Making haste slowly

I've spent two days trying to make a quarter scale cauldron. Do not try this at home. Aaaaagh!! Having come to the point of whimpering 'life's too short for this . . .' I got out some 1:48 kits and relaxed by putting this furniture together.
They're next to a 1:12 scale chair :) It's surprising how quickly you get used to working with smaller scale - it was a real shock to hold the huge 1:12 chair, lol.

The gothic chair is from Karen Cary's Miniatures. I stained it with a mix of two parts raw umber and one part raw sienna acrylic paint. This was diluted with two parts water, painted on and then wiped off with a rag. The dilution means that you can repeat the application if you want to change the depth of colour. I used a piece of leather for the cushion.

The bench kit is from The Quarter Source. It's stained with a mix of one part raw umber to two parts raw sienna, applied in the same way, to look like newer oak wood.

Both kits are great - good instructions and fun to make :)
And here is the kitchen so far. I've aged the floor a bit, and added soot stains to the wall. The ash pile on the stove top is made of a mix of coarse texture gel, PVA glue, pale grey paint, and a few bits of larger texture (I used dried chopped rosehips - smells nice too!). After making the little pile, I grated chalk onto the wet mix and let it dry. It helps to mask the rest of the room when you do this to stop the chalk accidentally being rubbed in anywhere. When it's dry, rub the chalk into the pile and shake the rest off

More things I'm learning about quarter scale -
* don't cut your fingernails too short, you'll need all the help you can get, to pick things up!
* don't drink too much coffee!!! Even a little jitter is horribly magnified
* get the very best tweezers you can find, and keep them thoroughly clean
* keep all bits in a container - they get lost very easily
* anything wrong with a mini will definitely show up in a photo - I just enlarged the pic of the chairs, and the leather cushion looks like a slice of cheesecake, lol :D

Still enjoying it!

Glenda