I decided to have a line up of the four Diagon Alley shops I have 'completed' so far.
All the kits seem to sit alongside each other nicely and the brickwork seems to be forming the link between them all I was looking for.
Unfortunately placing them together has made one this glaringly obvious.......
...... The Magical Menagerie is much too 'red'. The other shops are brown/grey dingy and the different shade just looks awful. I don't know how this has happened or why I haven't seen it earlier.
The grey light of February probably.
Fudge and Fiddlesticks!!!
I have given it all a grey wash today but that hasn't worked so now I am thinking I will have to go right back and give all the ArtMache a white wash to start building up the dirty wash again.
Ho Hum.......
The roof of this kit is flat and it is supposed to fit snugly on the top. Well mine does not fit at all snugly, after a lot of sanding it nearly fit so I have edged it with balsa and filled the square with painted sandpaper. As you can see I then tore away some of the edging as I want it to have a roughened 'burnt' look as a finish due to all the low flying dragon activity!!
Too add a little more interest I have used Richard Stacey's twelfth scale bricks. These now have to be grouted then I will finish of the singed flat roof.
So I really am down to the last few jobs now on the exterior of this shop, these involve quite a lot of drying time which means I have also been able to work on the bookshop.
I seem to have had a lot of problems with this kit so I am hoping that "Flourish & Blott's" will be much more co-operative!!
The Sid Cooke County Kit comes with quite a lot of moulding and as I am having the bow windows on both ground and first floor windows I have gone for the crackle option.
Black and gold with Mahogany fittings is my overall scheme for "Flourish & Blott's". I see it as the most affluent of all the shops. After all they do seem to have cornered the market in Hogwarts set texts!!
The interior wallpaper is 'Burlesque' by Les Chinoiseries a fabulous Spanish site that has both wallpaper and gorgeous miniature fabrics. I love the full on luxury of the black and gold. It is so 'in your face'.
This kit has a back door and back window.
I am going to try and use both these openings to give the illusion of back areas within the shop some how. Lots of ideas, will have to see how I get on!!
I have these three unfinished counters that I bought ages ago from Maple Street Miniatures and I quite like the idea of using them here as a way of show casing some of the beautiful books I have set aside for this project.
The counters will also be a way of avoiding simply lining the walls with book shelves!! Very boring.
I have always wanted to have a circular staircase in this shop which is why I have not yet put in the middle floor. I am going to have a look at them when I go to Miniatura in a week or so, this will be about the third time I have looked at this type of staircase!!
Staircases take up so much room I usually avoid them, but..........I do like the spiral ones!!!!
