B J Miniatures

Followers of this blog will remember I demolished a lovely little rocking chair kit I bought from Suzanne and Andrew at the Philly show.  It turned out to be a kit from B J Miniatures so I promptly ordered another just before I left for December in the UK.  When I came back my little order was waiting for me.  In true greed mode I determined it is never worth paying postage on one item so I may as well order a couple of other things!!  Here they are:

the replacement chair

The next is one of those classic moments - "What a sweet little sled - I like that" - well yes, I liked it the first time I bought it - hey ho - one duplicated sled:

I saw this 'glassware' and thought it would look great stacked on shelves or behind the glass door of a cupboard.

I love the detail on these tiny teapots made by Ruth Stewart.  

There is no way I will be able to paint them like this....

Here is a sweet little Eiffel tower clock probably destined for Les Roches rather than The Gatehouse.  The face looks a bit wonky here; it is perfect in real life.

Finally a great piece of furniture if I can get it to fit inside the front door.  It would be a shame to hang stuff on it!

Au revoir for a while...

You may have noticed a slump in my babble for a while - real life has intervened.  We have been back in the UK for December and have been caught up in my daughter's wedding and Christmas.  We leave here tomorrow to return to Naples (FL) until the end of March where we have two sets of visitors pretty much filling our time there.  I have, therefore put aside my hobby until I return to the UK at the beginning of April.  I had all kinds of plans to do stuff here and to sort out things to take back to America to make while I am there;  realistically I can see that it isn't likely to happen.

I will still be in the three groups I am in and have plans to go to Molly Cromwell's show in Sarasota and the mini flea market also held in Sarasota while we are away so they will turn up in my show blog (Dolls House Shows) when I've been.

Don't abandon me - I will be back in full flood, no doubt, in April.

Bases

I have been talking to various people about bases for kits and at the moment these are the three that are in play.

They all work in slightly different ways and look different.  If you are thinking about getting one, you will need to go to the vendor's site and read all the detailed information about them - this is just a pointer to them.  Start with what you want it to do for you and then decide which one does it best.

Price-wise it will be a case of where you are buying from and what the delivery cost is to you 

This all began for me because when I ordered my Petit Palais from Petite Properties  I also ordered the very nice base that goes with it.  I think it really finishes off the structures to get them off a (piece of furniture) surface a little way.  It also makes for a good way to hide the electricals.

1/48th Display Plinth Kit

£4.99

    

5.0 average, based on 1 reviews

Manufacturer: Petite Properties Ltd

Product Information

The Display Plinth has been designed for our Le Petit Palais kit but can also be used to further enhance many of our 1/48^th kits, or can be used for a multitude of display purposes.

This kit comes with a set of full colour, step by step instructions which teach you how to construct the plinth.

The Display Plinths Approx constructed dimensions

Width = 23 cm

Depth =  13.5 cm

Height = 2.8 cm 

I have pinched this from PP's site - hope it's OK to do that.  Obviously I don't have mine built to show you just yet.

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Also in the UK J. S Miniatures has just developed four stands and they come in a couple of sizes.  Two work with Jen's lighting kits and have an additional extension connector so they work with her micro plug and the other two bases will work with any other sort of kit you might want to use.  Jennifer will also be offering landscaping in small amounts to help you finish off the structures. 

Prices - £12.99 - £16.25

Again I stole the photo.

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In the States True2Scale is also making very nice stands with a drawer for your leccy bits.  I did share a photo of it yesterday with you but here it comes again finished and underneath their Bushel and a Peck kit.

This base kit is priced at £18.47

Again I stole the photo.

I will check with all the vendors that this is OK.

Lighting - True2Scale

When I was at the Philly show I stopped by True2Scale's stand - why would I not?

Carol, who has an amazing memory for stuff, remembered that I had been wittering to her at some point about needing longer wires for my lights and fires.  She had devised an elegant solution to the problem...... this is it:

simple connectors, no need to solder or wrap

just plug and go

I have filched Carol's description of the item from her site to explain how this works:  

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The perfect solution for extending the length of wires when lighting a project. These also provide the ability to easily disconnect the wires from a project when moving the project.

How the wired connectors work: the small pins on the male end of these wired connectors are pushed into the holes in the female connector. Then, the wires on each of the connector ends are twisted to the negative and positive wires (red to red, black to black) on the project. Shrink tubes are put over the twisted connections and are heated.

• 1 male and 1 female connector per set. The wires are attached.
• Set includes shrink tube connectors. No need for soldering!
• 8" long. The wires may be cut and stripped to any length.
• These may be used with 12V, 9V and 3V systems; including round wire systems, a 9V battery, and the 3V battery systems that we offer.

The wired connectors work well with our Base Kit for Lighted Structures. The wired connectors make it easy to extend the wires from the project into a battery holder and switch that is hidden in the drawer under the base. So, no need to plug anything into a wall outlet and it makes transporting the project easy!

These wired connectors are also great for connecting/disconnecting different systems. For example, if a wall adapter system is used to light a project at home, but a battery system will be used for traveling to a show, 2 sets of these connectors could be purchased. One end of the wired connector would connect to the wall adapter; the same end from the other set would connect to the battery holder; while the opposite end from one of the sets connects to the lights in the project. 

At just $1 or 64p per set how can you beat it? 

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I you are in the UK and want to shop from home Jennifer Smith has them too.  She also does small connector blocks if you want to join multiple wires rather than one to one.

Trying to improve Photos

You may want to click on each of the photos to enlarge them so you can see any differences.  If you look carefully at the clock face on each photo you will see how the clarity diminishes. 

There is something ironic about my inability to take decent mini photos.  I was married to a professional photographer for twenty-five years.  My photographic inability is a testament to my lack of interest in how anything works - cars, washing machines, you name it - I simply want them to do it without cluttering up my brain with how. (Kind of applies to people too!)

So here we go....

I am unhappy that my Canon A-1300 16 megapixel camera takes such good photographs.  To explain - they are too detailed for quarter scale items and show every little flaw.  I have been trying to find out how to improve them without getting bogged down in technicalities.

I understand that if you are a whiz with Photoshop or similar software this will never be a problem to you but again, being lazy, I don't want to tackle that either.

Incidentally Carole Kubrican of True2Scale has a great tutorial on her blog if you do want to travel that road:   http://blog.true2scale.com/p/photoshop-tutorial.html

After asking for advice on three groups I belong to the consensus seemed to be - step back from the object.

So here are three photos of the same objects in (sideways) daylight taken at the same time in three different ways.  There is a notation beneath as to what I did.

Close, no zoom

stand back, zoom in, crop

stand back, no zoom, crop

To deal with the first one last - for me that is just out of focus and too vague.  The second one isn't a big enough improvement over the first to put up with the lack of sharpness.  So it looks like I am still stuck with  'up close and personal'.

I am continuing to experiment.  

I adjusted my camera by changing the recording pixel setting but I am not convinced that taking it down to post card size quality made a lot of difference.

I then changed the compression ratio again down to the same post card size quality and yes, it made a slight improvement BUT so slight as to not make it worth chopping and changing settings on my camera each time I use it.

I am going to have a go at decreasing the resolution on the finished picture in Picasa which I suppose is the same as fiddling about with Photo Shop et al so I will let you know if that reaps results.

Footnote:
Just did the Picasa 'How to decrease resolution on Picasa' exercise and it does what it says on the tin.  It decreases the resolution on a sliding scale down to a workable minimum.  Guess what - Mrs Awkward doesn't like that either.  It all becomes so vague it just annoys me on a whole other level.

Quite seriously I have realised the problem lies with me - I want super sharp images of a perfect object; while the object remains imperfect there is no (simple) way to obtain sharp images which make it look perfect - it is an impossible ask.  I am resigned to all my 'manufacturing' flaws showing up and live in hope that it impels me to simply get better at it.

Sleigh, Sewing Machine - Two little sweeties

Oh, how I wish I knew how to photograph quarter scale in a flattering way.  I assure you that both of these have turned out just great.  They really look the part: not at all lumpy bumpy and scabby as seen in these photos.

This little sledge is a B J Miniatures kit (again).  I just have to chew and generally mess up the string to age it a bit and maybe dirty up the sledge a little.  It will then be hung on, or leaned against, the wall along with two pairs of skis.  I have seen some on someone's printies - if I could only remember who.....

A 'Sister' (not Brother!) sewing machine from Robin Betterley's Miniatures.  I think is it so clever how these designers decide what to leave in and what to leave out to give you a great representation of an every day object at 48th.  Like painting, cooking, writing (!) I suspect what you leave out is the important factor.  It is very easy to over-egg the pudding.

I really enjoyed this one as it offered new(ish) sets of challenges and several of them in one small package.  It may not look it here, but this is a little gem.  Four bits of wood, a piece of paper, a pin, some wire along with paint and glue and we have a sewing machine.

TV - B J Miniatures again

No particular reason for a-make-a-day for the last three days being B J Miniatures other than they must be incredibly useful.

I have a stack of kits, most of which I can't attack until I know where precisely I want to use them.  They might need a wood finish they may need painting and then, if upholstered, the upholstery fabric could be anything, depending on which project and which room and how decorated............

When I go home in ten days time (counting the hours) I intend to measure and photograph The Gate House and Les Roches and try to make lots of decisions so I can bring back notes and can crack on making stuff to fill the houses.  I won't have much time when we get back Jan 3rd as we have back to back visitors pretty much until we leave for the UK at the end of March but there will be time here and there.  The joy of most of these kits is that generally they don't take a lot of time to do.

So for now I have sorted out just a handful that are sort of generic wherever they are used - the infamous rocking chair, yesterday's coat hanger and today this lovely little gem:

man-size TV and stand

Just like my portable Jim, I think it is the bee's knees.  You even get a choice of programmes that you can stick on the screen which I have ready in case any of my little people end up watching TV.  Right now I have other plans for them.

I had fun with the no-hole silver beads.  B J kindly made holes for the handles/beads to sit in and provided gold ones.  I swapped to silver - the fun bit was trying to lob them into the holes - talk about pin ball alley.  Proud to say I only got four out of the pot and was able to return two.

Incidentally these came from the little mixed pot I bought from Ruth Stewart's table at the show.  Absolute bargain ($1.25 I think) and hundreds of all sorts of colours and sizes.  I would imagine they would do most things for quarter scalers without having to buy pots and pots of different colours.  That said I do have a few pots already back in the UK!  Don't do as I do, do as I say........  just because I am like a magpie for shiny things.****

**** scientifically studied this year and declared to be bunkum - I am nothing if not a source of useless information.