Monday, 29 August 2011

Saxon Houses (how to)

A little article on how I made the saxon houses

Tools needed...some green insulating foam, Matchsticks, some thin woodsheeting (an old drawer bottom) sharp blade, scissors, woodglue, Bailingstring, pins and paint.
Cut the foam into a triangle, cut the doorway out
Cut matchsticks to size and glue into the doorway as the door frame. Make sure they stick out a couple of millimeters above the foam.
The "planks" are made from the bottom of an old drawer, the type that is made up of layers of thin wood. Leave it oustside for a week or so in the rain...then lay it in sunlight...it starts peeling apart, so no unecessary work manually parting each layer. ;-D
Paint the front of the foam triangles dark brown, and glue the "planks" on
When dried, simply trim the "planking" with a good pair of scissors.
Glue the sides on and paint them brown, glue the whole structure to the base. It´s best to paint the inside area of base which the hut covers with dark brown...it´s easier now thantrying to paint through the doorway later
Using thing pieces odf wood glue the above structure on.
When all is dry, cut off finger width sections of bailing string, dab one end in some wood glue and attach using a toothpick or whatever to spread the "sraw" evenly, occasionaly pressing the "straw" into the glue.
Keep going, layer for layer until the above effect is achieved. When it´s all dry, snip the straggly bits of straw off....bit of base decoration...finished!!