the long road...

Chieftains Lodge- putting the lid on

So it has been a while since my last update sorry about that.

But to make up for it this should be quite an eventful one as I have managed to get quite a lot done. 

First things first I finished off the project from the last blog  by adding the magnets to the front of the Lodge  though oddly these magnets had holes in the middle. After them pulling themselves out once I think they are firmly in place now.

after a bit of working out and checking the instructions a few times I managed to fix the roof together. Although I did have to break one side apart as I managed to glue the support right on a place where one of the large poles on the inside of the Lodge sits. But after that I am fairly happy with how it sits. 

the interior with roof on, you can see how close a fit the support it to the  walls. Also you can see here the side with the newly added magnets with the holes in 

in order to straighten out the totems I had to leave them in boiling water then bend them to shape by hand. However some of them did bend back slightly but I don't think it is that noticeable 

the mocked up Lodge with totems blu tacked in place. also the chimney was added but I think quite a bit of milliput will be needed where the roof meets the chimney as in order to get the parts of the roof to sit where I want them to I have had to almost perch the chimney on top. 

I was not sure about how to attach the totems while still making them  easily removable and  so that the Lodge could be stored in as small a box as possible. Then my girlfriend mentioned using magnets again as I had for the doors your a genius! so I drilled out the bottom of the totem and a bit of the base to fix the magnets on. The result is that they are strong enough to stand alone with or without the roof and that they can all be easily stored. I have yet to get even more magnets to attach the larger totems this way too. 

the front of the Lodge with the totems magnetised and the roof in place 

how we are looking now (big totems held on with blu tack)

a view of the front of the lodge complete with ramp .

 So there you have it some progress has been made. However since putting all the pieces together I have found a few more gaps that require attention and I will have to modify some of the spaces in the corners of the roof where the totems sit as some are too tight and others are too loose and will need even more milliput to fill the gap. 

That said I think it has come a long way from the two boxes of stuff I opened on xmas day, who knows one of these days I may even get some paint on it (only if I stop playing with milliput and decide it is ready) 

Jason 

an attractive prospect...

Chieftains Lodge- fixing the doors 

So after attempting to hold the front door and rear wall on with some magnetic tape I went in search of some steel washers as i have had better success with this in the past what I found were some VERY powerful small magnets while exploring Clas Olsen in town this is how the first side turned out.

adding the milliput for my fist attempt paid off as it gave me an extra thick surface to drill into to sink the magnets I had to use a lot of super glue and milliput as these magnets were so strong the could attract through an inch worth of table as you can see things got a bit messy  

on the door itself i had to drill into the resin and wanted to get the two faces of the magnets to be as flush as  possible 

after leaving the milliput to dry SUCCESS and the magnets dont try to pull away from the glue either
it wont fall off during play now  

here is a shot from the side showing how much milliput I had to add to get the magnet to stay in place
I have yet to add more to try and hide the magnets completely  but i am please with how it came out 

this side was a bit more tricky as the wall was slightly miss cat and I only had half the surface to attach the magnet compared with the other side but milliput to the rescue again 

and here are the magnets I used a bit pricey at about £5 but worth it i had to buy another packet for the other side but i am glad i did the rear first so the front should turn out even better

So there we have it one end of the lodge magnetised, i have been looking at the roof and am still struggling to see how I will fit it all together but where there's a will (and a lot of milliput) there's a way 

Jason  

Coming Together...

Chieftains Lodge- Making it all fit

So after a few hours of adding yet more milliput to the lodge to make it all fit together this is what we have...

the over all view of how all the gaps look now, you may notice the white marks on each bit which I added so that I knew where I wanted them all to line up to make it easier to know which bit to fill 

a picture of one of the bits i had to carve off before to make it fit , it came out ok I think, i also had to fill in a gap on the roof as it was a bit lower on one side (amazing what you can do with a knife and a cocktail stick)  

one of the ends which I had to build up to make fit I have also added milliput to the ends of the walls so I can sand them flat to glue the magnets on (also note the shot glass I am using for water to smooth over the milliput not sure it is how my sister intended me to use it but at least I found a use for it) 

some major work was needed at this joint as i did hack away rather a lot  to get them to sit flush not sure about  how the big blob at the bottom will look painted but only one way to find out 

not a lot of work needed here aside from adding the milliput to the ends  ready for sanding

very little work needed on the inside of the lodge 

same here aside from at the very edge

is quite a big difference here compared to when we started all the green here is what I have built up 

so there we have it, sorry it has been a few days since the last update but I think I may have already beaten my record for updates in a row compared to my last blog so I think that is a win.

Next up the roof which I have kind of been dreading as there is no obvious way to put it all together also like the main body of the lodge I want to build it into 3 separate parts for easy transport so watch this space

Jason    

the saga continues

Bringing it all together

Not much to report this time just some snaps of the bits put together I have yet to fill in the gaps with milliput but the gaps came out better than I expected.

The next post will be more in depth and I am not sure how this one will be as I am using the app instead of the site

Jason

taking shape...

Chieftains Lodge- the build up

Nearly a whole box of milliput later and here is what we have...

my plan is to put the whole thing together in stages this stage is trying to get the front half and  back half to mate up neatly here i have added a lot of milliput to the seam so that when it dries they will be snug. also here you can see where I have added an extra bit to the wall as the casting was off a bit here 

here is the front of the lodge where i have filled in the gap under the door way and added the magnetic strips ready for the door

the rear section needed more work as the edge of the walk way which is now green  was a bit short compared to the other, also there was quite a drop on the floor again now all green so I added extra and made some lines with a cocktail stick so we shall see how that turns out when it is dry 

yep more milliput and a big gap on the walk way so I have added another bit of greenery to it to make up the difference so we shall see how that turns out later

and here are shots of the front door and the rear of the lodge at the moment they are loosely held on with magnets and steel paper but am going to try and find some slim washers to glue on as this will be stronger. with the front doors I had to shave a bit more off to get them to open and close as I feel if the doors can open they should 

so there we have it the first update of 2013 the first of many I hope (new years resolution keep blog updated !!!) 

the next stage will be getting the 2 halves I have put together with each other easier said than done as one half I will need to heat in hot water and bend and the other I will have to hack a bit off to get it to fit well. 

fingers crossed the next update will have it looking like a lodge then to tackle the roof.

happy new year 

Jason