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.

Diagon Alley's New Premises Ready For Opening......Well Nearly.

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!!!!

The Magical Menagerie Has Walls and A Roof......Next Shop Unveiled!

The exterior of The Magical Menagerie is almost complete. I have spent nearly a week Art Macheing all the walls. It was a long, long job.

 Two reasons it took forever. Firstly, I like a smooth finish, so I have to make sure the surface is laid at more or less the same depth and it then has to be smoothed down with my fingers and various flat tools.

 Secondly, I decided to glue on most of the moulding before applying the ArtMache for the first time with this kit. Usually I mark out where all the moulding goes and then apply the Mache. Why I decided to change I do not know.......It was a BIG mistake!!! I had to be so careful which slowed the whole process down dramatically. Plus it was much harder to do. Plus no matter how careful I was mache still went where it should not!!

 I haven't put the windows in yet because I want to match them with the interior woodwork and I decided not to work on that part of the project at the moment. Once I start looking at the interior rooms I know I will get distracted by the fireplace, or the doors, or the cages..........

I am keeping to the master plan.

 I have had a lot of trouble getting this kit to fit properly and you can see here the gap here. No amount of sanding or tweaking has helped but the double quoin strip has helped disguise the flaw.

I have decided to move on and put up with it.

 I am trying to make all the roofs look different from each other so I have tried to slip these tiles a little as if the roof is suffering from dis-repair or low flying dragons!!

 These are Richard Stacey weathered tiles and are very varied which was perfect for my roof. At the moment they look a little to bright so they will be dirtied up when I age the whole exterior

 I will add lots of dirty paint to all the exterior walls to match it with the look of the other shops in the Alley.

 A peek through the top window into the dragon room.

The street paviors are also down and ready to be aged. I will leave the front door panel all in brick but I have still some moulding to add. The two strips meant for this panel have disappeared, have absolutely no idea where they are so I am in the middle of painting two more. Gremlins on the loose again!!!

 As one exterior comes to an end another one starts. I have put together the carcass of 'Flourish & Blotts'.  This a Sid Cooke County kit that I was lucky enough to win on Ebay for half the list price. It was untouched and still in all its original packaging. 

So here I am back to moulding painting!!

This will be my last shop for quite a while as I want to work on the interiors of the five I have started. There is all the lighting to be done and all the exteriors still need finishing off as well.

Plus I need to start emptying all the boxes of furniture and props I have lying around before my workroom explodes!!

The Cauldron Shop Roof.......The PaperClay Experiment Part 2

The roof has now dried out completely. The shrinkage has come to an end and I have covered the caps with slipped tiles. 

 The chimney stacks have had additional layers glued on and need to be undercoated/sealed before I start applying the Art Mache. I think I have probably over worked the roof tiles. Looking back at Rik Pierce's  roof work it is much less fussy. I should have left it alone a bot more and not tried to do something with every tile.

 I have also sanded down the Art Mache on the main stack. Very, very dusty work but is has smoothed down perfectly.

 These are all the extra tiles I added to cover the shrinkage.

 I have now begun to paint the roof with the main terracotta  acrylic mix/wash. I was pleasantly surprised by how hardy the clay tiles were. I started off very tentatively as I was dreading the clay cracking but they seem to withstand more than I expected.

 I have given it a thorough wash bit tried not to get too neurotic about painting every nook and cranny as I will be giving the whole thing a number of different paint washes. This is just the main base.

This seemed to take forever though! The chimney stacks are definitely going to be a pain! Another note to self: next time mark where you want the chimneys sit and then make them up, Art Mache them, paint them and then glue them to the roof!

If I can I am going to prise off the quirky stacks and add them after I have worked on them. 

For the first time ever I have managed to mitre the corner of a cornice! Well actually my ever patient husband did all the angles and sawing for me. I have to tell you this broken wrist of mine has had all sorts of unexpected benefits!

This fabulous cornice fitted perfectly and I have brushed it with my favourite gold Rub 'n' Buff.

Oh, and if you want to see how a chimney stack really should be made have a look at Brae's Blog, wow! Absolutely stunning. I must start saving egg boxes!

Problem Solved......Thanks Michelle.

 Put out and SOS yesterday regarding the join in the roof and Michelle came to my aid with lots of ideas. The ridge tiles were completely the wrong angle so Michelle suggested cutting them in half and laying them at the correct angle.

 I tried this but the two halves were a different size and too difficult to glue together. So then I tried the same idea but with two roof tiles but turned up a different side to that used on the main roof. These glued together much better.

 I then sanded them down to roughen them up a bit and grouted with the same basic powder grout I used with the brick slips but instead of water I used the PVA/water mix in order to firm up their gluing and prevent them from moving around or slipping. 

The grout was rather clean so I washed with the same grey mixture I have been using on the roof. 

The roof tiles have been weathering well and have lost that new look thank goodness. 

As I want The Cauldron to have a Tudor look I have boxed in the moulding around the edge of the roof with distressed and stained balsa. 

 This will also add a little edge for any extras I might want to add a later date to liven up the roof! I know its a street scene but I am sure Diagon Alley post "He Who Must Not Be Named", would have lots of cheery flowers! Plus, Kate you are so right, vines and greenery hide a multitude of bad things!

 The photographs make it look a bit top heavy but it looks better in real life, honest!

 I have also toned down all the wood work again to make it all seem a bit more weathered and worn. 

Plus a little finishing to the top edge of the roof. This stuff is great, Pewter Medium Foil Sheet, from Bromley Craft Products, very easy to cut and lay. Plus the colour is good, not too shiny. It seems quite expensive but the roll is quite wide so you can cut it into much thinner strips.

Cutting is not a problem, I used a very basic craft knife, so you can be as creative as you want with it.

Hoping to have a go at the top roof panel tomorrow and then play with the items I have set aside for The Cauldron.