Triang No.24

Finishing Off

The outside and roof are now complete on the No.24, all sealed with a coat of clear matt varnish for protection and ease of cleaning.  The brick paper has been removed from the front panels of the house, as I think it would look better replaced. I have tried to clean it up but it has scribble and crayon on it which cannot be removed. I have painted the door frame, and sanded and varnished the front door.

 

The door knocker is incomplete and has lost its knocker, but the letter box polished up well, and I replaced the rusty nails with some nice brass tipped ones. I have found that the best way to put nails into the door is to cut them down to about 1/4 inch, drill a hole and tap them in, this gives a neat finish. The original door knob broke when I removed it, it was very rusty. I replaced it with an upholstery pin which was the perfect size.

I tried to make my own brick paper but so far I have not been very happy with the results. The paper you can see behind the windows is a reproduction of the one that was originally in the house. I think this was one of the best ones I have done.

 

This house also has shutters, I had reproduced shutters for my No.42 so I just had to print them off.

 

The large one is for my Stockbroker house, which I have not done yet. [scanned picture]    

   

First I cut each shutter out, then glued them on to a piece or stiff card. Then I varnished each one with antique pine satin varnish, they look quite bright in the picture but are the same colour as the scanned shutters above. When everything was dry, I carefully cut round each one. I then put them between two pieces of thin wood and clamped them together, so they would stay nice and flat. I cannot fix them on yet until the windows are finished. The frames have been painted brown, and the inserts painted white. They just need new plastic windows.

The shutters are now fitted to the house, I need to make some temporary inserts for the windows. I adapted some standard shop bought brick paper. Each brick has been coloured in with a darker reddish-brown pastel felt pen, and then varnished with antique pine varnish.

I have also varnished the cream paint on the house with antique pine, to take off the brightness of the new paint, it gives it a bit more character.

Beams have been fitted to the roof section, the last thing I have to do is to put on the front panels, with suitable hinges.

Inside has now been decorated with wall and floor paper, from patterns I have made myself.

There were quite a few window inserts missing on this house.  I was lucky enough to find some windows at an antique fair, ten for £15 quite a bargain.  So the house is now complete.