Category: "Miniatures"

The Aero Squadron Lounge - removable fireplace unit

by brae  

I have posted sneak peeks about the fireplace previously, but I thought I would write up one post with the whole thing start to finish.

For the initial structure, I used regular white stryofoam for the side walls since it was easy to cut and shape with sandpaper.

I added builders foam across the front only because I had the perfect sized scrap for the opening.  The back and upper sides are foam core board and the upper front is balsa...a little bit of everything from the scrap box.

The back of the fireplace is made from egg carton bricks placed in a herringbone pattern.  As I had done for the Heritage chimney, I used a printed grid to help keep the pattern consistent.

The fireplace is actually bricked all the way up inside as you can see in this work-in-progress shot.  I changed to regular brick pattern from the upper edge of the stone fireplace through to the top of the chimney opening.

I had to do this in two sections...the back and sides first and then the top front, which wasn't glued in place until after all the painting and grouting was complete.  Here you can see the brick on the back and sides in progress as well as the initial coat of spackling on the stone portion of the fireplace.

I painted the bricks with Camel by Americana using a stencil brush to stipple on the paint.  I did the same thing with Desert Sand by Americana, leaving some of the Camel underlayer showing here and there.  I sealed the bricks with Delta Ceramcoat satin varnish and then used spackling for grout.  I followed that with washes of browns and black to reach this coloration.

I was very heavy handed with the spackling on the fireplace.

After sanding, it really did start to look like real stone.

I then layered on paint washes, rubbing the surface with my fingers to make sure there were no brush marks left.   I used an X-Acto knife to draw lines on the stone.  I wanted it to appear to be made from stone slabs.   Going over the lines with an awl chipped the stone and made the seam lines more realistic.

The fine detail is something I didn't expect but just love about it.  It even felt cool to the touch like stone.

I bricked, painted and grouted the interior of the front top piece (no photo unfortunately) and glued it in place.

I cut builders foam pieces to make the back wall that the fireplace would have been attached to at some point, with some extra broken bits to fill in the space.

This was painted and covered with stucco to match the rest of the building.

On the inside of the back foam piece, I scored the surface to mimic the egg carton brick on the interior.   It was then painted to match.  Here it is still wet from the paint washes.

I made the top front and sides of the broken chimney from scraps of builders foam, finishing in the same manner.  Here they are before painting.

I then covered the front and sides with stucco to make a complete unit.

The lit fire is an acrylic log piece with a red bulb.  I drilled the hole for the bulb through the bottom and later made a channel in the floor for it to curl out of sight when the fireplace is removed.  More about that later.

The fireplace screen is by Jeannetta Kendall and purchased from lacyhome4boys on eBay.  Here's the shiny new screen in place; it looks like I built the fireplace around it but that's just coincidence.  :D  I bought this as a last minute addition.

I used black acrylic paint to age it and tone down the shine.  Much better.

The medallion above the fireplace is a jewelry finding.  Overall, the fireplace is not that easily seen in the final layout, but I love it and think it adds so much.

Hallway vignette completed

by brae  

The balcony railing is still a work in progress so this upstairs 'room' isn't yet complete, but I have finished the vignette that will sit to the left of the bathroom door.

The table is a House of Miniatures Hepplewhite Side table with hand painted designs and added elements inspired by a real life sized antique table.

The books are some of the many I made while filling the parlor bookcase.

The vase and bird figurine were purchased awhile ago, but I'm no longer sure of the vendor.  The flowers are Bonnie Lavish red dahlias.

I made the tiny red alarm clock from a rounded wood cap from Hobby Lobby, two silver brads and a gunmetal head pin.  The feet are Tiny Turnings.  The face is a printed image from The Graphics Fairy with a clear cabochon sticker to simulate glass.  I had made a set of vintage table clocks for another miniaturist through my etsy shop, and I liked the red one so well I knew I would need one for the Heritage.

The artwork is a photograph from artisan Natasha Fadeeva.  She makes the most amazing little animals.  I just swoon over her mice!!!  :D  I contacted her about using the vintage mice photos in the Heritage, and she graciously gave me her permission.  I haven't yet framed the other.

I love the red and round theme of this vignette.  :D

Watercolor paintings from 1916, wartime

by brae  

One of the drawbacks of working on a project in secret is that others can't pipe in and say, "I have just the thing for your mini scene!"  Now that The Aero Squadron Lounge has been revealed, a friend and fellow miniaturist was able to do just that.

Elga inherited two small paintings from a collection belonging to her late Mother-in-Law and offered to send me scans so that I might add these little paintings to The Aero Squadron Lounge.  I was overjoyed at the thought, and I fell in love with them when I saw them.

The watercolor paintings measure 10" x 7" and are signed by F. E. Glazier.  One is titled St. Gent, JE and dated April 24, 1916.  The inscription on the back reads, "D. Companies first billet in France."

The other is titled La Bizet and dated May 12, 1916.  The inscription on the back reads, "Le Bizet canal at back of Le Bizet Trench."

Elga wrote, "I always wonder if it was a soldier that painted them and send them home to the family as they are quite small, wanting to show them the farm he lived on and the place where he was fighting in the trenches."

We both did a little bit of sleuthing on the internet to see if we could make a connection to anything more recent.  Even though one painting's inscription states this was in France, Elga wondered if it was actually Ghent, Belgium.  I'm not sure what the "JE" stands for on the front, either.  Le Bizet seems like it also might be in Belgium based on a limited google search, though Elga found that it is right on the border with France.  She also found a few online references to Le Bizet in WWI related links.

Elga was able to find an F. E. Glazier listed in the 1940 U.S. Census, working under the assumption that D Company was from America.  However, Elga lives in South Africa along with the paintings, as did her Mother-in-Law.

I found a listing for Private F. E. Glazier on a July 14, 1916 roll call page from the South African Infantry, stating that he was injured July 19th.

Elga looked in her phonebook and found two listings for people with the surname Glazier in the Cape Province.  Her Mother-in-Law lived in Cape Town for over 20 years, and Elga surmises she bought the paintings at a fair or market.  She's not sure her Mother-in-Law even knew what they were, their age or the fact that they are original watercolor paintings of historical significance.  She thinks they were purchased simply because they are beautiful landscapes.

That they are, so I've printed the scans in miniature and made matchstick frames for them.  Since the Lounge is dark, I've set up a vignette to show their detail and color.

Even in miniature, they look like real paintings.

I moved some things around to make room for them in the Lounge.

Adds a bit of authenticity, don't you think?  Thanks so much, Elga!

So, there's our clever little mystery.  Maybe someone will stumble upon this blog post and have something to add.  Elga and I would love to know the rest of the story.  :D

The Aero Squadron Lounge - tower spiral stairs

by brae  

This post will give you some background on the mockup portion I did and then explain how I made the final set of stairs for the tower.

My idea from the beginning was to have spiral stairs leading to a balcony overlooking the main room and a window to see the Sopwith Camel from above.

The diameter of the original oatmeal container tower was roughly 5", so I cut some quick triangle shaped steps from a 5" diameter cardboard circle.  I taped them into the oatmeal container before I cut the 5" diameter mailing tube that would serve as the final tower.  I wanted to make sure I could get the stairs to work before altering the mailing tube.  However, I did cut the 31" tall mailing tube into two pieces each 15 1/2" tall since anything taller would have looked out of proportion with the single story main building.

The stairs worked great.  I haven't measured here or made the triangles uniform.  I just wanted to see the layout in three dimensional form.

Originally, I thought in order for the balcony to bridge the gap in the opening and access the window, it had to be cut in a "greater than half" shape.  I later changed this to a semicircle.

The problem with the stairs was that part way up them, my model hits her little head!!!!  :O

I couldn't raise the balcony, because (a) the spiral staircase would have had to cross the arched opening if it were any taller and (b) with a maximum tower height of 15.5" raising the balcony would have made the second story too short.

I could have cut the balcony to "less than half" so that it only overlooked the main room and didn't allow access to the window...but I didn't really care for that idea.  As it turned out, the semicircle still worked, though there really isn't much head clearance to speak of in the final tower.

Anyway, as I was figuring this all out, there were three possible solutions:

1. Close up the tower completely, including the roof (no exposed beams in the conical roof) but have a faux door on the inside to look like there is access to the tower.  Add windows and interior lighting (but make the windows like the Heritage cellar windows so you can't really see in).  Seemed like cheating, no?  ;D

2. Make the spiral stairs and the balcony as is, but still close up the tower...except...make a doorway on the inside so you can see the lower stairs.  And, leave some of the roof beams exposed so you can see the balcony from the top and through the windows.  You won't see both the stairs and the balcony at the same time so you can't tell they don't make sense spatially.  That seemed more complicated than it needed to be.

3. Lyssa suggested building it as is, adding a WATCH YOUR HEAD sign and leaving the mini people to fend for themselves!  :D   Winner winner, chicken dinner!

And, it was settled...on to the spiral stairs construction!  The best real life example I found can be seen here; I wasn't sure about the copyright, so I've posted only the link and not the photo.

Warning: lots of math ahead, so WATCH YOUR HEAD!  :D  I've written this out as plainly as possible, but it might not be easy to see what I am getting at without doing your own mockup.

After studying my mockup, I determined that the best layout included nine steps each 3/4" thick (tall) leading to the balcony 7 1/4 " above the first floor.  The nine steps equal a height of 6 3/4" so the last step up onto the balcony would be 1/2" tall.

I found two drawings of circles with equal sections online at Enchanted Learning, one with 10 sections and one with 12.  I used the 12-section circle for the visible width of each step but cut the steps using the 10-section circle as a template; they will stack on top of one another and I needed added width to glue them together.  This will be shown and further detailed in the photos below.

I used the 12-section circle template to determine the best shape for the second floor base.  I left a full circle in the middle since I thought I might need it to stabilize the spiral stairs.  Remember, I later made this balcony a semicircle instead, but that was near the end right before installation.  My construction photos show the "greater than half" balcony.

I was able to find a circle of white styrofoam at Michaels that measured 6" in diameter and was 1" thick.  My mailing tube tower was 5" in diameter and the steps needed to be 3/4" thick, but the styrofoam circle was actually the perfect size for the project.

I first attached my 10-section circle template to the styrofoam circle with an awl, matching centers.  Using my tracing wheel (a sewing tool), I transferred the lines onto the styrofoam so I could cut out the pieces.

I cut the steps from the circle along the guidelines with a utility blade and then, using a cheese knife I've always thought looked like a Klingon blade, I cut off 1/4" of thickness from each section.  I'm good at eyeing measurements freehand, so I didn't mark them first.  I also planned to shape them to look like natural cut stone steps, so they didn't need to be exact.

Based on my reference photo, each slice needed to have a rounded hub at one end.  These rounded centers would line up and the stairs would pivot around that center point.  I cut a template using the 12-section circle as a guide, adding excess to the back edge of the slice as well as the rounded tip.

Before altering my styrofoam pieces, I cut nine paper steps, joined them in the middle and tested the fit.  This paper mockup indicated I needed to cut the template down just a bit on the outer curved edge.

In the above photo, you can see the floor base I made for the tower from two layers of 1/4" foam core board.  The rectangular notch abuts the kit floor so the tower and main room share the same level surface.  Here you can also see the floor space I added (also with double layers of foam core board).

I used the paper template to fine tune the styrofoam pieces.  Not much needed to be removed - just a little in the center to make the rounded hub.  I used the awl to make a hole in each tip while I was at it.

I sanded the steps to give them a more natural appearance.

I fed the steps onto a bamboo skewer but left them unglued until I could check the final fit of all the steps in place.

For this photo, I added a bit of builders foam after the ninth step to hold up the second floor balcony though I later added a full wooden riser to keep people from stumbling on the top step and getting their feet and legs caught in the opening.  :D  Here's the styrofoam assembly shown in the oatmeal container mockup.

I love it!

I glued the first step in place on the floor base and then used a template cut from the 12-section circle to determine where to apply glue for all subsequent steps.  I taped the stairs to hold them in place while the glue dried.

Once the glue was dry, I spread spackling over the surface with my fingertips.  I was heavy handed with it so it would cover any holes in the styrofoam and allow me to sand a smooth "stone" surface once it was dry.  Here you can also see the permanent straight pins I added to each outer edge for stability.

The sanding resulted in smooth stone with chips...a nice touch I hadn't expected.  :D  Here the lower three steps are sanded; the remaining steps are shown before any sanding was done.

I primed the whole assembly with gesso.

The paint colors I used are first Camel and then Desert Sand, both by Americana.  I then just kept adding washes of browns (Coffee Latte, Asphaltum by Folk Art and Traditional Burnt Umber by Americana) and tiny bit of black.  I lifted off the excess with a paper towel and just kept adding until I got to the coloration I wanted.  Here it is mid-process.

There was a great deal of "chicken or the egg" with the spiral stairs, and I ended up finishing them completely on their base before gluing them next to the main room and then adding the final tower over the top of them at the end.  I kept constantly fitting the tower over the stairs to make sure they would still fit.

Here's how they look in the final layout.  From this angle, they look built right into the wall, though there is a very small gap between the stairs and the tower wall.  This was so the tower could be lowered over the staircase as the final step in construction.

From above, you can somewhat see it.  But, I love the way they turned out...just like I had it in my head!  :D

I will detail the tower construction, including the balcony and railing, in future posts.

----

Update:
- Tower construction, part 1.

The Aero Squadron Lounge - Exterior accessories

by brae  

There aren't a lot of exterior accessories on The Aero Squadron Lounge compared to the interior, but I tried to make what I did add to the outside count for a lot.  I'll detail the landscaping and construction changes separately, but here are some close-ups of the exterior details.

I used a WWI photograph to make the main Lounge sign.  Lyssa sent me some great fonts to work with, and I chose one that evokes that vintage sign stylization.  I tried out a number of colorations for the background and ended up liking the black and white "negative" version the best.  The others seemed to either compete with the color of the front door or be too washed out.

Here is the original photograph from 9thinfdivsociety.org.

The overhead light is by Heidi Ott.  It's similar to the indoor lighting, but it originally had a shiny finish.  I dabbed on black acrylic paint to tone down the shine and removed the plastic "glass" from inside the cage.

I detailed the birdhouse build in an earlier post.

Here it is in place.  I used a small length of wire glued into the bottom of the post to hold it in place in the builders foam base.  Uh, oh!  Looks like Chaucer has wandered over and spotted the birdie!  :O

Woodrow also made an appearance as I was building, but neither of these critters will live at the Lounge permanently.  :]

I also showed the planter and plants (more here) in earlier posts, though I didn't end up using one of the plants I made.  I really like the way this small potted garden fills the space without taking over.  The watercan is from Celtic Juju.  The plants are made from a combination of kits from The Miniature Garden and Bonnie Lavish with added greenery from A Little More in Miniatures.

The bench was assembled from a Phoenix Models kit.  The "kit" comes with two white metal bench ends that you can paint, and you supply the wood in whatever length you wish.  It's a perfect solution when you need a completely custom size bench.  It's a sturdy little piece once you manage to wrangle all the wood ends into place.

I used some leftover Dura-Craft trim wood for the seat slats and skinny sticks for the back rest, stained with Minwax English Chestnut.  I cut the boards 3.25" in length, so the seat ended up at 3" wide -- a perfect loveseat under a pretty tree.  :D

I bought this cheapy butter churn at the Bishop Show and added some black and brown washes to it.  That subtle aging made all the difference; it looks like a high quality piece now.  :D

I purchased the milk bottles for I think a quarter each last April at the Bishop Show...or fifty cents each, some small amount.  They were wonderfully painted.  I added a light grey paint wash to tone down the bright white and printed vintage milk caps for the tops.

I made a quick milk crate from skinny sticks and placed them on the pathway.  They would look great on the front stone step other than the fact that as soon as you opened the door, the milk would go flying.  :\

The henhouse is not easily seen in the overall build because of the tower, but I'm glad I included it.  The breed of hens I've made are Faverolles, a French hen suggested by Teddi.  I have a standing hen not yet completed, but I will add her later.  :D

 

I've used a few of the eggs I made, too.

The henhouse is just what was needed to fill the open area on this side.

And, speaking of hens...here's the full photo of the chicks on the lawn from the earlier sneak peek.

The full post on the 1:32 Scale Academy Sopwith Camel can be found here.  The sign verbiage is taken from the Wikipedia article on the Sopwith Camel.  I printed it on paper, pasted it onto a primed wood scrap and staked it into the ground with some wire.

And, of course, the windsock that sits on top of the tower isn't easily missed.  ;D  It's a glued tube of orange cotton held in place with a head pin.  Yes, it rotates, though it pretty much always falls back into the same place.

Another nighttime photo...

1 ... 6 7 8 ...9 ... 11 ...13 ...14 15 16 ... 32