Dancing Dragon Inn - Week Fourteen

It's another week with not much to report progress wise. The Inn's roof has been given about four layers of paint. I decided to try for a earthen tile/terracotta colour. I haven't quite got the colouring right yet, so there will be at least one or two more layers of paint to go until I'm happy with it. You can also easily see in the photos many patches that are still white where I've managed not to get paint. In my defence most of these are invisble to the naked eye and most of the rest are under the wonky ridge capping that still needs glueing down properly. Once this is done, the exterior will be finished, barring a few little details like covering the orange paint under the eaves and tidying up a few bits and pieces. Hopefully by Christmas I'll be able to start working on the insides again.

Australia Post have set some speed records this week, delivering both my purchase from Fairy Meadow Miniatures and the delightful giveaway prize from Linda at http://lindasminiaturehappenings.blogspot.com/ after only a few days.  The reason for this amazing speed is probably because they work seven day weeks in December and maybe hire extra workers to cope with the Christmas rush.  I have to wonder if they can do it in December, why not be so efficent all year round?  Anyway, here is a picture of the lovely little things from Linda:

Thanks so much Linda, I just love every piece.  I hate to say this but despite the fact that they are gorgeous, I don't think I can use them in the Inn.  They're just the wrong style for it, so rather sadly I'm going to have to store them away until next time.  On the plus side I do have an idea for which they will be perfect, I just have to get around to doing it.

The two kits from Fairy Meadow Miniatures arrived early Monday morning.  I should mention that I was wrong earlier when I said I'd bought DHE kits made in England.  Boldly printed on the boxes was "Made in Thailand".  Silly me assuming an English company would have it's products made in England.  That makes them very well travelled houses - from Thailand to England to Sydney to Tasmania.  I spent Monday evening eagerly opening up the boxes and ticking off the contents to make sure all the bits and pieces were there.  I started with The Retreat and found all the bits were not only there, but easily identified. 

The Stratford Bakery was another matter, despite the smaller parts being separated into bags marked bag 1, bag 2, etc, and the list of contents listing the contents bag by bag.  The problem was that a lot of the pieces all look the same, some varying only very slightly from others.  The most worrying part is that when all the contents were checked off as present, there were still half a dozen unidentified items out of bag two that bore no resemblance to anything in the diagrams.  Are they extra pieces that shouldn't be there or are they necessary parts not listed in the contents?  I guess I'll find out when I do a dry build.  For now both kits have been squeezed into a cupboard until after Christmas when I will hopefully find the time to dry build them and take some measurements.  Then they'll be going away again until after I finish the Inn.  Maybe.  I could probably make room to work on the Retreat along side the Inn, it's only small after all . . . . . . .

And to add a little bit of seasonal cheer, here's a photo of how my present wrapping and decorating is going.  I'm quite pleased with the boxes.  They were painted red, green and white and then had fabric pasted over them.  The bows however are all wrong and at this rate are going to be replaced with dull shop bought bows.