exciting but also completely terrifying. I prepared all the measurements and plans so if they don't fit it will be a very expensive mistake. They are the biggest commission I have ever made so I am keeping everything crossed at the moment!!

The sun is supposed to shine tomorrow, oh wouldn't that be nice!!

Have a great weekend everyone.