Quarter Scale Coaching Inn

Updated 8/28/2021 with new shops I've noticed: I have been afraid to start on this post because it means going back through SO MANY posts and Pinterest pins and who knows what else, but I also know it's something I can do because I can recall how difficult it was to find items when I was looking to source everything I needed for this project. So this is as complete a list as I can make it, which means it's probably not complete at all...there are certainly shops missing where I just forgot where I got things or purchased one item from an Etsy or eBay store. I hope it will still be helpful to folks, though! Shops are generally listed under the category where I got the most items from but if I got a lot from several categories they are cross-listed. I've also included some web sites that have been on my radar or used for other projects even if I didn't use them for this one. They're  noted as such. These are all 1:48 scale or O Scale unless otherwise noted. Please...

In all my work to get the coaching inn done, I neglected to post the last building here! That's the coach house, and in some ways it's the one that had the longest journey. This was the only item that was a rehabilitation rather than a scratch build. I bought it on eBay and it was in pretty sorry shape when I got it. The photo below shows it after an initial sanding and removing all of the windows and doors. After that it got the same exterior stone as the small stables , done in clay rather than polyfilla as I preferred for the later buildings. The clay just dried too quickly and it felt like a stressful race against time! Plus it was never entirely under control as to how much the clay would shrink. Like the other ground floors, it also got a flagstone floor, shown here in progress: Since it is a carriage house I knew I wanted to put some sort of carriage inside, but I ran into a real challenge in that the stagecoach I'd intended to put inside didn't fit! I'd also...

 I had to take a big break on the coaching inn project to do a couple of Christmas projects, so it's only been lately that I've gotten back to this one. Which was a bit of a shame as I was *almost* done, but then again I didn't want to rush this one, given I've been working on it for years. I got the rest of the houses in and wired, and did a lot of gravel work to lay that down. Then really the last thing to do was to put in the details...lots of animals, baggage for the yard, and other items. Except for the horses, the animals are from mini-gems . The wooden trunk and gold bird cage are from Petworth Miniatures , while most trunks and barrels are either from Skytrex or S&D Models . The pump and trough are from Herdwick Landscapes . The hand cart in the yard is from Petite Properties , with a basket from Stewart Dollhouse . The stagecoach in the yard is an old Tally-Ho stagecoach and horses kit; since I already had the Matchbox stagecoach and horses out front I jus...

One thing I hadn't initially been thinking about is the big space that was going to be made when I joined the two Butterwick Houses together . I decided rather than do more bedrooms or other living spaces that I should make them storage spaces, and I had a lot of fun with doing them, going so far as to go all the way back through my stash of items and find some items that I didn't think I was going to use anywhere else, to get rid of them, so to speak. It also let me use the giant hutch from Seaside Miniatures that I didn't think would fit anywhere. I don't think I can log up every single piece of furniture but here are some of the big ones: the butcher shop items (which I displayed as a sort of "larder" on the bottom floor) were from Just Quarters ; the butter churn you see above and the open barrels were from Stewart Dollhouse ; other barrels and metal parts were from S&D Models , but the chain, hook, and some other metal items were from Narrow Gau...

So if it seems like I've abandoned this project, I haven't...I've just been working and working without completing much of anything. That's because I've been on the joining of the two Butterwick houses to create the gallery for months now. But now it's done! This was a complex process, albeit mostly executed by me flying by the seat of my pants. It was all done with pieces of wood cut to mostly fit and then glued into place, with liberal amounts of Crackshot to even things out and fill in the gaps, and also some landscaping mesh to fill in on the back part of the roof. Rather than try to explain it all, though, I'll just share my photos, which I think do a better job of this! The one thing I did not do that I should have is draw a substantial line up the center groove of the roof. I ended up going off kilter as I went along laying tiles, so a bit of "surgery" was needed. Thi...