Job well done

I have pretty much completed all the rooms.  The stair wells and the shop have a bit of trim missing because the stairs need to go in place before they can be finished.  Other than that, they are good to go.

I am very pleased with the end result even if I can see where things could have been better in some way or another.  As a second try at a doll's house it's not bad and I have learned loads of stuff ready for my third go!  Yes, I am already imagining number three and this one isn't even built and dressed yet.  I just LOVE doing this stuff.

If you want to see each individual room go to Bentleys - the build web album.

Also in the album is a photo showing you how I painted the spindles for the stairs using my golf tees, Blu-tak and styrene method.

I will share this image with you here just to show you what a perfectionist I am.  Others change perfectionist to nut-case! 

When I did the trims and finished the wallpaper,  I couldn't see behind the chimney breast however much I tried so I came up with this as a solution.  My husband's logic was, if I couldn't see - no-one will ever see, so pretty much anything would be OK.  I had the appropriate fainting fit at the suggestion and explained just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't have to be perfect.

That said let me just give you a couple of tips if you are thinking of doing chimney breasts.  Don't try and trim the chimney breasts before putting them in place.  It is very unlikely you will be able to make the room trims come to a good meeting place with the ones on the chimney breast.  I gave it a lot of thought but decided that as every plane - vertical and horizontal - will be slightly imperfect it was no good assuming you were always working with lovely perfect ninety degree joins.  If each one is only out by a degree or two that shows in one twelfth world when they come together and you need to be able to cut and fiddle with each one as you go.

Another thought....  always make sure you are doing a chimney breast which can be papered or clad in some way.  Like a chump I decided the parlour in my premises would have a painted frieze - the only one in the place!  I have a teeny gap between chimney breast and wall which, therefore, can't be hidden with wallpaper.  I have filled it in a bit more than on this photo with excess paint pushed into the gap, but it would have been easier and better to have just been able to paper it.

I am now working on finishing the two front doors/walls.  This entails finishing the bricks, laying slabs on the pavement, finishing the shop front and windows and making the inside match each room as its fourth wall.  I am not adding wood trim (at this stage) as I think it might prove nigh on impossible to do well.  I shall see if I am happy with the inside of the doors just having a nod to the room or whether I really do need to finish them properly.  Opinions welcome as always.