Slow and steady wins the race (or so I hear)

Gah, I hate trim. Especially on giant 1:12 dollhouses. But the Hillside Victorian’s going to be a beauty when it’s done…

I spent countless hours this weekend working on the embossed trim for the eaves. I started by painting the pieces I cut last weekend.

Initially I planned to leave it white. But the embossed design wasn’t as well defined on some parts of the trim than others, which turned out to be very noticeable once the trim was all white, and I thought painting it could help with that. Using a small chisel brush, I painted the flower portions with the dark blue accent color.

Then I painted the curvy lines around the flowers gold.

And finally, I filled in the little flowers between the big flowers, also with the navy blue. For four pieces of trim, the entire process took about four hours.

Up close there are a lot of imperfections. But from a distance I think it looks pretty good. And hey, it’s hand-painted! Can’t expect it to be perfect. Here’s how it looks on the house (not glued in yet).

I hate sloppy paint jobs (which is why I’m going nuts with trim in the first place) and normally the not-perfectness of this hand-painted trim would bug the crap out of me, but for some reason it doesn’t. It’s something you’re going to look at from afar, not scrutinize up close. (And those who do, and notice the imperfections… well, screw those guys!)

I’ve also started trimming the edges of the siding. I tried to add trim to the far left edge that meets the side of the house but couldn’t get it to look nice, so instead I filled the gap with wood filler and painted it. It’s not perfect but it’ll do. (Below photo is before adding paint!)

On the other bay window corners, I added thin strips of basswood to hide the seams.

And… that’s about it. Lots of trim to do, still, but some progress is better than no progress at all…