Always shingle the roof panel where your dormer is going to go first. Then glue on the dormer. It makes for cleaner joints between roof and dormer and less need to use wood filler.
I assembled the chimney, painted it and installed it. You can basically cover the chimney with brick or stone printies or you can use real mortar and bricks.
I finished shingling the dollhouse. These roofs are simple to shingle because there aren't any difficult angles. The only area that you will have some difficulty with is the roof with the chimney. I made the template to fit around the chimney and it worked pretty well. Using templates to shingle your roofs is really the best thing you can do. I decided to just use varnish on the shingles and leave them their natural color, just like they are on the box photo.
I installed the dormer.
I installed the top roof trim. Remember to paint all parts before assembly. A good way to apply touch up paint later is to use masking tape along the bottom edge of the installed trim to protect your shingles and then painted the trim well. When you remove the masking tape, your shingles will be spared and you will have a very nice neat line of paint on your trim edges.
I used stainable wood filler in several areas around the roof. The stainable wood filler is basically identical in color to the shingles.
I also didn't use the shingles that came with the dollhouse. They were square shaped and since they came in sheets, I would have had to pop them loose from each other. I really didn't want to go through all of the trouble so I used some loose, octagon shaped shingles I had on hand. I like the shape more for this style dollhouse.
The entire interior of the dollhouse has to be trimmed in order to give it a nice clean look. I trimmed all along the floors with balsa wood strips. I then trimmed all of the ceilings with dowels.
The attic required the most work. I needed to trim out the entire opening for the dormer, on the side and front walls. I added little wood caps where the trims meet for a little more architectural interest. Trim not only finishes the dollhouse and makes it look beautiful on the interior, it also strengthens every joint.
I then had to trim all of the back edges of the walls and floors. I added the two decorative finials to the gable peak backs.
Since I'm delivering this dollhouse without a base and I'm not sure what my sister is going to display it on, I decided to put little felt pads along the base so it doesn't scratch whatever surface it's placed on. You can find felt pads anywhere that sells furniture gliders, etc.
Once the dollhouse was delivered, my sister and her husband were two happy campers with their new dollhouse.
