Thursday, February 16, 2012

Servant's bedroom and first brickwork

Had a busy day yesterday, in between all my other jobs :)  I got a lot done on the attic space of the kitchen which will be a servant's bedroom.

First, I made a removable floor for the room, painted the foam to look like aged plaster, and cut the back part of the roof,


Then I designed the front part of the roof, which will have a removable panel so that this room can be accessed.  Below is the cardboard pattern I made, from which I will cut the roof panel from 1/8" plywood.



I decided that this little room would have a fireplace, so I made a simple one out of off-cuts and balsa wood:


I painted it and fitted it to the foam wall, as shown below (first I cut a hole out of the foam the same size as the inside of the fireplace and painted it black.  I also painted the bit of chimney that backs onto it back :)


Then I worked on the external chimney.



I shoved together two bits of wood, marked the shoulders of the chimney, and glued them together.

Then it was time for fun!

Or tedium :)

This is what I got done in an evening of glueing on Richard Stacey's brick Versi-slips.  I'm using the Red/Old mixture.  For this chimney I made my own corner brick slips from 400 grit emery paper -- I will touch it up so it blends better with the warmer brick colours.  In fact, I'm going to touch up the bricks in general so they don't look quite so pristine.  I covered the shoulders of the chimney in the slate Versi-slips, and I think it looks quite nice!


It's very satisfying, but very slow, especially on the short courses where I had to cut and wrap a lot of corner bricks.  But it's easy -- I've discovered that it works better for me if I smear some Tacky Glue down on the surface and then lay a row of bricks, rather than trying to put glue on individual bricks.  The latter got a bit mucky :)

And I've just decided to double the number of windows on the front of the house so I don't have to stick down so many damned bricks!

10 comments:

  1. I like your fire place, I really do. Very nice.

    The chimney though, ho! The patience you must have. It looks great.

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  2. Hi Nina! Great Progress on the Chimney! I have been staring at the chimneys of my Lovely Old Dollhouse for a couple of YEARS now... trying to decide WHICH method to use for bricking them! There seem to be so many options... bricks, egg-cartons... sandpaper... to name a few! I still haven't decided.... but your bricks look Fantastic! I'm not sure there IS a Quick way to do Bricks!!!

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  3. Love the chimney! I bet it took along time.. But well worth it!

    Arghh.. I have to do the entire bottom of my shop in them... Good to see they work well completely covering a surface.. I've only really seen people use them for exposed brick through plastic on here so you've filled me back with confidence haha!

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  4. Thanks so much Dale! I just look at the exterior of this freakin' huge house and think ... bricks ... bricks ... :)

    I guess individual bricks are never going to be fast and easy, Daydreamer -- I wavered between all those choices, myself, but I'm glad I went this route. I think fine grit sandpaper would be my second choice -- it's easy to work with and gives a good effect. I hope to use egg cartons for the quoins ... stay tuned :)

    Thanks, Michael -- it IS very satisfying. I was really pleased with how good they look, too. These were just stuck down with Tacky Glue to a wooden surface painted grey. I drew the first line (because I wanted a "foundation" at the bottom, but after that, just eyeballed everything. They've got a nice relief effect -- better than the sandpaper I used for the corner bricks. And it gets kinda zen after a while :)

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  5. Nine, you're really cracking on with this now. The chimney and bricks look good - very effective indeed. I loved the technical term you used for arriving at the shape of the chimney ("I shoved two bits of wood together"). You've managed to get lots done.

    Good luck with your windows too.

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  6. I am so impressed at how you're just putting this all together from scratch! You seem fearless, and it is paying off. Great job!

    I find that whenever I am working on a tedious project like this, whatever music or movie I am listening to while doing the work comes back to my mind whenever I look at the finished product. It gets ingrained, I think, because of the tedium.

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  7. You are going to do the entire exterior in thse single bricks? wow!

    I know it will be fabulous, but, I still think, wow! :)

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  8. Help for a newbie. Just about to start on a Lyddington from Barbaras mouldings and want to use versi bricks and slates. Loads of advice out there about sizing all the MDF with a coat of paint before starting building the kit or anything - will the bricks and slates stick OK to this? What glue should I use? Hope you can help. Your work is breathtaking. Thanks Marilyn

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  9. Hi, Marilyn!

    I've only used the bricks and slates on bare plywood, pine or foam so far, and they stick very well without any sizing. The slates tend to curl if you use water based glue (PVC, like Tacky Glue, etc) but they settle down when they dry. The bricks were just fine with Tacky glue. Let me know if I can help!

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