I used the provided shingles on the sides instead of the top. I made my own shingles using thin card.
I love the detail included in this kit. I made my own newsprint using the local paper.
More about making this project
Attic roombox swap
In 2007, I participated in a lot of swaps. Because I was doing swaps every month, I didn’t have time to do as many projects. This one was a really special swap as we got a roombox kit from one of the swappers. The other swaps were wonderful as well.
Deciding to finish this as a weekend project was a really good idea for me. It did take me all weekend because I did other things around the house.
I messed up on the wallpaper twice. Fixing it slowed me down. First mistake was choosing to print the printies on plain paper.
I have an HP printer and I normally use some HP brochure paper to print my wallpaper. I have had great success with using the combo of all HP products so I should have know better. But I was out of the lighter weight brochure paper and used the plain paper instead.
When I glued it down the first time I used ultimate, but ultimate was runny and could have been part of my problem. When I checked it to go to the next step I found the paper had turned reddish in several places. I removed it (wetting it helped remove it the fastest).
Reprinted on some HP brochure paper I had that was thicker. I glued that paper on and continued. After getting the wall stud pieces on and the walls are glued to the floor, I realized that I had used the roof as the floor. The thing about that is I should have figured that out sooner because I should have checked my parts better. I even dry-fitted the side wall-studs that were two separate pieces with the chimney and saw the hole didn’t line up, but I was overly confident I had my pieces figured out.
Only reason I figured it out was when I test fitted the roof (actually the floor) and figured out there should be a hole in the roof for the chimney. I thought the hole when in the floor but it wasn’t lining up and so I just assumed it was cut wrong. I figured out I was the one wrong. Because I had glued my wall-studs to the wallpaper, I had to reprint the wallpaper again (3rd time). Thankfully I had figured out the wetting idea and so that was a quick fix the second time around for removal.
I learned to print only on HP paper (because that is my type of printer) for best results and secondly, if it isn’t fitting together properly, try using the other pieces. Don’t assume the kit is wrong, consider that I identified the pieces wrong.
With regards to my second learning experience, it would have helped if the kit maker had done something to label the parts. Either a small drawing of each piece or a label or something. Even a simple – the roof is the one with the hole would have helped me. For my own kit making, I will continue to label the pieces to help avoid confusion. And no, I am not saying this was a bad kit or I am better at kit making, just something that would have helped me. This was a great kit.
Things I did different than the kit:
- I made my own newsprint wallpaper. The kit did not include the printies already printed. We had been provided with the pictures to print ourselves. I make my own, I went to my local paper on the internet and made copies of the thumbnails of each page of the most recent edition. Because they were thumbnails not meant to be readable and that was ok because they weren’t readable anyway. But it is neat for me to know what is there.
- I used the siding shingles on my roof. These were made of paper and thinner which I like. I had decided I would use a gray wash on the roof so using wood shingles was not important.
- I made my own siding from the brochure paper I used to print my wallpaper. It is thicker than plain paper. I got out a paper crimper that my mom gave me last year in some scrapbook stuff. (She got it at a yard sale.) I ran the paper through a few times as I wanted many indentions to give me a look of asbestos siding that was popular on houses for awhile. I think cut into 0.5 inch strips. Then I used scissors to cut the shingle sections without cutting apart. I didn’t mark them before cutting so sometimes when I overlapped the previous row, my cuts lined up instead of offset. I was okay with this.
- I did was to not stain anything. I did this partly because of time and allowing it to dry, but I based my decision on the idea that an attic is sometimes unfinished and staining to me gave too much finishing. Also some of the components may have been stained prior to the kit shipping to me. I left those ‘as is’ except on the back wall on the shingled side. I painted the roof trim as stain didn’t seem to match up with my painted roof and siding.
- I painted my roof and painted the siding I made.
Here is my finished project:
Happy miniaturing!
Preble
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