1/48th and 1/24th Concept models

Over the weekend I put some concept models together, Concept models are a simplified version of what you are wanting to build so that you and others can get a visual 3d view of your design before  spend money and time and you build all the detail. In this case I built a pair of rooms one in 24th and one in 48th scale of a french palace side room, The purpose being for a client and I to decide which scale will give the client what is wanted and for me to decide if I can do the required detail in a particular size. The room box's I made are both of the same room with a hallway to the left and a balcony and view to the right. I like where possible to extend rooms because then you have more of a feeling of viewing into a section of a building, not just a box.

1/48th concept box

1/24th in lighter print

1/48th printer colour corrected

1/48th with front surround

1/48th over 1/24 before reprinting small version

A concept model allows you to see what works and what doesn't, In this box the railing hides that I'm using a bent photo which means I can keep the box smaller, but I need to do something with the back wall of the hall, possibly a mirror reflecting the hall and a new print against the rear of the front of maybe a hall going around a corner.

Yours in miniatures

Some news for the week, and other ramblings

Hello all spent some time today making some soft safety knives for a TV show, always interesting making things out of other materials look like something else. The other news from this week that has had my head thinking is I've been asked to do, an up to 3 day workshop at the AMEA 15th Convention October next year. This has got me rather excited, the theme is "through the looking glass" which to me will be nothing about Alice, but more about a different way of looking at a miniature room or rooms and how our perceptions can be deceived between our eyes and our brains. I have a very clear idea of where I'll take this but I want to keep the details until next year. I will probably show some of the developmental work here but an illusion isn't the same when you see behind the curtains. It will be traditionally a doll house miniature but not like most have done before.

The other great news for me is that I'm off to New Zealand in October this year to attend the NZAME Dollhouse Convention in Richmond on the South Island. I have bought my airfare and booked my accommodation so all being well I look forward to how things are done in my homeland, I'm actually a kiwi in disguise in Aussie. It sounds like a great show and I'm really looking forward to it. I have also sent in my membership application form to become a member of NZAME. I also a little nervous about the possibility of seeing some of my kits finished for the show as a few have found homes in NZ.

The other big news of the last week or so is that I've been offered some dollhouse commissions which are a little out of my usual time period but that for me is half the fun learning more about architectural history and about why things were done the way they were and what that would say to people. In other words rooms or building have a purpose and they tell a story, from the over imposing very tall rooms of a palace to a small fire side nook, sometimes it's to impress with power or control or simply somewhere to snuggle, feel safe and secure and enjoy you and your family's world for a time.

Now with everything else going on I have to make sure to keep working on new kits, progressing with the Theater, which with the help of a head scenic artist friend, have come up with the base colours. So until next time.....

Yours in miniatures

A small error has been found in Tudor Mill Kit

Hello everyone,
my apologies,a small error has been found in the Tudor Mill Kit. On the deck level the slots that fit the end wall nearest the waterwheel are missing from kits cut and posted. To fix this at this stage  cut the tabs from the bottom of this wall as you still have the top and end tabs for alignment.
As you can see in the assembly manuals photo they where there for the sample built and photographed but went missing to wherever socks go on holiday.

Or if you require a replacement floor please contact me and I will arrange it.

Right hand end showing 2 inner slots that are missing in current kits

Yours in miniatures

When the works at bay my mind will play, After getting some parcels to the post office and the laser is busy cutting the first sheet for a Painted Lady, I thought I might try a little turning and game up with this 1/12 vase as a first attempt, It's ok but needs to be a little more delicate for my taste, but it was an attempt worth playing with and next one will be better which is always the way, you learn from doing.

Mind you Bill is still keeping an eye on the time I spend playing around, blooming slave driver, and he works for me, not the other way around.

Warren

Thank you

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who's shown interest in my new kits, They have been exceptionally well received and so far this week have sent orders to New Zealand, NSW, QLD, and Spain with multiple orders to go out tomorrow to the UK, the USA, NZ and NSW. and orders awaiting completion to Tasmania and more to Spain. It has been a little more than I was expecting, but I know that these will go to good home builders and I do look forward to seeing the endeavors from around the world. I have been busy cutting out and boxing up 6 kits at a time on my bench which has been fun.

I would like to show photos of peoples finished houses on this blog, so as an incentive to anyone who sends me a photo of their finished house that I can post on this blog, I would like to supply a small laser engraved plaque with your house name, builders name and date built as a thank you. I will be finalising the design for this shortly and will post a picture of some options.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

1/48th Fairy Tale Villa photos

Have got some new photos of the Fairy Tale Villa, finally got this one assembled to take photos for the assembly manual.

 This kit costs $38.00Aud and weights < 1Kg for postage

Verandahs around 3 sides

6 Rooms and an attic

Gothic styling

  

 I hope you like the look of my latest kit, I'm pretty happy with it and am looking forward to seeing what others do with it.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

1-48th Fairy Tale Villa assembly manual

1-48th Fairy Tale Villa - Assembly manual.pdf

Tudor Mill House available to ship

Hello all, I have just posted the Assembly Manual for the Tudor Mill House.This kit is now available for shipping, I have 3 boxed kits on the bench ready for orders. The Kit is priced at $44.00Aud and weight's less than 500g for posting so please use auspost. postage-calculator
to get rates to your location. For further info or to order please contact me using Contact form below.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

Tudor Mill House Assembly Manual

1-48th Tudor Mill House - Assembly manual.pdf

Firstly Thank you to all who have visited my blog and the interest shown in my doll houses. Today I finalised the 1/48th Tudor Mill. It was fun scaling it down to 48th, but I think I did well, you be the judge.

1/48th Tudor Mill

Rear with open panels

Rotating water wheel

 

If carefully built, working shafts

Rear with panels closed

Mind you I still have the doors to fit and I've noticed that the grinding stone is missing but at this stage its easy to partially dismantle to fit the stone.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

I have just joined a couple of online forums to add to my other interest collection, and while I was at that I thought you might like to see parts of the Craftsman bungalow that I displayed at the Sydney show and have now packed away while I work on the Theatre

 The Parquetry floor from the parlor, front windows to the

left, opening to the entrance at the rear and doorway

through to the owners office at the right.

 The teenage boys room above the parlor

although these rooms are not finished by any stretch they still show where I'm heading. I will be adding working lights and switches, door hardware and then detailed weathering before the room gets dressed.

Yours in miniatures

Painted Lady Bases

Bases 1 - 5, Left - Right with an assortment of concept models as I was refining the finished Painted Lady version1, a peak behind the curtains so to speak. This also shows that the kits can be finished with garages or basement windows. And what could you do with the driveway or front garden. This is also why I developed the removable interior so if you build a street scene you can still work on the interiors.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

Kit and Postage pricing updated 10/07/14

UPDATE:
As I now have an Internet shop at    http://barnardbuilt.com/  which has my range of kits and priceing in different currencies and a postage calculator when items are added to a cart there is no need to update this page any further.


Thanks to Kim H. putting out the word on different 1/48th forums I have been getting a lot of interest in the 1/48th houses and in pricing and availability.

So here go's........

1/48th Painted Ladies, all versions as I get them drawn ..........Aud
{Version 1 currently available, Italianate in the next couple of weeks, a 5 further
 versions to follow} Weight for postage <3.5kg with base
1/48th Street Base to suit Painted Ladies ........$Aud or $ if ordered
with house. Bases range from Number 1 - 6 as they get higher up the street.
The idea being that individuals can buy a house but then display it at a show
with other house builders. So within a group organising base numbers would
be helpful.

1/48 Fairy Tale Villa in boxboard and mdf ...........$Aud
weight for postage <1kg
1/48 Tudor Mill House in boxboard with wood dowel.......$Aud
Weight for postage <500gms

These are the current range but please contact me for a quote for any of the
houses in the dollhouse-catalogue or if you have any special requests. As I draw up
and cut my own kits, anything is possible...

Postage from Australia is not the cheapest as we have a monopoly operator and
couriers are even worse.
But to give you some idea of postage based on requests over the last couple of days

Painted Lady and base, 3.5Kgs             Australia     $Aud with signature

                                                           to USA       $ seamail (2-3 months)
                                                         or Canada    $ Air mail (7-10 days)
                                                                            $ Express (3-7 days + sign)
but for additional kits within the same Air order would be $54.95each to a max 20Kgs

                                                             to UK          $ sea mail
                                                                               $0 Air mail
                                                                               $ Express

                                                             to NZ          $ Air mail

All postage will be at cost, and I will confirm with buyers before settling of account. Prices quoted are as of today's date in Australian dollars as per  Aust Post postage-calculator . Smaller houses would be lighter and therefore cheaper to send.

For American buyers your dollar is currently higher than ours, so would be approximately 7% cheaper, but you can use a calculator to check conversion.
 xe currency convertor  or any other on the net. All currency conversions will be on the date of order being received.

To contact me about any further information please use the contact form at the bottom of the blog. Because this is early days I don't have a sales website yet and if I use Etsy or E-Bay my prices will have to go up to cover their charges. I have a PayPal acct and have found that it has been the easiest and safest way for me to buy goods around the world, but I am flexible.

Yours in miniatures

Warren

As promised some photos of the development of the Egyptian Theater. The right hand tower above the foyer and entrance is starting to take shape,the figure is a 1/12 6inch tall man to give some idea of the size of this thing. His name is William, but only answers to Bill and he represents someone who never got to see what I have ended up doing in life.

 Behind the amazing top windows is the original managers office, 18ft high, which later had a dropped ceiling at 8ft. I am still researching how it was decorated but will base it on a period office if I am unable to find out more detail. I am trying to find who was the theater manager in the 70s because he fought to keep the auditorium from being vandalised by an interior decorator who painted the building white and wanted to do the same to the proscenium. If anyone knows anyone or has any info about the early days of the theater, particularly photos or descriptions of the interior, I would love to hear from you.

At present Bill is not happy with the work completed and is taking notes of my lack of work done today, but in my defense, going out with my wife to catch up with friends is worth more brownie points, and I can make up the schedule over the weekend. In the lower photo is the entrance to the foyer with the 2 sets of double doors behind leading into the main hallway. The cutouts to left and right will be spacers for some of  the poster box's, these will be made from timber and glass, and will be hinged to allow the ability to change the posters to suit any mood. Above Bill's head will be the marquee that comes out 12inchs from the building in 2 directions and has lots of lovely lights, I'll just grin and bear how to organise getting modern Led's to create hundreds of bulbs, have had some thoughts of how to accomplish it, so will be doing some testing. The exterior of the building was stuccoed and scored to resemble stone slabs, the etches on the walls are to give me guidance for the stonework layout.

Yours in miniatures

W

Catalog Pdf

I have now attached a PDF of a catalog of designs from Paul Campbell at Makecnc http://www.makecnc.com/doll-houses/mansions/  which are in the previous post until I learn how to move to the Downloads page. (have downloaded instruction video from You Tube but no sound as my laptop is a bit cold, 3 degrees in my workshop at the moment.)(UPDATE now 15degrees and solved issue.:-) I will be slowly adding all these house designs to my own catalog as I redraw them. Paul's designs have been created for use by laser cutters and cnc routers but where not designed as scaled dollhouses. I am slowly modifying them to scale and making the designs more dollhouse appropriate having Paul's permission. I have also created the Painted Lady from one of his Ho scale model train buildings but modified extensively to be much more suitable as a dollhouse with full interior and more detail as shown in earlier posts.

 At the moment I have the Fairy Tale Villa, Judy Garland, Painted Lady version1 and the Tudor Mill drawings modified and ready for cutting but I am interested in hearing what people are interested in. The ones I've done have been because these have been the one's requested, It seems that 1/48th scale is the biggest request scale so far because it seems that there are a lot of dollhouse builders looking for new designs in that scale. Because the kits are a new range for me, and also a way to promote my larger houses, it's been a rather busy period since the Sydney show when I first put out the idea of what I was thinking of doing.

This is me at the show with our display table. The building are Left - 1/12 Tudor Mill, Center rear to front, 1/24 Tudor Mill, 1/24 Berea Contrast House and 1/48 Fairy Tale Villa. Right - 2 rooms from my 1/12 Craftsman bungalow that I have now packed away while doing the cinema and some A&C furniture.

So please contact me or leave a comment and I will see where we go on this journey as it's still early days.

Yours in miniatures

Dollhouse catalogue

Barnardbuilt Dollhouse Catalogue May-2014.pdf

1/48th Painted Lady assembly instructions "Updated 10/2014"

1-48th Painted Lady - Assembly manual Updated

I have just started adding new pages to this blog,In the tabs above are new tabs for Gallery and Downloads. As its just after midnight here I'll start putting in some photos tomorrow of some earlier work, but in the Assembly Manuals page I have put the incomplete version of the assembly manual for the Victorian Painted Lady Version1, I just have to finalize the windows and trim section to complete this manual but it does give you a good idea of how my kits go together. Until later today Yours in miniatures