2017 ! How did it get to be 2017 ?
I didn’t think it had been that long since I wrote something for this blog.
There should be a nice photograph here. But I don’t have a camera at the moment and the results that I got from the Android Tablet that I borrowed were a bit… odd…
So you are going to have to take my word for it that the images below are of a really a rather nice little model farmhouse sitting in its own garden, and propped up at a peculiar angle either on the cap of a tube of toothpaste or a cork.
The farmhouse is something that I was trying out today and, while I was struggling with a knife blade that wanted to break and paper that wanted to tear, not to mention disbelieving the way the card I was using absorbed water-based glue like a sponge and went soggy, I thought that, as well as being relatively simple to make (just don’t use the card I tried using first of all), the finished farmhouse would look good in a miniature nursery, school-room or shop.
And so here, if you would like to try making this for yourself, is a pdf of the parts for you to play with too:
OHM_Farm_and_Garden_20170524
UPDATE: 3rd June 2017 – black and white versions of an 8 card set are now in this post
The usual request remains the same: make the model, share it and, if you want to, sell the finished article (but think of all the other people who will do this too), but please don’t re-sell the pdf or the artwork itself.
Instructions for putting the model together:
The paper or card that you use and your printer ink will affect the finish and the colours you get.
If you have never made anything this small before and would like to see detailed, step by step pictures for a similar project, please take a look here at another small house on a base – the walkthrough is towards the end of the post (which is much shorter than this one!)
Materials:
I used 200gsm paper and water-based glue, which I applied with a brush.
This was mainly for speed, as this was a trial run for me.
Printing on a thin paper and gluing this to thin card would work equally as well.
The main thing is that you need something that will hold its shape when folded and will not fall apart when glued.
Note: If you glue 2 sheets of paper, or paper and card together, make sure they are completely dry before cutting them out.
First (for reference only) look at the picture below:
The fold lines are marked in red and the slots that need to be cut out are marked in blue.
These lines are fine and black on the pdf and, if you don’t know what you are looking for, they are easy to miss.
What I did:
Scored along the fold lines first.
Then cut the slots out, cutting away from the corners.
Then cut around the outlines.
Then made the creases in the various parts – centre roof, house walls, etc.
I found that it was best to fit the front of the house into the roof first and then fit the back to these two pieces once they were assembled. A little bit of glue inside the house, applied with a paintbrush, will hold all the parts together.
The hedges fit around the outside of the garden base.
A small amount of glue, applied with a paintbrush, and left to dry on the thin edge of the garden base is helpful. Once this is dry, another thin layer of glue can be applied and the hedges should adhere to this without giving too much trouble.
I assembled the garden so that the coloured part of the hedge was on the inside and, when it was all in I place, I discovered that there was a significant gap between the front hedge and the garden base.
So, after I had glued the house to the back and the base and was certain that everything was dry and fairly stable, I made a second base out of two layers of card.
I measured and cut this to be a little bit wider than the original base. The new, slightly larger, base makes a tiny ledge around the sides and also strengthens and neatens the appearance of the whole thing.
The white, unprinted card and the cut edges now looked a bit stark to me, so I washed some thin water-based paint over them – green for the base and the outside of the hedges and light orange for the chimneys.
I am sorry that I do not have the means of taking better photos at the moment – this is a nice little model and deserves a better picture than I can achieve right now.
A Minor Point :
The original cards are about A5 in size. This would be very small if reduced to 12th scale, so this model is not 12th scale, just a useful sort of size for a dolls’ house.
About the Cards :
There are 12 cards in the set that I have. They were published by A M Davis, Quality Cards & Co (London).
.
The original cards are uncoloured line drawings. I made copies and coloured some of those. (This was a lengthy process as they were probably lithographed and the interference dot-matrix pattern, or whatever it is, is appalling. It would have been quicker to draw my own design out.)
The set is undated and I have no information about the original publisher.
A quick look on the internet did not make me much better informed about them, but I did find two enjoyable sites, which are worth a look if you are interested in vintage cards:
http://www.postcardy.com/article04.html
http://vintagerecycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/am-davis-quality-cards.html
If you are interested in making paper based projects like this one there are a few more available on this page
Finally:
I have always said my photographs are awful, but this has to be a new low point.
Wonderful post , photos and detailed instructions. I cannot wait to look at the inks you included.
Happy thoughts,
Petrina
New York
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Thank you, Petrina. I found another excellent site about postcard manufacturers this week – http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersd.html 🙂
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I’m so happy to read a new post on you blog!
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Thank you. It has been too long since the last one 🙂
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