Miss Lydia Pickett Cottage Clock – introduction

Your first sneak peek! I plan to make the Miss Lydia Pickett Cottage Clock in 1:12 scale by Robin Betterley’s Miniatures. They used to have kits in 1:12 and 1:24 scales, but now they are exclusively quarter scale and smaller. You can sometimes find the old stock on eBay or etsy, and local mini shows.

This is a laser cut kit with artwork included, but I will likely use my own since I have a few changes in mind. I like that it includes plant stakes just because.  :D

I love Swedish Mora clocks, and if you do a google image search you will find an array of colors and styles. I’ve always been drawn to blue ones, but it can be so striking in black. Since black might overpower in mini, I will opt for blue with some hand painted detailing. I know the kit clock isn’t the traditional shape for the Mora clock, but it lends itself well to modification with that style in mind.

The most tedious part of any laser cut kit is removing the burned edges without altering the size, shape or fit of the pieces. The best way to sand the straight edges is to put a piece of light sandpaper on a flat surface and lightly move the piece over the sandpaper. Keep checking that you aren’t removing too much. If you plan to paint, you don’t have to remove every bit of the soot, just enough to keep it from bleeding through lighter colors. Priming will help as well.

For curves and indentations, I use thin sanding sticks and pieces of folded sandpaper, even sometimes files. You have be especially careful since free hand sanding can remove too much wood if you don’t pay attention.

Back soon…once the sanding is done. Scritch, scritch, scritch…

Categories: Half Clocked
May 10, 2018 | 0 comments