AN ONGOING NEWSLETTER December 2013


Dupre's Fancy Bakery
by Gisby

This is from Aetherworks Hobby Products in Australia, and was the third Aetherworks building I assembled: One Storey Building (Left-sided Hitching Post) SKU: AE20001.

Aetherworks Hobby Products
One Storey Building (Left-sided Hitching Post)
SKU: AE20001

They are made from a heavier MDF than most companies, and arrive as several sheets of MDF shrink-wrapped together with copious instructions and conversion suggestions. The pieces pop out of their frames, with no chance of breakage in shipping.

They are well detailed and engineered, and assemble easily straight from the box. They come with detailed floors, which gives them great rigidity.

Doors are NOT open, and are harder to open than other kits given the heavier material used.

I followed my normal procedure for these kits: I first added window and door frames made from matchsticks. (The recessed window and door frames are appropriate, but I like the look of the added frames.)

I also added board detail to the back of the upper hoarding.

The inside walls were sprayed with white primer, and the side and rear outer walls with grey primer. The outer front I sprayed white as well.

I masked off the inner floor, and sprayed the floor edges, walkway and all trim parts with grey primer.

Before assembly, I painted the front door and windows. and the upright trim pieces attached to the side walls. This is the fiddlyist bit of painting. I also painted the cornice pieces and the trim piece that sits below the sign. Painting them first makes it easier to have a neat paint job.

All the grey wood was washed with black, and drybrushed with grey, a lighter grey, and a light tan.

The four walls were glued together, and to the floor, with the walkway added.

When dry, the cornice pieces were added, and the trim above the doors, front and back.

At this point, I filled the holes where the locating pegs are. Once dried, I sanded them down, and touched up and weathered the spots. I also weathered the hitching post. (Not yet attached)

I wanted to make the building stand out, and the kit has suggestions on how to make it do so. I opted for shingles. I used file folders, but I think they are a bit light in weight. A heavier cardboard would have shown the detail better.

The roof was assembled as per the instructions, but I put the detail on the inside, leaving a plain surface to work on. (Not that it would matter.)

I measured from the bottom edge to the peak, and divided the measurement by the number of rows of shingles I was going to use. I added a couple of MM for overlap. (Above the dotted line) I cut strips of file folder to that width, and cut evenly-spaced slits up to the dotted line. You can trim the occasional shingle to be a bit irregular.

If you make your shingles too small, they will get lost on the building, and not stand out. If they are too big, they will be bigger than the people who would have made the building.

Glue your first strip along the bottom edge of the roof. Glue the next strip above it, aligned with the dotted line of the strip below, and offset by half-a-shingle. Make especially sure that the roof edges are well-glued.

Keep doing this until you run out of roof. Your top row should have it's dotted line above the peak. Let it dry and trim it away.

Do the same to the other side, and when it's all dry, trim away all the excess shingles.

The roof was primed and painted to match the building. I used one of the blocks that were in the windows when it was still unpunched as a spacer to keep the roof from sliding out of position.

And I added the hitching post!

The signs were printed on my computer, and framed with prepainted matchsticks. When dry, they were attached to the building.

I was going for a sun-dried, weathered-wood look. I think it's a bit light in colour, but I'm used to wood in a colder, wetter climate.

Like all the Aetherworks buildings, a first-class product, beautifully presented: Beautiful colour instructions, suggestions for detailing, etc. Recommended.

Further kits reviewed from Aetherworks:
Gomes' Rooms - The Blue Hotel - The Tobacco Shop
The Marshall's Office - Objective Markers - The Post Office


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