Grandpa Lee's Miniatures
How to apply interior trim We're in the home stretch now with only the trim and some outside structures needed to complete our house. Many kit makers preassemble window and door frames and provide other ready to install trim components that only need to be painted and glued in place. Unfortunately, this kit is not one of them. Remember we purposely choose a "hard" kit to begin with in order to demonstrate several advanced techniques. So let's dig out the bundle of sticks that came with our kit and get ready to do a lot of sawing. We have to pay careful attention to each piece as this big stack includes several different profiles intended for different areas. If you're doing a similar kit keep
all like pieces together in little bundles until needed and follow the booklet recommendations for application as failing to do so, or miscutting several pieces might result in coming up short just when a continuous pattern is really needed. Should this happen the only reasonable solution short of major rework or numerous splices is to contact the manufacturer for an additional strip or two. They understand that people make mistakes and will almost always send a limited amount of replacement materials at no cost.
But be creative However, there's nothing that says you have to stick with the trim provided. For example, you might want to apply extra wide trim around a ceiling for a more dramatic effect or to cover a minor boo-boo. Or you might want an embossed pattern for decorating a special room. Hobby shops will have a selection, and surprisingly, you can find scaled trim like this at most large home improvement stores at much lower unit cost. Another alternative if you have the equipment to do it is to saw strips out of the large sheets from which we punched out parts early on. This material will require a little extra sanding and edge sealing, but it does a super job. It can be cut to any width, and if you are so inclined to do the extra work, you can even make dental molding and such. Remember that the kit we're making here was originally designed to end up with a rather austere finished interior that we took upon ourselves to upgrade with lights, wallpaper and molding. Therein lies the rub. The manufacturer does not include trim for these purposes. So again we either have to make it or buy it if we want the deluxe end result.
Go ahead and be a cutup Using your fine tooth saw and preferably a miter box along with an internal measuring device cut all vertical trim including around door frames. Sand lightly to clean off the fuzz, glue small subassemblies and then paint everything before gluing to the house. We don't want to waste material so splices on long spans of continuous trim are almost inevitable. Ideally these are joined at overlapping 45 degree cuts, but to make matters easy here we will simply butt splice long runs. However, take the time to miter most other angular joints. One notable exception where mitering is not appropriate is where vertical and horizontal window and door trim trim profiles are different and as such just butt together at right angles.
Paint the town - red?? You can paint trim any color you like, but white or wood stained are the most appealing followed by light pastel shades that compliment the existing wall colors. We're going to use universal white, and I have to point out that we're talking about painting more than 400 pieces of trim, railings and accessories. Do you feel like putting on two or more coats each with a little artist's brush? Neither do I. It may be a bit messy, but dipping and hang drying is fast and covers well; almost always with only a single dip. I use a cutaway PVC tube for the paint trough to accommodate long pieces, but an ordinary roller paint tray works equally well for all but the longest pieces. Press or tap a 'T' pin in
the grain direction at a steep angle near the end of the gluing surface (being careful not to stab yourself), and while holding the pin, submerge the piece fully. Lift it straight up and allow it to drain back into the pan for a few seconds. Then hang it vertically in overhanging slats with slots to capture the head of each pin. Needless to say, generously layer the floor beneath the drip area with scrap cardboard beforehand and clean up your tray right after. Pull the pins out the next day when everything is dry and you're ready to glue. You will be pleasantly surprised to see that the dried surface is quite uniform with no hint of runs or lumps, the only touch up required being that you might have to trim off that last drip that dried before it could fall. Hint Paint doesn't fully "harden" for several days and if clamped too soon, the clamp may pull paint away when removed. If you have to clamp soon after painting put waxed paper under the clamp faces.
Dip it again, Sam If the grain of your stock is unusually porous you may want to double dip. And yes, you will waste a few cents worth of dripped paint using this method, but it's well worth it. Too much fuss? OK, then go ahead and paint with a brush. We won't do it all here, but additional sanding, extra care in measuring and mitering along with a finishing glaze will give your interior trim a truly "museum" grade finish.
Glue em in Start with ceiling horizontal trim, then the verticals, including the door frames. White general purpose water based glue works well in these applications. It's also OK at this time to put in horizontal moldings providing they never have to meet up with vertical trim, but only after the vertical trim is up can you accurately measure
all horizontal pieces that go between two verticals. Cut each horizontal piece for an exact fit and then paint. Micro clamps come in handy for gluing in many places as shown at the top of this page, and the black weights in this photo are good for pressing inner wall trim in place until the glue dries. Use jam bars or "leaf springs" to hold ceiling trim in place for gluing. If necessary lay the house on its back and place weights to hold ceiling trim in place for gluing. Finally, you'll want to put decorative trim on all the exposed edges facing out. The end result is shown here.
How about the windows? Once all interior trim is in the only thing left for us to do is a bit of selective sanding if necessary and perhaps a little touch up here and there with spackle and paint. Finish by vacuuming, brushing or blowing out the interior to get rid of any remaining loose dust or chips, and wipe all inner surfaces gently with a clean damp sponge to remove static dust. OK, so where are the windows? I guess they could be considered part of the inside treatment and shown installed here, but they're largely on the outside too so we'll talk about them next as we complete the outside.
e-mail grandpalee@charter.net Grandpa Lee