Camp MiniHaHa 2016 Project

I arrived home yesterday around dinner time, having driven all alone for 7 hours on about 4 hours of sleep; not to be recommended! To stay awake, I alternated travelling on country roads with stretches of high-speed highway, and by doing this managed, just, to avoid a fatal accident between a car and an eighteen-wheeler. I did have the emergency service vehicles screaming down the country road beside me on the way to the scene.

The camp project was very intense, and was accompanied by a number of smaller projects; I managed the lamp shades, but haven't installed them as yet. The radiator, mattress and pet bed will have to wait their turn. The theme this year was Crazy Cat Ladies, so there will be cats....

Below is a photo of the half scale prototype: no mezzanine, and double the number of windows.

I took this photo to help me remember what the pipes looked like; as my plan is for a steam-punk inspired piece, I will be adding pipes, although I am thinking they will be cream in colour rather than black!

This is my project in trial; I thought I had earlier photos, but apparently I don't. The wainscoting is made from scrap wood top and bottom, with craft sticks in between. My setting is intended to be a companion piece to last year's book vignette, the home of the book store owner. The whole thing except for the finished wainscot is held together by masking tape. The grinning cat toy is the weight to keep the mezzanine floor steady.

I decided to do the floor, again of scrap wood, in a diagonal pattern, as the corner will be cut off. The original project had a 12 x 9" footprint, but I cut it down to 9 x 9", as I wanted the project to be a little less demanding of display space - it is running low here!

Flooring and wainscoting in place, the corner of the floor cut off, and the window openings both cut. By this time it was dark, so the windows reflect parts of the room. The wood has all been stained with a mixture of dark burnt umber acrylic and water-based golden oak stain, to look aged, as the loft is a re-purposed industrial space.

Window frames painted, baseboards being tried out. On the mezzanine floor are the two industrial lamp-shades which will light up the place, made from the tops of plastic Easter eggs and a couple of tiny brass bells - held in place for now by the toothpicks I used while painting the plastic with 4 coats of nail polish, inside and out.

The walls were finished in butter cream-coloured tissue paper stucco above the paneling. This now needs to be aged to bring out the wrinkles in the stucco. The central panel of the industrial window is intended to pivot, but as I am not in the least fond of pin hinging in cramped spaces, I will glue one in, in the open position, and leave the other closed.

The flat roof is finished with a hollowed space to hold the battery box for the lights; I asked to have mine cut to continue the slope of the mansard, which I hope to do in faux copper. The idea right now is to make the knob to lift it up out of dowel roof vents. We'll see!

Next to me, the project turned into a much larger Via Rail station lobby, with an elevator leading to the Tim Horton coffee shop on the second level, being made by Louise. Next to her, Marilyn turned her project into a 1/24th scale, New York brown-stone with three floors. Down from her, Myra was doing the project in 1/48th scale! There was also a speak-easy across the room, a townhouse with a roof garden at the end of the table, and two dozen other variations of the basic project. No-one tends to stick to the original idea....

I also, thank heaven, managed to finish the basic steps and spacers for the winding wrought iron staircase up to the mezzanine, very important as I wanted an opening cut in that floor to allow miniature people to go up the stairs without bonking their heads.

Tomorrow, I will post photos of gift exchange items and tidbits.