Grandpa Lee's Miniatures
How To Select Your First Kit Welcome to the enchanted world of miniatures. Most people getting started with this hobby typically buy a doll house kit most commonly made by Duracraft, or Real Good Toys and sold in craft or hobby stores such as Hobby Lobby or A. C. Moore. Other major players are RGT, Timberbrook, Walmer, Houseworks, Celerity, Corona, and Greenleaf to mention a few among the most popular, but almost any quality kit will provide satisfying results if done with patience and care.
THIS BABY WILL TAKE A WHILE |
Basics However, you ought to know that these kits vary a great deal in price and complexity, and of even greater importance, some are very labor intensive while others go together fairly easily. Unfortunately, the beautiful finished models you see on the store shelf were put together in the factory and sent complete to the store for display. The typical store clerk can rarely speak knowledgeably about the products they sell, or worse, might tell you that they just "snap together like the box says". They don't. However, most stores will accommodate a customer by allowing them to open a kit for inspection before purchase, and it takes only a minute thereafter to get a good feeling for the probable amount of time required. |
Pick one Almost all newer shells fit together reliably in foolproof grooves, and if the door and window frames are at least precut to size for gluing and the floor looks semi-finished (that is the floor deck has grooves simulating planks and a smooth surface ready for stain or varnish), you've found a relatively easy kit. If, on the other hand there's a bundle of long sticks and nothing resembling little door or window frames you can figure on a whole lot of time measuring and miter cutting little assemblies. Worse, if you get a Gothic or Victorian model with an octagon tower for example, miters will be on 60 degrees rather than the common 45 degrees used to make square corners, and if you have window sills on the inside as well figure on as many as 120 precision miter cuts-half with the long end in, half with the long end out. Think about it and consider that very few miter boxes on the market even have 60 deg. guide slots.
NOT TOO HARD |
Tips With tips we'll be covering as time goes by you can work around all this OK, but it's just one of many little surprises you can expect on this journey into miniature land. We recommend that new miniaturists start with a simple model. I actually prefer using a simple model myself as the "test bed" for many of the "How To" and product display photos we'll be sharing with you as time goes by. |
We can do it I don't want to sound discouraging and none of this is necessarily bad for those with a bit of mechanical aptitude and who otherwise take pride in a lot of meticulous work. To help you along on your first project we've built a kit house from scratch, fully decorated on the outside with brick trim and complete on the inside as well, with electricity, wall and floor coverings, window treatments, decorations and furniture. We've documented every step with digital photos and I promise that if you follow these pages you'll be proud of your end result.
Let's get started I invite you to visit these "How To" pages for your own personal reference often as we will be adding new tips as time goes by. All these pages are also offered in greater detail in booklet or CD form on our "Special Items" page. Finally, remember that the kit you pick for this project doesn't have to be the same as the one we've documented - the principles we cover apply pretty much to all kits so pick one you like and let's get started.
e-mail grandpalee@charter.net Grandpa Lee