The Bricklaying Continues on Honeydukes....So Many Pitfalls.

The on-going saga of the roof of Honeydukes continues. This project is really testing my patience and definitely showcasing my lack of general building skills.

The two tall, skinny chimneys that I cobbled together from balsa have now been covered in brickslips. I am done with worrying about shades of grey and have gone with weathered slips from Minaco miniature brick suppliers. I like their products as they are very easy to work with.

 The brick slips are very easy to cut and although they sometimes need sanding off they are light and reasonably priced. The last two factors are very important when putting together a large house or shop.

 I had to remove the false dormers from the rear roof because I need to add the brick slips and dress the windows. These tasks will be much easier to do before gluing them in place. I have painted all the walls of the dormers a dark grey because I decided not to grout either the windows or the chimneys.

 The areas I have added the bricks to, on the dormers are fiddly shapes and to be honest I just couldn't face more grouting. 

 The edges of the chimneys and windows have been sanded, these bricks sand off very easily, which worked really well and meant I did not have to worry about all the angles.

 My first sanding off led to my loosing a few bricks or they chipped. Not too much of a problem as the broken slips could be easily replaced. The next batch I sealed first with a strong PVA/water mix, this bound the slips together and my next batch of sanding led to far fewer casualties. 

The sealing has, however, made the bricks look a lot more slate-like and less weathered. They have also darkened off a bit.......but, they are going with a slate roof so I am not going to look for problems, onwards and upwards!

With all the brickwork laid, sanded and sealed I can now move on to dressing the windows with all things nice, sprinkled with a layer of dust. If this horrible weather persists there will be no gardening going on for a while. Yippee!