18 Sept 2013

Mini Challenge: Welcome Home Party



Surprise! We're having a party! After post upon post of my miniature kitchen progress I thought it would be fun to take a break this week and do something different.

14 Sept 2013

Miniature Kitchen: Faux Marble and Winter White

The kitchen has taken on a new look with a modern white palette.  Marble countertops and glossy subway tile bring a little luxury to this scene.  The pictures in this post are a  peek into the progression, as many components are still being finished...

I decided on a Satin finish on the cabinets after applying acrylic. I'm undecided if that will stay just yet.

The counter tops were made with a water marbling technique and acrylic paint.  In a small dish I added a thin layer of water and then dropped in white, black and grey paint, swirling the colours into the correct pattern.  Very messy but really easy to manipulate into what I wanted.  They will have a few coats of high gloss added on top.

I think the gloss will really help with the realism too.




You can't really see in these images but some of the upper cabinets will really need some work.  I managed to strip off the plastic backing that I had put on originally but a lot of the pieces came off.  The plastic had become too damaged during the building stages.  It took a lot more glue to get the frames of the windows back together which didn't spray paint well.
In all I think I should have just stuck with hand painting the white acrylic rather then spraying Satin white on all the cabinets.  

Here is a picture of before I sprayed and with one coat of acrylic (I did two before spraying).  Very rustic.

In the end the kitchen has to photograph well, more so then how well it looks in person as I will use it for my scenes.  It might take a bit of tinkering before I get it just right for the camera.

7 Sept 2013

Miniature Kitchen: Counters and Details


The counters are on!  The oven range hood has been finished with trim!  Time to paint!

While the range hood and counters are an obvious mark of progress I have been busy fixing my early mistakes.  The two cabinets flanking the stove were completely re-created this week to fix all the awkward angles and issues.  After evaluating all the cabinets it makes me think I'm going to need a lot of wood filler before I paint.

I also made some trips to the hobby shop and found some great little hinges for the cabinets, one problem solved!  I've been playing around with them and should have them on next time.

While there I picked up my order of 1:12  brick plastic sheets in the "clean" style.  I'd been waiting for two months and thankfully there arrival is in perfect timing with the progress of the kitchen.
These brick sheets will be painted white with a gloss. The counters a white marble with grey/black veins and the cabinets a matte white.
The counters are 1/8" basswood with the front edge rounded on the top.  I'm thinking I might have to re-do the piece along the wall with the sink but I ran out of wood for now.  The counters have an 1/8" over hang off the cabinets.

Everything is looking much more solid with the counters on and the sink fits in a lot nicer too.  They aren't glued yet, but that will happen after paint.

Cottage season is slowly but surely coming to an end but it means more time for minis!  I can't wait to see this kitchen finished and start on the other rooms in the house ;)