The Pub - The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello everyone,

We are already in mid February!! Time flies so quickly. Hope you are all well. Like always have been busy with so many things but somehow I still find time for my miniatures.  The weather hasn't been helping me. Mother Nature is throwing a fit. Can't wait for Spring and Summer.  

I also wanted to welcome the new followers of my blog. A Big Welcome!

Today I will be sharing with you what I have been up to in the last couple of days. I have started decorating the ground floor of the new project which will be turned into the pub area of The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. 

The Pub Area

I started off by studying the room. It is a very spacious and I think it would be ideal for a small pub. The staircase doesn't take a lot of space and beside that I will be using underneath the staircase for the storage of the bar. I still have to figure out how I'm going to design the bar shelves and counter which most probably I will be doing myself. 

I wanted a rich looking gentlemen's club for the upper class which were quite famous in the 18th century.  Apart from the rich colors of the wall paper I wanted dark oak wall paneling  and a fireplace to match.

 

I got a nice bare wood fireplace so I could stain it to match the wall paneling and decorated it with bricks.

After staining the wall paneling and the fireplace I started wall papering the room. I went for a dark pink which is almost like a damask red and chose a marbled tiled flooring which was very fashionable in the Victorian era. 

I wanted to make something a bit different for the staircase. Having the flooring in a marble style tiles I thought it would look nice if the property had a marble staircase. With that thought in mind, I covered the staircase with marble adhesive glossy paper. 

I also added a decorative embossed ceiling paper and cornice for the ceiling. I stained the cornice to match the fireplace and the wall paneling. 

The wall paneling fitted nicely with the fireplace. 

There is still so much I would like to add to the room. I have also added a few decorative wall beams. There is a good chance that the wall beams will be moved according to the decorations and frames on the walls.

Here are a few photos of how the room looks like so far. I think now I have a much clearer picture of what I would like to add to it. 

Hope you like what I have done so far. It's not much but I guess it's a start. This is all for today, Keep tuned for the next update on this project.

Take Care and See You Soon,

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

More Work on The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello Everyone,

How are you all? Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I am very much the same, busy like always, trying to fit everything in a day or two. I have to admit it has been quite a gloomy day today. It has been raining all day, cloudy and quite cold and like you all know, it doesn't help my mood at all. Can't wait for Spring and my sunny warm days.

Today I will be sharing with you the little progress I made on The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. For some reason I always start working on the outside of most of my projects. It helps me to picture the inside better. 

As the Chimney was complete, it was time for me to continue working on the outside walls. I wanted something different for the building. I definitely wanted that the ground floor to be bricked and as the building is quite big, I opted to paint the rest. I went for a light grey color which would blend in nicely with the rest. I added fine sand to the paint to give it some texture and I have to say that I am very pleased with the results.

Once all the walls were painted I was dying to see how the chimney would fit in especially with my choice of color.

The only thing that I didn't really like about this kit was something very minor, which was part of the roof terrace. The roof terrace came with two lovely arched windows and just a simple arch to go through without any doors. The kit was always designed like that, but to me it didn't make sense especially when there was a staircase leading to the lower rooms.

Finding an arched door is always a problem and even more difficult to find one to fit and match. No matter how hard I tried searching for one, I couldn't find one that fit the wall's height. During the search for this arched door, one of my dolls houses, the Summer House, captured my eyes as it had a similar arched door that matched the windows of the kit. I took some rough measurements and I knew that with some adaption, it would have fit, if only I could find a new one just for it. 

I had seen several of these brand new and unpainted before and finally with some luck I found one. 

I was really happy with it when it arrived, so I got to work on it immediately. The first thing I did was removing the side windows and the decorative lower part of the door.

It fitted in like a charm. I only had to add a little bit to the sides of the wall  which was no problem at all.

I used thick cardboard which was enough to fit between the walls and the door. Once the glue was set and dried I painted the wall, the door and windows. To strengthen the wall around the door I used wooden corner stones. 

Being such a gloomy day, I drowned myself in miniature work and built the new project. To keep me company Posy decided to join me as she wanted to help and cheer me up. She's a sweetheart. 

I started firstly by building the side walls and the back and when those were done I added the ceilings, flooring and the inner walls. Finally I added the chimney which was a bit tricky to do. When all was done I weathered a bit the walls  to give it a bit more character. The outside is far from ready but I'm pleased with the outcome so far.

Here are some pictures of today's results. 

Posy insisted that she wanted to enter in the first room even if it is empty.

This is all for today, hope you like what I have done so far. I can't wait to start working on the inside especially the pub area. Hopefully I will get to work a bit on it during the coming week. Keep tuned for the next update on this project. 

Take Care and see you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Working on the Chimney for The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well and doing fine. It's been a few weeks since my last post. I have been busy working on the new project, planning and seeing what is needed. 

For some reason this building never came with a chimney stack or anything. I definitely wanted to add a fireplace in every story of the building, if they do fit. There was no way I was going to do that without having a chimney. 

The building is quite tall so I thought a nice big chimney would be more appropriate for it. I sketched a chimney to fit on the left hand side of the building, took the measurements and started working on it. I got some nice thick wood strips to build the chimney which were cut into three parts. 

When the design was done and ready, I glued the wood strips together and using poly-filler to fill in the groves to have an even surface. 

After letting it dry I painted it grey and started bricking the wall and sides using the stencil and brick compound. 

I also bricked the two side walls of the building. Once the brick compound was dry, I started shading the bricks to match the front and weathered them accordingly. 

Finally I added the roof tiles to the slanting sides of the chimney and weathered them, I also added lead using foil. And here are the results. 

It did take me a while to finish but at the end it was all worth it. 

I almost forgot. I also wanted to tell you that today My Miniature World Shop at Etsy is celebrating it's 5 Year Anniversary.  To show our appreciation to our loyal customers we are offering a 10% Discount on all orders over €50 from 29th - 31st January 2018. Coupon Code ANNIVERSARY05. A big THANK YOU!!! goes to everyone for their support and encouragement through out the years.

So this is all for today. Can't wait to start working on the inside of the building. Keep tuned for the next update. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

New Project - The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello everyone,

How are you all? How is the New Year treating you? Can't believe that we are half way through the fist month. I have been keeping busy like always and I'm looking forward to this year. There is so much to do and so much to accomplish.

With the new year comes also the new dolls house project. It is another discontinued kit by the DHE which I have had for a couple of years. This one is called The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn which is going to be part of my Regent Street.

It is quite a nice kit. Slightly different in shape and layout which I really like. It has 3 big rooms and a roof garden. I always imagined turning this kit into some sort of guest house.

Like always, I studied the kit to see if I need to adapt or change anything. Fortunately there isn't any need of that. All I have to do is build a chimney wall on the outside of the building and add a central arched door for the roof garden.

I started off by dry building the kit to have a better idea, took notes of what supplies I needed and sketched the plans for the chimney.

Once that was complete I started by giving the undercoat paint to the building on both sides of the walls and floorings.

 The plans for this building is to brick the ground floor in red brick and use textured paint for the upper floors.  I used the stencil method with brick compound and started with the front of the shop.

When that was complete and dry, I shaded the bricks and weathered them to make them look a bit more realistic.

As the upper floors are going to be painted I thought of adding quoin stones using the stencil to give the building more detail.

I was eager to work on the shop's front window. Actually it was the first thing that I started. I was so looking forward to do the sign and all. I have painted the shop window in a dark brown with shadings of gold. The Outside Window frames of the upper floors are painted in cream while the sills are in the same dark brown.

I was pleased with the result of the shop's front, especially with the shop's sign that I designed myself. Below the shop's window, I wanted to brick the walls to match the remaining building only that I was pretty sure I was going to lose some detail of the structure so instead of using the stencil with the brick compound, I used brick cardboard slips. 

The coloring of the brick cardboard slips didn't match with the walls of the front due to the brick compound. Somehow with a little bit of paint and pastel coloring, I got to make the brick slips blend in with the brick compound.

Here are a few pictures of how the front looks so far.

It isn't much, but it's a start. So this is all for today. I'm hoping to continue working on the outside of the building in the coming days. Keep tuned for the next update on this new project.

Take Care and see you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx