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!

Miss Lydia Pickett's Cottage Collection - Pie Kitchen Accessory Kit

I am absolutely in love with this wonderful kit by the Betterleys.  Oh how I wish they did lots and lots of accessory kits.  I am really struggling with how to dress the furniture and rooms and I am making and things like this are just a joy.

Incidentally I can't find it on their site but it is on Suzanne and Andrews.

I remember thinking $26 dollars was a lot to pay and confess to hesitating - how daft - there are at least ten possible small kits here - so less than $3 a time!

click on the picture to enlarge

The thing I found the most difficult to make was the draining rack but, as with all these things, you suddenly see a way to do it and it just falls in place; it just took a long time to happen.  My pies aren't great and, strangely, the best one is the first one; the second one is not so good and the big, fat, worst one is my third.  How do I know which is which? - one steam hole, two steam holes, three steam holes.  This is the real life method of recognising different fillings!

It would be invidious to pick a favourite thing, I like them all.  The only change I made was to stick the lid of the flour cannister and not do the open flour bin and rolled out pastry vignette that is suggested.  In real life (for me) that wouldn't ring true.  I have three baked pies - all my mess is cleared up.

Don't look at the picture and think their scale is wonky - the items in the foreground seem too large - they aren't.  

On the front right are two tea towels that need scrunching and hanging somewhere and a pair of oven mitts (fabric), ditto.  These and a sampler ready to frame and hang are little extras in the kit.  |The four plates were for the draining rack but I put the extra tea cups and saucers in that.  The tea tray with teapot and two cups and saucers is so sweet. 

Decorating china -True2Scale

True2scale

Dishes with holly decals
£6.08 (odd price because it would normally be in dollars but the site automatically converts for you if you are doing a UK search - clever stuff)

I have had a go at doing these dishes and decals in their 1/12th scale and confess to finding them quite a challenge.  I think if you have the temperament to work in quarter scale any way it is the sort of thing you actually enjoy.  Not so for me, just yet; I approached these with something resembling fear.

True2scale must have the best packaging around - so attractive and distinctive in their little silver envelopes.  Minimum information on the pack, but enough to make you want to buy....

Very good instructions covers every question you might have.  The smallest decals are about pin-head size so it is decidedly daunting at this stage.

I followed instruction number 1;  I washed and painted my dishes, but from there on we diverge considerably.

Let me state up front Carol's instructions are clear and doable and I have seen her results and they are lovely but, because I had a hard time last time at four times large than this, I thought I might try some other approaches. Either way I was comfortable with the thought of washing everything off if I couldn't make it work and just having a plain white set of dishes.  The detailing on the shape of the dishes is lovely.  I wonder if she would sell plain sets?

Step Number 2 advised cutting out with a X-ACTO knife.  My knife skills aren't up to this so I did it with a small pair of very sharp nail scissors with slightly curved blades.

Number 3 says to cut the large plates and small plates from the sprue and leave the bowls attached.  I don't know why and will probably discover the answer to that when I come to remove them!  I want to leave all mine attached until I am ready to arrange them in some way, otherwise they will be a pig to store.

Number 4 describes dropping a decal in a shallow bowl of warm water.  I found the really tiny ones nigh on impossible to fish out so it was much easier to dip my index finger in water and pick up the decal (decal side up) and gently slide the back off with my thumb.  This left the decal on the end of my finger ready to put in place.  I guess anyone with really fine tweezers and lots of tweezer practice would go Carol's route.

When I did the 1/12th ones I managed to get the decals in place and thought I had eliminated all the air beneath which is the only way they will dry and shrink back tight to the surface and stick in place.  Sadly what I thought I had done and what I had actually achieved was two different things and most of my decals dropped off as soon as they were dry.  This time I brushed some of my favourite glue on the dish, dried the back of the decal and stuck it down.  The glue is milky when using so you can see what you are doing, but dries absolutely clear. (Deluxe R?C modellers craft glue).

I then moistened my little brush in water and picked up some of the glue and went all over the surface and round the edges.  This will glaze as well as help stick the decals down.

When I followed Carol's number 6 instruction about varnishing last time it seemed to lift some of the decals on my big set.  I was using a water-based varnish and think that was the problem.  They are happy to float away on a bit of water.  The glue I amusing here is actually waterproof when dry and is crystal clear and doesn't yellow with age.  All round good stuff.

Strictly speaking you aren't seeing the finished product here, they are still a bit cloudy waiting for the glue to be absolutely dry.  The probably need a bit of a trim and, of course, removing from the sprue.  Right now though I think it has been a success.