Step two of assembling my hand-me-down Houseworks "Two-Window Shop" is sanding and repairing gaps etc. before the painting can begin.
The trim on the façade was clearly crooked, the only large flaw in the kit's out-of-the-box state. I'm not really wild about the façade anyway, but there is a fairly substantial slot for it in the top of the assembly, and I'm not sure if once in place it doesn't add some strength to the box, so I don't want to just not use it. Wow, that was a lot of negatives in one sentence! well, they add up to positive = I think I should use the façade, but I'm tempted to just turn it around so that the extra trim doesn't show anyway. But I decided to use this as a learning experience, in removing unwanted pieces of trim. (Somebody asked me if I'm going to bash these shops at all, and I had to confess that I am inexperienced enough that I don't feel particularly confident in doing so, other than adding the internal door, although with some imagination wonderful things can be done with a purchased kit -- this one from Brae at Otterine's Miniatures is just one example of her work, not to mention the bashes other people come up with!).
David suggested an X-acto knife for removing that crooked piece, so I spent quite a lot of time carefully wedging the blade underneath, pushing and sliding it a little further each time.
My arm got really tired after a quarter-hour of this, so David took over, and of course it popped right off like it knew it was beaten! But this is why --
It had only three lines of glue holding it on!
This gap will want some filling, just to keep things sturdy. I also need to sand a number of the vertical-to-horizontal joins that didn't get quite flat along the cornice inside, as you can see here.
The front door came only partly glued, so that you can slip out the piece of Plexiglass while you paint the door frame, and then glue the bottom rail in place. The rail was taped into place by the manufacturer, fair enough, but that was thirty-plus years ago, and those of us who remember cellophane tape know that it took a lot less than thirty years for that stuff to just dry up and fall off, leaving a sticky residue behind. I've sanded it smooth, so with luck it will paint over nicely. David has already cut a hole for the mail-slot-to-be -- it is a little wonky, but I think that will also not show overmuch.
You can also see that I have made the first pass at "aging" the shop front -- bumping, nicking, oversanding in areas that would get a lot of wear, like the front door sill here. I will add in more bumps etc. with each coat of paint.
I was delighted to be able to save this -- it is on the bottom of the internal door that I picked up from the giveaway table at one of my mini club meetings ages ago, thinking it might come in handy one day. The door will sit with the bottom flush with the rest of the box, as conveniently my floor assembly is pretty much the same depth as the sill of the door, so I don't have to remove the latter. The date might not be the same as that of the shop kit, but it is certainly of the same era. It reminds me, on a much smaller scale of course -- both literally and figuratively -- of the carpenter's marks (see some images here!) and hidden dates that can be found on the timbers of older buildings. I wish, in fact, that Houseworks had stamped the shops themselves. I think I might put "EST. 1979" on the front of the carpet shop in honor!
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