Winter Wonderland issues resolved! I hope :-D

Another solution to long standing work halting issues has been solved. I've been stuck on the Winter Wonderland scene, this is a nocturnal scene set in a room box. It has dark blue walls & sky/ceiling & has snow on the ground. Tiny stars glittering in the sky... (fibre optics). There's trees in the wood, a pair of foxes, badger & cub in their sett underground, a barn owl on the wall, a rabbit & a cheeky poacher who's Top quality artisan made created by Hazel Voice whose name I only found out tonight.
And so I've plotted the meandering stream to create with Scenic Water & Still Water & have solved the problem (I hope!) to stop the stream leeching when I create it. Plus White insulation tape will help with securing the fibre optic star lights, it's So obvious to me.... now. Some months ago would have been better :-D So happy when my brain works :-)

Going through the Display Cabinet

Following on from my previous post this is a detailed breakdown of the display cabinet in the living room of the Beds, Knobs & Broomsticks house.
The top shelf has the CinderelIa coach in memory of my adopted Auntie Cuckoo, 3 mounted special crystals I put together (2 are amethyst, I've forgotten what the other stone is!). There's also a fairy treasure chest that I created. I also made the crystal ball too.
The middle shelfs mounted stones are 2 quartz, amethyst, lapis & tigers eye. The little ghost ornament I made from fimo & the unicorn is actually a small figure from Tudor Mints Myth & Magic series :-)
The bottom shelf has a small pewter wizard & dragon, an amethyst, quartz & I've forgotten the green ones name too lol

CinderelIa Ware, Auntie Cuckoo & the Pumpkin Coach

This is Weetmans 'CinderelIa Ware' made in the 1950s. An adopted aunt, known as Auntie Cuckoo had the mouse sugar bowl, cream jug & the pumpkin carriage in a display cabinet (& the rest of the set left to her sister.) As a child I Adored this set, so magical & enthralling. I own it now :-) Some weeks ago I spotted by chance on eBay a pumpkin coach keyring charm & knew straight away this would go into the display cabinet. It was £7.49 Plus postage in the UK.... Or £1.46 free p&p from China..... Ten days later it was here. All I needed to do was cut & file. Its finally placed in the little display cabinet in the living room of the Beds, Knobs & Broomsticks house :-) Quite a few of the items in that house are dedicated to people either living or passed on.
The first photo shows the miniature pumpkin carriage in the cabinet, the second my inherited CinderelIa Ware & the last the coach before alteration.

New Miniatures Project from Oxfam

Well I'm quite pleased & busy plotting my latest addition to my dolls house & miniatures collection. My father bought this on my behalf from Oxfam on Wednesday. The poor old lass is a half completed project & it's a bit out of sync with itself... And so I decided almost instantly it's to be created into a 1930s/1940s wartime house that's suffered serious bomb damage on one half. This will have caused the roof to partially collapse, taking part of the bedroom floor & crashed down into the kitchen below. I'm already seeing a pantry door hanging half off, stores & provisions on show in the back corner. Perhaps the chimney tilting at a threatening angle.... Rats in the rubble & a dog going after them.... Don't worry the family who live there are fine, I don't kill my characters on a miniatures scene based on real life. However like with The Grime Reaper & Zombie Graveyard scene anything goes ;-)
I've always been interested in the social history of World War 2 & this would be a chance to bring it to life. Research & build, they'd have a mix of prewar furniture & some Utility furniture too.
The house came with 5 lights all working, loads of miniature electric extension cables which also work (hence the lit photos!) & a whole bag of bits & pieces including windows, doors, wallpaper rolls, hinges & moulding pins. I actually need the extension cables for the electrics on the Dark Dreams house.
And so, another surprise project has arrived! The entire front requires rebuilding & there's some structural support work required. But that will work with the bomb damage & instead of being hidden will be a feature in itself . It'll be a LONG time til this old lass is Finished but I enjoy the the plotting, planning & research. The building of various aspects & creating of the miniatures to go in. As I write more ideas are running through my head.... ;-)

Zombie Graveyard lights

Made a start on sorting the lights for the Grime Reaper & Zombie Graveyard & I'm well chuffed. I got these from Peter Barret garden centre 2 or 3 years ago but haven't been at a place on that scene to start work on them. The lights are meant for those little domestic Christmas village scenes you can create but I pounced on them when I saw them knowing straight away they're to be used for the Zombie Graveyard. They're not full height but half height which I've seen in by real church path. As they're meant for Christmas they had  wreaths on them whereas I want blood splattered 'Beware of the Zombie' signs... Fortunately with pliers & a fight they came/broke off :-D
Photo shows the line of lights with the end one showing the lantern with the wreath removed.

Battery Box Hidey Hole

I didn't record how I hid the battery box! The back of The Goblin Treasure House is very basic but in keeping with the design. The coins are stuck on the main body, and the hidey hole is covered by thin card & coins on it to disguise it. It simply lifts out, revealing the battery box to switch on. The hole is dug out of the 25p car cleaning sponge I got from Wilco lol

Thunderdrum & Jesters Folly

The miniature thunderdrum/thunder drum is just under an inch high. Its real life counterpart is 14" in the photo where the two are pictured together. The little one is made with a bead, opaque plastic & jewellery wire all wrapped up to create a coil & not as simple as it sounds! I was inspired to make this after meeting Jesters Folly (ha! Link <-- ) two highly entertaining, utterly bonkers showmen at the Lightwater Valley Christmas Fayre 2013. They had unusual musical instruments & various bits & did juggling. They played the didgeridoo for me & other instruments. Mental guys in a truly brilliant way!

Close Up of the Treasure Pile

The Goblin has been busy hoarding & gathering his treasures. Close ups of the treasure pile, the area of missing treasure is because once in place in the scene it butts up against the treasure chest :-)

The Huge Treasure pile & the Guardian Dragon

Two full shots of the Dragon on the huge pile of treasure :-D The treasure is made of the various bits I'd posted about previously, the Crowns, swords, shield, jewelled plates, chalices, goblets, gold fimo coins & gold & Silver coins from the haberdashery department at Boyes which were on braiding. Will do a separate post with closer detail of the treasure pile. Really happy with how it's all worked out :-)

Crowning the Dragon

On the top of the Huge pile of stashed goblin treasure is the dragon. Considering himself superior to his goblin owner he is wearing a small Elfin crown on his head :-)

The dragon was originally a red childs Papo toy & he got a makeover from me, as did his jewelled crown which was dull brass & is now glitter gold :-)

Hob, the Goblin made by miniaturo-mango

Introducing the Goblin for the Goblin Treasure House whose home is so near completion. I am seriously not talented enough to do figures, some of my elfin critters come out more like transvestites on a bad hair day...... This little guy, Hob is made by the exceptionally talented miniaturo-mango on eBay. All I've done is to add a bunch of keys to his belt, the rest is original. I've stone painted his stand & added gold & silver coins to the base :-) His home is almost finished :-)

Treasure Chest

Part of the Goblin Treasure House scene is the Treasure chest which is packed with valuable gems & jewellery :-)
The chest was bare wood then stained. The gold studs were dots of PVA glue then gold paint carefully placed over the top. The hanging lantern over the end is a broken silver ring of mine with a  'ruby'  added to the centre :-) Quite damn chuffed with the treasure chest :-)

The Roof That Is :-)

Following on from a recent post about the Roof That Was
where my extensive plans didn't work out the finished roof for the Goblin Treasure House is now ready to share.....
I repainted the roof gold, then adhered burlap to the roof once dry & it looks great, went on a treat & I'd bought both sheets of burlap for just 99p total from The Works some months ago without knowing what I wanted it for! Then I added the tiny rhinestones in the roof the other night, then silver coins under the eaves & there's some moss around the chimney due to stone paint that came off with the PVA glued tiles. I am quite damn happy with it :-)

More treasure

All the following have been painted by me & are a small part of the Goblin Treasure. The Buddha was a charm specifically bought for this, the Mayan style Goddess was found at the Bring & Buy stall at St Mary Church Christmas Tree Exhibition at Thirsk. Adding gems over the hooks hides them well & looks alright as they were too strong even with my heavy duty wire cutters!  The Egyptian bird statue & Roman duck oil lamp are replicas from the Dorman Museum. The vase was poor quality pottery but greatly improved with painting! The coins are from braiding.
The pewter Plates I added 'precious' jewels to, for amethyst, ruby, sapphire & emerald. They look the part now.
The chalices are very cheap wooden ones, painted up & with rhinestones added on one, seed beads on the others.

The Roof That Was...

Ah those best made plans. For the roof of the Goblin Treasure House I'd devised individual tiles of gold & silver randomly coloured. It took some time to get it set up, sorting the tiles, trimming, painting then placing them. It looked good. But wasn't right!
I left it overnight incase daylight brought new hope. No. Having roofed the bugger I was now going to have to remove all the individual roof tiles. The Good bits of roof looked good but the bad does look bad. It would have been better if the tiles had been an exact fit from end to end but the roof is wider one side than the other, & Nothing would have helped the roof join! Argh! The photos show how it came out & it no longer looks like that.

Swords, shield & helmet

These appear in the Goblin Treasure House miniature scene I'm working on. All of these were plain pewter or metal. The shield was a  Warwick miniature pewter, the swords were plain metal & are painted with brilliant silver for the blades & nail varnish for the hilts/ handles then with 'precious' jewels inset ;-) The helmet was actually a replica helmet in a thimble & was plain pewter. The helmet was found in Coppergate, York & is Anglo-Saxon dating to the 8th century.

Zombie brains all gory & dragons teeth painted

And so, tonight the Zombie brains are now all gory & mouldy, & I have also painted the dragons spines, claws & weirdly his teeth :-D
And then the Goblin Treasure House is Finished on its final exterior & interior walls painting. Had to throw out seed to make the chickens move away so they didn't accidently get spray painted with the stone paint! Roof next, chimney done now.
Love how mixing PVA glue with paint creates chunky paint for gore :-D

Clock Man & The Time Thief is Finished!

Over the next few days I hope to post up some photos of the Clock Man & Time Thief diaorma which is Finally finished! Today's photo is simply of tiny fob watches I made from jewellery fastenings & I'm rather chuffed with how they turned out. The pencil gives a good idea of how tiny the scale is.

Opps

For ages this bugged me, I kept thinking what was wrong was that the centre numeral wasn't central. Eventually I gave up & moved to the next side, fixed up numbers ten, eleven, looked at the last number left..... Nine or eleven.. What the hell, where's twelve?
Yup my little brain that had been saying you're tired, stop decided to teach me a lesson :-D
Thing is, I've had these numerals Years for the finishing touches to The Clock Man & The Time Thief & when I Finally put them in place I do it wrong lol Thank Gods the glue isn't strong!

Living Room Bureau

Distracting myself before a difficult Social Services meeting tomorrow I decided to put together the Bureau in the living room of Beds, Knobs & Broomsticks.
The radio is an exact copy of a
PYE MM 1931 & is signed DW 1992 UK. The paintbox with a kingfisher on is in memory of Coz/Kevin & was also created by a miniaturist. The apple pot was carved by Brian Taylor of Grandads Miniatures. The Orkney chair with drawer is (unknown) artisan made & in the drawer traditionally was a bible... & a bottle of whisky :-D
Both cats are Falcon Miniatures & the bits in the cubby holes are made by me including the glasses & their case.