I had to trim the roofs a little because they were protruding through the interior of the dormers. Don’t be scared to trim as you have to. The roofs are easily cut with scissors. Your goal is to make everything look right and if cutting something to size in order to achieve that goal is necessary, then go for it.
Putting in the dormer roofs is no easy task. It takes a lot of dry fitting and trimming until they fit just right. Make sure that they are perfect before you glue them down. The thing about the roofs is that they will have gaps. It is unavoidable but since I’m covering them over with sandpaper, it didn’t make a difference to me. In fact, I recommend to everyone that builds this dollhouse to choose a material, whether it's sandpaper or copper, to cover the dormer roofs with because no matter how well you put on these roofs and windows, you will always have gaps. Putting roofing material over them, hides everything. So even if you decide to not cover any other roof on this dollhouse, do cover the dormer roofs. It makes everything easier and look so much nicer. If you decide to use sandpaper, remember that you can always paint it to match your color scheme. You do not have to use sandpaper in its original color.
The sandpaper for the dormers did not require hot glue. They are in an arc shape which the sandpaper stays down on. It won't lift stubbornly like on the bay roofs. I glued them with tacky glue right over the wooden dormer roofs. I made sure that all gaps were hidden. This takes patience and constant dry fitting. In the end it's well worth the work.
I also covered the interior of the dormer roofs as well with sandpaper. This covered up any gaps or anything else that might be visible from the inside of the dollhouse. It makes such a big difference in the end. So remember, cover your dormer roofs both inside and out, to get a nice clean and finished look.
The dormer window interior trims are kind of wide. They hardly cover the edges of the window, which is what you want, in order to hide any unsightly gaps, etc. What I did was cut them in half at the top. Then I snipped away until they were much narrower once joined. Now they cover the dormer window edges well. The tops where the joint is, is visible, but the reason why I
didn’t bother trying to hide it with a lot of sanding and wood filling, is because I will be adding a decorative wooden piece there to hide that joint. If you aren’t, then remember to make that seam flush when butted up together so you can't see it.
I finished shingling the two sides of the mansard roof. I did it the same way as I did the fronts. I made a paper template and glued the shingles to it, then I glued the shingled template to the roof.
I also finally finished all of the siding. I sided the left tower wall which is tightly close to the roof. I had to spackle all the gaps in my chimney and fix a trim piece that seemed like it shifted while the glue dried. The glue dries so hard, I had to chisel it out and then glue it back straight. I had to use a lot of spackle to make the chimney right and I still need like I might have to go over it again, once I’m done building the entire dollhouse.
I applied roof trim right next to the chimney but that was the last piece I had. I have to order more before I can continue with that. I have also run out of sandpaper for the roofs so I have to get more of that as well. I put together the cellar window.
I began preparing the brackets. After punching out the pieces from the sheets, count them carefully. The best way to get them organized is to count out the large middle pieces. These are the ones that will help you know how many brackets you really have because they aren’t repeated, they are just one piece. For instance, there are 38 large middle pieces for the mansard and tower roofs. That means you will end up with 38 brackets once they are laminated together with other pieces. The same for the porch. There are 6 large middle pieces, that means the porch has 6 long brackets in total. This will help you not get the side pieces confused and you end up with too much or too little amount of brackets. After you separated the large middle pieces, everything left goes on the sides. Since both sides of the large pieces are laminated by the smaller ones, you should have double the amount of smaller sides as you do of large middles. The porch has 6 brackets so you should have 12 sides. The mansard and tower has 38 so that’s 76 sides.
Count them out, bag them separately and do each wall at a time versus all together so you don’t confuse yourself. Sand them lightly with an Emery board if they need to be sanded. If they don’t, leave them. I did the porch first. I painted all the large middle pieces a light brown and the sides dark brown so that when they are laminated, I have brackets with a stripe down the middle. After I did the porch, I did the front left wall and then it's side, etc. One wall at a time only. Read the instructions to make sure you put the right number of brackets on each wall or you will end up with not enough brackets to continue.
