iseecerulean

 
I bought the pigeons at the St. Louis miniatures show.  I'm sure I wrote the artisan's name down somewhere, I'll have to keep looking. I wish I had bought more of her birds.

The rake, as well as the other tools, the barrels, and the rope, were also purchased at the miniatures show.  They were made by Sir Thomas Thumb.  He was fascinating to talk to, I'm glad I had the chance to meet him.  I can't find the link to his website, but his items are available for purchase here (and they have better pictures than his website does anyway).

The first time my husband saw the sign (the first sign, the one with the wrong word that I had to pry off) he said it needed a bird's nest...he was right.

The weather vane came from Minimum World.  I stumbled across it while looking for something else.  How could I not buy an old man with a scythe for a grain mill?  I had to chop off the peak of the cupola to fit the weathervane on, but that was an easy alteration.  There is a square piece of balsa with beveled edges sitting in the peak, with a slot that the base of the weather vane fits into.

The biggest kit bashes were made to the base unit and the tudor addition.  I cut the base unit in half to add enough height to fit a third story loft in.  I needed the third story to fit all of the mill's machinery.  The additional height allowed me to add the detail over the top of the windows on the exterior that I wanted, and to have room for the sign.

The tudor addition I wanted to sit as a separate unit so I made a second side wall and added to the width of the roof.  I also cut two of the three windows from the front, so that I could have the tudor detail on the sides of the front window that I wanted.  I moved the two windows I removed to the side of the building.  Careful measuring made swapping walls pieces for window pieces quick and painless.

Because I had little windows at the peaks of all the kit pieces I felt I needed one in the piece I cut from craft plywood, to keep a consistent look.  I didn't have the necessary tools to cleanly cut a window from plywood, so I used an extra window frame and some extra brick patterned paper to put a faux bricked up window on the exterior of that peak.  I didn't do the same on the inside as it would have looked funny.

I had an extra window frame because I enlarged one of the window openings on the base unit to accomodate a fan.  The fan is a half scale box fan that I didn't like after I bought it so didn't use in the Fairfield.  It was white, so I sprayed it black, then fit it in a surround made with scrap trim.  My friend Marcie told me it needed dust on the blades so I added that with some gray acrylic paint and a thin enough brush to fit through the grate.

I can't get the picture to insert right side up, but you can see what I mean.