Progress is slow........Tudor walls

Sorry, it seems ages since I last posted something about my roombox. I haven't had much time recently so I have only just finished plastering the walls and then I had a go at a few colour washes to age them (thank you nina!).

The result isn't too bad (sorry it's a bit hard to see in this photo - I really need to work on my photography skills!). I had a couple of hiccups to start with. Firstly making the grey wash too thick and dark and despite immediately watering it down as I hadn't sanded the walls first (another one to remember!) the paint sunk into the ridges and wouldn't dilute!

I then ended up going totally in the opposition direction as I found that if you wet plaster (like with a colour wash) the plaster looks grey and discoloured. When you come back to it after it has dried it looks exactly the same as when you started! I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong but I ended up just kind of slapping it on and hoping for the best when it dried.

I still need to do a bit more 'sooting' up above the fireplace but I think that is more or less it for the walls - if I can ever get the bits of masking tape off that I have managed to plaster to some of the beams (pulling making tape off while the plaster is wet is highly recommended!!!).

Next step - a flagstone floor made from more polyfiller. I'll keep you posted.....

Masking tape - a girls best friend!

My first attempt at plastering the walls wasn't very successful (as you will see from previous posts). It took forever and I ended up getting the plaster filler everywhere. I must admit I had been putting off doing the rest of the walls as I was dreading how long it was going to take and how painstaking it was. Then I had a 'ah ha' moment - masking tape! Why I didn't think of this before I really don't know.

I've had a (tiny) bit of spare time so I grabbed a roll and got masking. I then made up so filler and slapped it on. As I didn't get a chance to all the walls I only peeled of the tape on walls that I had finished. I'm pleased with the result. It's much quicker and neater (in so far as I didn't get as much on the beams), although where I've left the tape on and plastered one side it has started to crack slightly, so when I get a bit more time I really need to finish all the walls in one hit.

Sorry for the short post. I thought I might get a bit more done when the kids were back at school, totally forgetting the fact that if the kids were back at school then I was back at work! Doh!

Walls

I am learning.....fast! I mixed up the wall filler today and not only did I find out that I'd made it too runny (after I started) but I also think that I should have done the walls before I'd glued the wooden beams on! Oh well...live and learn. The end result is, that it is taking me absolutely ages to get the filler on to the walls and right up to the edge of the beams without covering them.

The colour is whiter than I'd imagined as well, so once I've done it all I think I am going to have to learn how to do colour washes to try and tone the white down a bit.

Another thing I have discovered is that the fireplace chimney is not going to look right with just filler on it -

I'm going to go back to the egg boxes I think and follow New England Miniatures Tutorial. This means that I need to sand all the filler off and start again - arrrggghh. Oh well, I did say this was going to be a steep learning curve.

Back to it now... although I think it may be a fair few days until I get the walls finished!