The front of the Turret House has a patch of fishscale shingles that I wasn’t sure what to do with. They’re neatly applied, but the sides need some sort of trim. I’m sure whoever put this house together had a vision for how to finish this area but without knowing what they intended, I had to improvise.
I thought about adding porch posts, but the one on the right interferes with the window.
A Tiny Turnings stick worked a little better, but I didn’t really like the look of this (and it still bumped into the window).
The space on the right is only 3/16″ wide — not a standard trim size. I looked through my stash to see what I had that I could use, and found this running trim that I’d bought for the Victorianna and ended up not using. With the points cut off, it’s 3/16″.
And it’s thin enough that the window doesn’t bump it.
Here’s what I came up with.
As you can see, the paint is a bit rough at the bottom where I couldn’t get the paintbrush completely under the shingles.
I decided to cover the bottom edge with quarter round.
The cutouts on the modified roof trim gave me an opportunity to add more gold accents, so I painted the areas behind that trim gold before gluing it on.
A few weeks ago I’d painted these pieces — the red is quarter round to clean up the seams in the bay window, and the gold is for the front edge of the porch roof.
Here’s how the gold trim looks.
I added 1:12 crown molding to the peak above the door. The decorative piece is a 1:12 center bracket (intended to go upside-down on a porch spandrel).
I’ve been holding on to these gold brackets for a while. Miniatures.com sells them as bookends, but at 1/2″ tall, they’re a good size for 1:24 corbels.
I glued them in above the fishscale shingles. I can’t decide if they’re too overwhelming.
Next I glued in the quarter round pieces between the bay window panels, and around the bottom edge of the bay window and fishscale shingles.
I’m not sure what else I could have done with the shingled area, but it turns something into a focal point that maybe shouldn’t be a focal point…? I don’t know if I like it, but it’s hard to see the big picture right now. More trim is coming, so I’ll reserve judgment.
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
I like it. I think it compliments the turret, and it will be good transition to the bay window area. Nice work!
Looks good! How about some kind of sun or decoration in the center of that shingled area? Love the colors and the brackets look great!
I like how it looks…though maybe a few less corbels at the top? It’s very busy at the moment. I love it, I just feel overwhelmed with detail when I look at the front of the house.
The colors are awesome though!
Tough call. I think I would paint over the vertical gold strips and trims with red. Then the detail is there but it doesn’t stand out and “frame” the area. Leave the gold and blue horizontal trim at the top of this section and consider more of the bookend corbels to go all the way around the bay overhang on this level.
Love the house!
We are always our own worst critic. What we love, others will question and what we don’t like, others with love, so in the end if we build for ourselves we do what makes us happy. The detail that you are adding gives so much character to house; it really is lovely.
I think it looks great! The colors are fun and bold. My thoughts on the bookend/corbels, I would use less in the area over the fishscale shingles, maybe only 3 or 4 of them, and use the others on the bay window overhang to tie it all together. No matter what you decide, it will look great!