Midnight Train To Georgia - January MECO Meeting

Mini Train in a Brief Case

There is just something about trains that fires the imagination and speaks to the romance in the soul. Just as an example, when I was trying to come up with a clever name for my post today,   I found no less than 900 song titles involving this mode of transportation - some about trains and some just mentioning trains, but either way,  you have to admit, that is a boatload of train imagery (no, I didn't look, but there might have been songs about trains on boats as well, it wouldn't surprise me). 

I worked very briefly in a train museum in my misspent youth, located in a city which literally would not have happened had the choice for the lines been made a mere 50 miles south - as evidenced by the little town 50 miles south that didn't get the lines, which just eventually faded from a thriving community into ghost receivership, being revived as a small tourist attraction, all for the want of a train. I remember from my brief job at the museum just how in love the old railway men were with trains, delighting in running down corridors they technically shouldn't have been down, ducking under taped off areas with the staff in hot pursuit lest the villain who was our boss caught us both in forbidden areas. They used to tell us great stories of their adventures, some of them very gory and not something you would repeat, but because we were keeping the memory of their beloved trains,  we were somehow part of the railway family and they felt very comfortable in sharing the family stories. Sadly I grew to loathe the job (due to the aforementioned villainous boss) by the end of the summer, but trains will always take a special place in my heart, and if it weren't for finances and space, I would have a railway of my very own in a shot. 

Imagine my delight, then, when member Rosemary announced that we would be doing a two part O scale railway, complete with train layout, buildings and a little train! Sometimes things just work out. This train, of course, isn't a working model, but it is devishly adorable nonetheless. This appeared in an old Dollhouse Collector, I believe, and is a 1:12 scale 0 Scale railway printie. There were buildings, a station, miles of track, and a layout overlay (to be done at a later time).

Printie Page Lionel O scale train

Barb (l) and Margaret (r). examining their kits

Block of Stores

Block of Stores, 2nd image

 We started out with the simple bits first - the stores - as they were basically boxes. 

The Gang, Studiously Workin' On The Railroad, All the Live Long Day

Block of Stores, plus the Controller Tower

 

The Station House

Station House

 I managed to make all my buildings before the tea and coffee arrived, although some had gotten to the trains proper. I will tackle that a little later in homework, and you well get to see more of that next week. Eventually all these little pieces will be varnished, to give them a shiny appearance and protect the colours. 

In other news, of course when you have a meeting, you have to share what you have been doing. Well, okay, you don't "have" to, but it is nice, you know? 

Member Sherril's Wine Tasting Diorama 1/4 scale

 New Member Sherrill brought this for show and/or tell. This started out life as one of those little boxes you can get from the big craft stores in the unfinished wood department, and she went from there.  The detail is stunning. Look at the tiny table with wine and food, and the cellar with tiny wine casks. 

Teeny Table!!

 It is a little hard to see, but the wine bottle is actually one of those plastic price tag tie ends. 

Tiny Garden and Tiny House! 1/4 scale

This is another of Sherril's offerings. The picture simply does not do it justice. 

Inside the Little House

 In all honesty, this does show that you don't necessarily "need" a house to make a fabulous piece. I really like this, and am squirreling it away in my brain for a future project. 

Elizabeth's 1/12 scale Dog

 Again, the picture doesn't do the piece justice. Eventually Elizabeth will flock this adorable little husky, but isn't he just sweet as anything? 

And that is a wrap for our meeting today. Hope you enjoyed the little window into our get together! To finish off, a few little pictures of some of the smallest trains you will ever see, darling as anything. Until next time, my little railroaders!

Tiny Train in an Eyeglasses Case!

Above, 1:900 scale train - and it works! 
 

 
 Eyeglasses case train  - pull tab locomotion. 
 

Tabling the Discussion

"Reclaimed" Farm House Table

Winter persists. The biggest debate in this city right now, it seems, is who is responsible for what when it comes to snow removal. The city maintains that by by-laws, a home owner is responsible for the side walk outside of their home (tough cookies if you live on a corner lot and have twice as much sidewalk, but these are the things you should consider when buying a house).  Some of the citizenry, in defense of their inalienable right not to get off the couch, grab a shovel and have a little civic pride, invoke the time honored answer of  2-year-olds everywhere ... "NO! Don't WANNA".   As you might expect, walking anywhere this week is an adventure in ice skating, and that is even with wearing boots suitable for a 6 month stint at the South Pole. 

The good news is, it is only 2 short months left until spring, and then the city and its loving citizenry can find something else to butt heads about (insert your own jokes about "butt heads", if you must). 

I continue with making quarter-inch scale furniture for the fabled "Washtub Cottage" by Petite Properties. First, a resolution of the issue I had last week, vis-a-vis the recalcitrant sink which insisted on being too big. In the end I remade the sink, drafting my pattern to the cardstock rather than printing out the pattern. Low and behold, look at the difference : 

Sink Comparisons Photocopied Pattern (left) and Drafted (right)

 
I was expecting it to be shorter, but proportionally wider? Not sure why the proportions would be off width-wise, but it is probably a math thing. Both cute, but the smaller one works better. I also changed the smaller one a bit, putting it up on bead feet, which I thought was cute, and I hate to make two of anything exactly the same (which of course is the reason to get into making exact scale models, right?). Blame the Right Brain, I often do. 

Drafted Sink beside Finished Cook Stove

The stove doesn't look so puny now that the sink has been cut down to size.

Cook Stove and Sink, second view

Much better. I also changed the sink to a single faucet, as the sink seemed too crowded with two faucets. I did live in a house that had a sink like this - it was a Royal PITA (Pain In The ...you get the idea) to use but in miniature I suspect it is a much smaller problem.

Once the above had been satisfactorily sorted, I flipped my pattern book until I came upon the next piece to catch my fancy - all will be built eventually, but apparently there is a bizarre rating system of what is most important to build on any given day. Today I chose this amazing little farmhouse table. 

 

Petite Properties Fiona Broadwood "Farmhouse Table"

Yes, again - this is all paper. As lessons have been learned over the past few weeks, I begin with drafting my pattern onto cardstock. One thing I learned today - the cardstock I was using does need to be doubled for a piece of furniture such as this, as there is an awful lot of weight that is being supported by the side pieces.  Near the end, once I realized the structural concerns, I would draft my pattern out, score it on a "folding" end,  fold and glue to give me a stronger weight of cardstock. This is a must of course assuming you are using a cardstock that is as light as I was using. If you start out with a heavier cardstock or a light cardboard, you will not need to re-enforce in this manner. This table is actually made in 3 parts - table top, table structure, and the under table with the slats.  I doubt if "under table" is a word, if you are curious, it probably has a name but this will do until I stop being lazy and look up the answer in  *Grey's Anatomy of Common Tables. 

*not a real publication

The Table, drafted

Once again, with my amazingly questionable photographic skills, I show you the drafted pattern. The legs are only 1/16th of an inch wide. This is where you have to be very careful in how you cut, where you cut, and where you find out if you have mad measuring skills or not. The pieces I had to cut out from the interior of the pattern, I found scissors (scrapbooking scissors with a sharp point at the end for preference) were more useful than a blade,  which becomes somewhat bulky and unwieldy at this size.

Table, Cut out and Folded

This piece I unfortunately didn't double, and you can see how fragile it can be. As one adds more elements, of course, the piece becomes more stable, but again, those spindly little legs need strength to support itself. 

Table Top

 The table top again is a piece of matboard, scored, as I did with the sink backsplash. 

Upsy Daisy!

Here I glued the base to the table top, with the scored side of course facing down.

Table, upright

Base Piece

The piece that goes on the bottom of the table started out as above. This time I was smart and doubled my card for structure. The thickness  also helps when you need to glue bits together. 

Table Bottom Structure, excised.

Bottom Structure with Slats

 I cut out the tiny little slats for the table. I use a quilter's method  when I have to cut many little pieces that have a specific need for uniformity - I cut out a single straight piece of cardstock the width of my longest side (in this case the height of the slats), and then I can cross section my needed slats without worrying about that pesky uniformity in height. These were a little tricky to cut even so as again, they were 1/16th of an inch wide. A cutting blade and pencil marks can seriously mess you up, and in the end I "eyeballed" the pieces. This is obviously not the recommended way to do carpentry, as our eyes cannot be truly trusted to get dimensions exactly right, only estimations, but with small things and with experience you can certainly get away with certain short cuts in small scales you simply can't in bigger scales. Also, if you are doing "rustic" like I am (translation: you can get away with so much more if it is supposed to look banged up), the unevenness can add certain charms. That, at least, is what I keep telling myself.

Wibbley Wobbley Table

 Part of the wibbley-wobblieness of the table is partly because the glue hasn't set, and part because the legs are getting quite a bit of weight on them now. I have glued the slatted base onto my table, and I have added several little skirts to the table, to flesh it out a bit, and to give it more visual "weight". I eventually did have to re-enforce the bottom legs, because they were becoming obviously strained.

Table, Painted

 Ah, the glue is dry, as is the first coat of paint. This is a good time to check for missed spots, and I would suggest taking the piece over to a window in the middle of the day, and you will find your missed spots, which can be alarmingly many for such a little project.

Farmhouse Table, Disgustingly Pickled

And Voila! A very complicated looking table, ready to be decked out in table-related finery. To my eye, this isn't a dining table, but a work table, where maybe bread would be prepared, etc, or used as a side board, because it is tall for a table. It could easily be translatable into a gardening bench, if someone were to take that as a fancy. 
 
 Speaking of fancy, I would like to conclude today with a really cool cake tutorial from the good people at youtube, because,   as mentioned, you can't make a table without thinking a little ahead about what is going to be sitting on top. This is a simple technique, but a great many possibilities. The DIY'er, by the name of Toni Ellison (clever girl but not anyone I know personally),  I suspect used one of the cutters you can buy for poly clay, but certainly an innovative soul could do the old poly clay rope trick, cross-section and assemble as in the video, and achieve a similar effect.  This could be very easily "scaled down" for a 1/2 or 1/4 scale offering as well. Very Cool Project, Toni, whoever you are. Until next time my friends...

Heating Things Up

Google Image of Woman and Cook Stove

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a lovely time had by all, although it has been a hard birth date to love over the years, admittedly (as anyone born within 3 weeks either way of Christmas will tell you.) First, you get combination gifts, as people see this as a grand opportunity to save money. Second, gift givers feel compelled to wrap said gift in Christmas paper. Those same gift givers are suitably confused when, in July, you hand them their birthday gift wrapped in Christmas paper, and tell them it is a combo gift for them, so you can save money *next* Christmas. Third,  December or January babies are more likely to find their gifts delayed by inclement weather, or their day plans scuttled by a blizzard and/or a sudden dip in temperature where it is too miserable to go outside at all. 

Over the years people have learned not to give me combo gifts, and not to wrap them in Christmas paper, as I have been a real humorless jerk about it all.  However, I so far have not been able to do do anything about nasty weather, and this weekend of course saw the coldest day we have had thus far this winter.  I think that we all need to warm up by the fire (how's that for a segue?).

Cook Stove by Fiona Broadwood

This is another offering from the Petite Properies gang. The design incorporates a way to actually light this stove up, which is intriguing. 

The project started, as always, with a paper template. Today I decided to draft the template from the patterns, rather than print it on my copier, as it takes a lot of ink and I wasn't feeling lazy today. 

Paper Pattern for Stove

Pattern Cut out

Before I cut the long sides out, I scored the inside lines, as it gave me a bit more stability as I was cutting. The circle is cut with a hole punch, and the little square drawn in the second panel will be a tiny door. 

Base of Cookstove with cut outs

Just to orient you on the base, the circle cut out goes in the back. That is the access should you wish to electrify the  cooker eventually. That little access panel to the fire on the front side was only 1/8 by 1/8 of an inch square. 

Oven Door, Ash drawer and Fume Hood

I was asked to cut out the oven door, ash drawer  and fume hood from scraps of "medium" weight cardstock. I used a thin cardboard from my recycling, as matboard was going to be too thick. Note the scale of these pieces. I was cutting them with scissors, but using tweezers to hold the pieces. The fume hood has a tiny metal accent across it, which is a very thin piece of wire. 

Oven Door, Ash Drawer, Fume Hood attached

These are the pieces assembled, with base still flat. The ash drawer eventually received a tiny little bead as a handle, although I cut a very miniscule piece of the thin cardboard for the fire access door handle, as the bead was insanely too large for the tiny door. To make the access door to the fire appear to have fire in it, it was suggested to glue a tiny piece of orange cellophane across the opening. I didn't have orange, but I did have a plastic Easter goodie bag that had orange incorporated into the design, and that filled the bill.

Base, painted

The base, painted. Originally everything was supposed to be black. Unfortunately, the problem with everything being the same colour is you lose the detail you just took great pains to achieve. I gave this piece a silver paint wash, and made the handles a copper color. The base in this case was painted before it was glued together - both sides.

Cook Stove Top

I went off script a little, in that I made a slightly thicker top for my stove. I cut out two pieces of the thin cardboard, same size, punched a hole in one and painted it black, with the second portion painted silver, as above. I didn't have any silver paper as they called for for the hot plate,  but I did have silver paint. Hint with metallic paints - you are better off to do a base coat of a matte color and then an over coat of the metallic paint. It gives the paint something to stick to, and you get a better look (in my opinion, your mileage may vary).  I glued these two piece together, and glued that to the stove. 

Stove Top Added

You can see the "fire" inside the open access panel. Its coming along! 

Stove with a Few Details Added

I added the hot plate lid, as in the source picture. It was a little plain, so I added one of my little stickers  I mentioned from last week and painted over that with black, to get a nice cast iron look to it. The chimney assembly is clever - an eyelet and a toothpick (cocktail stick). In the end I wasn't pleased with the straight up chimney, so I added a bend, as you find in the cast iron stoves. 

Oopsie

In looking at these two pieces together, I am not thoroughly convinced that I didn't mess up in measuring on one or the other piece. It might have been a mistake to photocopy one for the pattern, and draw out the other, but this is how we learn.  Although again, when I look at the picture at the beginning of this blog post,  that stove is teensy, and so arguments could be made that the above pieces "belong" together after all.

In trying to salvage the cookstove, though (although it might eventually be the sink that needs to be redone, we will see) I decided to add a little height to the stove. I have seen very small potbelly stoves and cookers, so it was worth a shot to add height, and adding interest to a piece is never a bad thing.

Skirt Assembly

I tell the truth when I said I used some thin cardboard. Apparently something that once housed espresso, my preferred morning wake up call, is being put to good use. I started out with a thin strip of cardboard, which I scored in appropriate places. I used a round hole punch to make the half circles for the skirt, then a base on top to stabilize the skirt assembly and act as a solid base to put the cook stove on. 

Finished Cast Iron Cooker

This is the piece with the skirt attached. I did put a varnish on it, as I wanted it to look like it was metal, and this way the details pop out a little more. I can see from the picture a few things need to be fixed, like the fact that the varnish seems to have gotten away on me. 

After the Cooker Gets A Raise

Hmm, not "horrendous", but...

Up Against The Door

 Still a tough call, but I am going to have to say...dang, that sink is wrong,  isn't it.  Obviously copying the pattern straight from the picture in the book is a total rookie mistake. Oh well, as I have mentioned before, there are different camps as to what quarter scale means, so - if I have a "bigger" quarter inch to fill, then that space will be filled. Again, its not that you win or lose in miniatures, but that you played the game. 

To close, I wanted to show a video of an incredible Beacon Hill that I found on youtube. The kit itself is not for the beginner, and even then you have to treat it like climbing Mount Everest, because it will try to throw you down an icy crevasse as soon as look at you, but I quite enjoy looking at them.  I also find it interesting how camera angles can totally re-invent a space and make it look full scale. Perhaps one day I will attempt a second BH, although this time in 1/144 scale, I think. 

 
...Until next time, my young padawans...