Half Scale Inn
 And now for something completely different......
         I don't usually work in half scale but I do offer some of my kits in that scale. Of course that means I have to make a sample to make sure the kit works. So now I have several half scale pieces of furniture and really  no place to put them. You can see where this is going.
          Several years ago Ian Jopson in the UK very kindly sent me the vintage plans for a half scale coaching inn.  The plans were very fragile as they came out of a 1938 copy of Hobbies magazine but I love Tudor and the building was such an interesting design that I really wanted to make one.
In 2016, we stayed in The George Inn in Norton St Philips, just down the road from the Hungerford- Farleigh Castle. I just fell in love with this building and it is so much like the miniature that  I want to use some of the details from the actual inn in my half scale one.  But mine is going to be a private residence. Not so many zoning bylaws to follow that way.

 This has been on my 'to do' list, at the very bottom, for some time now and this winter seemed like the perfect time to start it.
 After all I only have Bishop's Chicago show, Kensington, Sturbridge, the Ontario Gathering and the Montreal show to get ready for in the next 2 months.
I convinced myself that this would be my  recreation and escape from 'work'. LOL


         The first hurdle was figuring out the plans. The paper was not only fragile but I think they made the pattern confusing just so you would give up and order the nice pre-cut kit that they advertised. As this was in 1938, I doubt the kit is still available but Always Hobbies web site does have reprinted copies of the plans listed .
There were few actual measurements and only a rough suggestion of where each wall should go. The inn was not really meant to be a dollhouse either but a enclosed structure so no second story floors or ways to open the building were shown and the instructions just basically said; "cut the roof parts to fit the gables"  I do love a challenge.

I think I have cut each wall at least twice as I try to figure out what will work. I'll worry about the roof later. Then there is the hinges or no hinges decision for closing it in. The original plans had solid fixed walls everywhere. And then wiring. I confess I love the look of lights but I am so impatient get the interiors finished that I hate to wait while I route wiring so it is often not as well planned as it could be. We'll have to see how that goes.

The measurements that are given are a bit off for half scale so I used them as merely suggestions. As it is the rooms will be quite small. I did add two additions to the back to give more room for furniture. After all that was my excuse for making this in the first place; a display for the half scale furniture kits.

 I love the way the windows have turned out and the floors are quite nice. I have to recut a couple of walls as I keep changing the design as it goes along but the basic floor plan is set and the floors have been stained and varnished.

Here is the basic shell with the front walls just propped up . It is coming along nicely  and I will post some interior pictures once I get more ready.