Imagination Suites - NAME OLHP TNP

Imagination Suites

The Thursday Night Project (TNP) for the NAME Online Houseparty (OLHP) May 2019

Refer to prior post for more details on the OLHP, but for the TNP, keep reading.

I was on the committee so I had a sneak peek at this project before it was available. So once it was available, I knew I wanted to buy this kit.

I was a small amount confused when I opened THE BOX and found the package without instructions, but then I remembered that they would be included on the website. We were supposed to have to wait until Thursday, but somehow we cajoled our way to getting them on Wed. I printed mine out and looked it over.
I'm glad I had reviewed them before I was ready to work on it. We chatted about it in a special chat on Thursday night. 
Because the instructions weren't as clear I would prefer, when it said to paint all the basswood pieces black, I didn't. I waited to see where they were going and what was glued. I didn't see the point of painting if I didn't need to. Plus I might want it not painted anyway.
When I do a kit like this I do sand at the connector spots. Try as I might I never trim close enough for my perfectionist nature.
When I paint, I like to do one coat, sand, then a second coat and maybe sand again. I use fine sandpaper or a piece of sanding cloth I was given many years ago. It is very fine.

Others were having the same questions I did. Like which pieces are what? So once I started I took some pics to help. Let's start with those.

Pieces

 This piece contains the Back counter and Cabinet pieces

The bottom left is the front. Bottom right are three spacers.
Middle long piece is the counter top of basswood (there is a veneer countertop as well.
The top pieces in upper right corner: two horizontal and two vertical are the cabinet.

This is for the Front Counter and nothing else.

Two top left are the front and back of this counter. Spacers to the upper right.
Bottom is the basswood counter top. The narrow long piece is a baseboard for the front. It will go on top of the veneer for the front.
To the right middle are some braces.

Veneer for front of the front counter. I installed mine like is pictured (the deeper portion to the bottom).

 These are the two veneer counter tops - top is for the front, bottom for the back.

Spacers for the wall

 Spacers for the floor

I think that covers everything but the cabinet insert and the lights. I will show those later.

Floor

On Facebook a fellow miniaturist said they used the pillow box the TNP accessories were in for her floor. I really liked that idea.
I started by cutting it into strips 1/4 inch wide. I used a photo chopper I have. It has 1/4 inch markings so I marked on the left and just moved that mark over each time.

I have already cut several strips and that mark is at the 2 and 1/4 inch. At this point I was thinking I would cut 1/4 x 1/4 inch squares. Oh boy! I cut up one strip and decided I would try something else. I'm not crazy.

I started gluing them side by side and alternating them. But there was very little difference just making them go the other way. So I removed some. Then cut more from the box, but cutting them in the opposite direction (vertical instead of horizontal).
Once the strips are all glued down, I flipped it gold and black side down. I used my knife to trim to the shape of the floor.

There is a bit of a zigzag pattern going on. But I wanted the look of squares. So I lined up the floor with my rulers and with my mat. Then used the long ruler to cut against. I only cut two or three times per line. I wasn't cutting the floor just the gold and black flooring.
It isn't easy to see but I do have holes for the wires.

So here it is with all the lines scored and I am assembling the base of the floor.
The placement of the spacers wasn't critical, but I did choose to glue my center spacer towards the front leaving a gap in the back.

I was planning ahead for the push button. I decided that I could add a support to the spacer by just cutting from the extra it came from. More on this later.

Back Counter

This went together very easily. Back view that won't show in my project.

I painted the basswood countertop black. Later realized the veneer went on top of it.

For both veneer counter tops, I left the tops plain. I painted the underside black and the edges gold.

Front Counter

I had some confusion on this. I glued the front veneer to the back counter front. But I realized quickly and  it was easy to remove.

At the top of this picture above is the  front counter assembly. The one at the bottom was the back and what I had to remove the veneer from. (Note how the back counter is taller. That gap of veneer at the bottom made sense to me looking at the pictures in the instructions. But that is not how it is supposed to work.) There is another narrow basswood piece that goes on the veneer on the front.

So here is the glue I had to sand off and repaint the back counter. 

In the above pic, front counter's veneer countertop at the top, basswood countertop in the center,  then the front counter assembly with the front counter veneer in place. (See no gap at the bottom.)

 To paint the spacers, I glued them to this card.

When I glue them to the counter, the long side by the 14 will go to the under the counter top. Make sure they all are glued the same way.

Here is the front counter all assembled. Note the narrow baseboard added to the front bottom. I also painted a logo in my 3 squares. More on that with the lights.

Cabinet

This cabinet is a cubby hole. The instructions said to use the grey tile printie piece, but that confused me so I actually assembled the grid from the black thin card first. It helped me determine whether the horizontal pieces glued inside or outside the the vertical ones. They go inside the vertical pieces.

Yes, there's my handy gluing jig I got from 'Smaller Than Life'. I love it.

I found that the grid was slightly larger than the cabinet pieces. So I trimmed every so slightly on both the horizontal and verticals to avoid them bending. I just kept testing until they fit without bending.

They are not glued in. Just inserted.

For the backing I decided on a gold paper I had. I also added some gold edging.

Wall and Lights

The wall has three pieces plus the spacers.

I cut out the clock and glued to the back of the wall veneer.

I glued the wall veneer to white piece with holes and inserted in between a stack of books to let it dry overnight.

Meanwhile I glued the spacers to the other white wall piece as pictured in the instructions. I also worked on the lights to be ready to put them all together. 

When I read thru the instructions at the beginning I was confused about how the lights could be assembled with adding wires to walls beforehand. It is because these LED's are so tiny they fit through the hole in the Light backing.

I should have assembled the wood portions, then painted. Not that this was a bad idea. Just that the ends of the long pieces needed painting. But it needed assembled and also sanded. Then I had to touch up the paint.

I did not like the idea of the red pieces of paper for the light shades so I cut mine of white paper from the instructions. I am using the metal of this tool to shape the shade rather than fold it. Not the ball end, but the shank. Just rub against your finger to gently shape.

Here, I have assembled the light base and added the white paper. I wanted the black to show at the top. I tried some lace paper over it but then came up with this logo idea, that I loved.

I painted the paper gold. Then used a 20/0 liner brush to add my logo. IS for Imagination Suites.

Clock - Along in here I soaked one of the wiggle eyes. I was told they would come apart. Mine didn't. Maybe I wasn't patience enough. I used my craft knife to carefully cut apart. Then I still had to trim with scissors to get it to fit. At this point I should have also added the black clock trim. When I did add it and glued it down, I thought I should add gold edging. But no, I'm not crazy.
Only later I decide I needed to. So I cut the outer portion from the black extra and laid it in place to protect the wood as I added the gold trim. Yes, I am a little crazy.

I inserted the LED's in place as suggested. But on the back, I glued paper to hold the wires in place. Maybe unnecessary but I prefer this.

Next was gluing the back wall to the front wall - which is just were the wall spacers are. I let that dry for awhile before this next picture. (I do jump from area of a project to the other if I need to wait on paint or glue to dry, but for this blog post, I am not skipping around.)

 Just about to glue the wall to the floor.

Glued to the floor and I added the clamps just to be sure the floor didn't curl at the ends. Wires were pulled snuggly to go under the floor and the one set of wires was pulled around the front of the center spacers so both my sets of wires were on the same side (right side when facing the back).

The light covers were added.  I had pretested putting the light covers over the pico size LED's and they went on fine. I did mark the back to make sure I was at the same height before gluing them on.

I soldered my wires and made sure that the battery holder would go in to the left when facing the back.

Next I added the black around the base. It wasn't long enough to go around the entire base. I was a little disappointed at that, although I understand why. The idea was to leave the opening for the battery. 

I glued it around flush to the bottom edge and then trimmed with scissors against the flooring. 

I added the narrow black piece against the wall edge. But I did not trim against the wall. I liked the 'shelf' like look.

Then I painted the name on the front. Added the gold along all the black edges. 

Battery door and push button

The push button fits against the extra spacer piece I added. I did add another thin piece at the top in the hole to further help hold it in place (this was also from scraps and just to keep the button to the bottom). It isn't tight. The button now slides up against the right side cut out.

The black strip fit around with extra 1/4 inch on the left and half of the right side. I did trim it to be same height as the base.

I added the gold and black piece over the black just to have the same look on both sides of the back. I could have used black instead of the gold and black. 

On the left, the gold and black piece is glued to the flap of black, then a foam core piece was cut to fit between the floor and the bottom and a gap for the wire going into the push button.

I used a regular size hole punch. Cut the gold and black piece in half right at the spot. Although in gluing I was a little off.

I've since painted the button gold using a paint marker.

I may yet add something to the back over the white. Probably something about this being the TNP.

Trolley

The trolley instructions were great.

First, I love these wheels. Laser cutting is great. Just wasn't two sided.

I only made a few tweaks.

When I assembled the two B pieces, I cut a slight angle so they would be flush to the A piece at the top.

When I added the G pieces, I also cut them at an angle so they fit better.

I painted mine all gold except the base and the top circles.

I glued the two larger circles to the card down flat. The third smaller piece has a flat side and I glued this to the card for painting. Then painted and added my gold edging. I had learned from my clock mistake to add the gold now. I use the knife to remove and also clean up any extra glue or paint.

To the smallest piece I added the IS logo but it wasn't the best painting.

Accessories

There were several accessories provided in the gold and black box. 

I only used 3 of the keys (I painted the keys gold and the tag black, added the gold edging and IS logo), not the vases, but I did use the bell, book and the telephone.

I also assembled some of the souvenirs to go here as well.

I made my own sign and notes. That one box has so many notes for the committee who is plumb tired (haven't even checked their mailbox yet) after this great houseparty. For me, they represent all the sweet notes that MiniB and I have been getting. You are welcome!

RaggedySue - let me try the bell.

SarahB - I love the old phone.

MiniB - this trolley is super neat.