Pickett Hill - The Kitchen

Although I had built the bedroom furniture for my test set to see if I would enjoy making a quarter scale project, it actually was the kitchen that I started working on first, after I started to build the house.  It was easier to work on the furniture sets as glue was drying on portions of the house. 

Out of the overall project the two most challenging things in this project was the small quarter scale baskets and pillows.  Words that can't be spelled out in this blog were spoken as I tried to make the baskets and pillows.  Following at a close third was putting the hardware on the cupboards and furniture.  For the most part, the hardware was small 1/2" pins, that were cut short.  I started cutting them inside a plastic bag so the little pieces wouldn't fly off into my craft room.

As shown in the original post for this project, I added a 9mm knife to show you the project scale.

The exterior doors were layered pieces of laser cut wood with wire for hinges and plastic for the window glaze.  It had tendered to warp and being my first small scale project had I know that if I used weights such as 1-2-3 blocks, I could have reduced the warping.  Also I know now that had I coated the pieces with an alcohol wash first, I may have reduced the warping.  The water based Ceramcoat quickly made these pieces warp.  But I learned from it for future smaller scale projects.

Although a lot of accessories come with each furniture kit is great, Betterley's also sold a kitchen accessory kit separately at the time.  But I also did purchase additional accessories for the kitchen from True 2 Scale Miniatures.  They have a great selection of 1/48th scale accessories.

Robin Betterley also sold the area rugs for each room.  Shown here are the three for the kitchen.

Many of the kitchen accessories shown below came with the Betterley Kitchen accessory kit.  The frying pans were from True 2 Scale.

The cupboards come with a paper for the backing that has accessories printed on the paper.  But I still invested in some 1/48th scale dishes from True 2 Scale to fill the cabinets as well.  I still had to add the crown top in this picture.

The island came with three of the baskets and although I built them as per the instructions, I could not fit three into the opening.  I'm going to try and buy some 1/48th scale vegetables to put in the basket and lay to one side of the island.  I still have to add the faucet and door knobs to the front of the island.

Here is a great picture of True 2 Scales pastry kit.  They come unfinished and you have to paint them, but it wasn't too challenging.

The dish sideboard strainer is made from paper and came with the kitchen accessory kit, but it was a challenging piece to assemble.

This side cabinet, that is around the corner from the kitchen was a big learning lesson for me.  I accidentally reversed the sides (one side has a decorative bracket).  It was well glued and dried when I noticed my mistake.  It wasn't painted and I had read somewhere that you could put an unpainted glued model in the microwave for a few seconds to warm up the glue making it possible to disassemble.  

DO NOT DO THIS.  Not with laser cut pieces anyway, within seconds the inside of my microwave was in flames and the piece came out scorched badly.  It took a little bit of sanding but I was able to remove the worst of the scorching fortunately.  A co-worker loaned me their heat gun and 10 second later it was disassembled and reassembled correctly.  It's still a little ragged looking on the corner, although I tried to use wood patch to fill in the burned area.  I now own my own heat gun and it's a cherished and well used tool in my craft room.  

Another cabinet was installed on the left side next to the dining room.  Also filled with more accessories.

Overall I'm very pleased with my first completed room (okay almost completed, still no hardware on the island and side cabinet....lol.)

Now I'm learning how to photograph such a small scale.  It's amazing how large the glue blobs look once you photograph it.  Your eye doesn't see it, but the camera definitely does.

Until the next time.....

Wanda