1313 Mockingbird Lane

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Apr 28, 2015
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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxKpMIltZe0[/youtube]

Moving swiftly on.

This time with the 1313 Mockingbird Lane kit from Moebius, which is the 2nd & last kit my wife bought with the £70 I had left from the model fair.

Started off with the brick inserts on the base, glueing them in, one by one.

Then came the spire, which was 1 half & the other half was 4 quarter panels, but Moebius have made a slight error with the number placements.

It states parts 17.16.15 & 14 (in that order) to be glued together, but 16 & 15 will not glue together as they have mounting tabs for 14 to fit into, so 14 should be swapped with 15, so they can go together.

Once that problem was solved, the spire walls went together really easy.

Spire roof was 4 quarter pieces & when placed on top of the bottom hexgonal peice, glued together easily.

Using the base to make sure the peices were aligned for the spire, I did the same when starting the west wing construction.

Front (1) & back (2) walls connected to the wall (13) with a dovetail joint like effect & that made glueing very easy & the short wall (22) was the same too, using electrical tape to hold them together whilst the glue dried.

Once the glue dried on the west wing I test fitted it after I took the tape off & the holes & pegs aligned perfectly.

I then glued the 2 roof side peices onto the west wing assembly & again used electrical tape to hold those down while the glue dried.

Also did another test fit with the roof & that fitted perfectly.

Caught a break in the weather, as it was very mild & dry outside for the one day, as either side days were raining, so I managed to do a lot of priming.

Grey primer for the west wing & once dry I masked off the roof & went with white spray for the walls.

Also primered the sprue parts in grey primer & again white on top for the wall sections.

Now its all primered, im all ready for paint.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSoFgargoz0[/youtube]

Now all the primering is all done, Ive now started on the painting of the house.

Starting with Humbrol Enamel No.7 (Light Buff), I painted all the side panels & around the windows, then with Humbrol Acrylic No.251 (Dark Brown) I painted the roof sections on the spire & west wing buildings.

Took 2 coats of the enamel & once dry I touched up around the windows with white & once dry, I then painted the windows in Humbrol Acrylic No.41 (Ivory) for the off-white effect.

On the spire deck & Marilyn's balcony deck I painted Revell Aquacolor 36188 (Ochre Brown).

Then using the clear n' glaze glue I glued on the insides the window inserts.

Once the glue dried on the inserts, I glued in the railing inserts & the roof onto the spire, along with Marilyn's balcony on the west wing.

Also glueing the painted main roof section onto the west wing & once that was dry, I started on the rest of the loose wall panels.

Using the same colors as stated above, they are all now complete along with the main front porch & front door which I painted in Humbrol Acrylic No.9 (Tan Brown)

Then going onto the base, I used the Humbrol No.26 (Brown) to paint the brickwork inserts, Ochre Brown for the porch deck & Revell Aquacolor 36179 (Greyish Blue) for the steps.

But, on the underneath of the base is hollow with cross-sections, which didnt meet with the top of the edges of the base.

So, when I glue the base to the wooden base I have, it would have only be able to hold around the edges of the house base to the wood.

To combat this, I managed to get a reject sheet plastic safety sign from my work's plastic recycling bin & using a Old El Paso cardboard box to make a template.

Using the template to trace the shape & cutting around with some scissors, I cut the shape into 4 pieces & glued them to the base & its filled the gaps to meet the edges a treat & now gives me a better whole flat surface to the wood base.

All I have to do now is wait for the supplies ive ordered to make the garden & then I can get cracking on with final construction & the garden.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAjGCJhNxNA[/youtube]

After a brief review of the scenery items I ordered online that have all now arrived.

Ive started on the base, glueing the house base to the wood with PVA glue, using clamps & some of my wifes books to hold the base down whilst the glue dried.

The next day I started the final construction of the house, using superglue to hold down the west wing, porch & the spire down, as the porch plate kept tyring to push up from the base.

Once dry I started with the rear & sides of the house, but I had a lot of difficulty trying to get the main back plate & the side plate into the west wing & spire respectively, I had to cut bits away & eventually they slotted into place.

The last 2 plates slotted in fine, but a little gap appeared (which I now since filled with some putty).

Then started the roof, which was 3 parts.

Mansard roof which mounts into a groove at the side of the spire & holding in down with some tape on the back edge, the front section of roof which slides into the grooves on the west wing & the spire & the rear roof which slides on top of the front section & a groove at the rear of the west wing.

I also cut the path from the Tamiya paving sheet & running my knife under the steps so I could get the sheet to slide underneath & glued that down with some clear n glaza & used my wifes books again to hold that down whilst the glue dried.

Its now time to start the garden scenery.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3KOoSdqXXI[/youtube]

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The 1313 Mockingbird Lane (Munster House) diorama is all done.

I finally started on the garden, with the green grass powder from the scenarama kit I bought.

Having to resort to mixing Micro Crystal Clear with water, as the project glue had dried inside the bottle to a silicon sealant consistency & I couldnt get it to re-melt.

Using the empty spray bottle that I got with the kit, I sprayed my solution onto the wooden base & sprinkled the grass powder on top with my fingers & thumb all over, then re-spraying the solution on top of the grass, I left it 24 hours to dry.

Thinking it wouldnt work, the next day my fears had dissapated the grass had dried to a sandpaper like feel, so I started on the other side of the front garden & around the back.

Once everything had dried, I removed the masking tape (for where I was going to place the trees & walls) & placed the completed trees & glued them into place with super glue.

A couple of days before, I used some modelling putty & put some around the base of each tree & kneaded it into some grease-proof paper to create a flat-base root type shape.

Leaving the putty to dry for 24 hours, the trees were now free-standing.

Topping up around the roots of the trees with a little more grass powder, I started on the walls & metal fences.

Humbrol 26 Brown & 9 Tan Brown for the walls & Revell 36190 Silver for the metal fences, I also glued those into place onto the wooden base.

Also I had to cut the gate in half, but using a spare bit of another piece of the fencing, I clipped off one rod & glued it to repair the other half of the gate, to make it complete.

Picking up a tip using Google, I used 4 different types of herbal tea leaves to re-create the fallen dead leaves from the tree around the base of the tree.

Simply mixing Camomile, Lemon & Ginger, Blackcurrant, Raspberry (IIRC) & some normal tea leaves into a shot glass & scattering them around the base of each tree, using the clear solution, I think it has made a great effect with the various colors.

Finishing off the base with some Revell 36179 Greyish Blue, to re-create a pavement, I started on the finishing touches of the house.

I washed the hell out of the house with some Citadel Agrax Earthshade & glueing on the weather vane, TV aerial, chimney pot & spire top.

Im really chuffed on how this has turned out, not bad for my first attempt at a diorama.

Cheers,

Wayne.
 

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