Little Trimmings

Small-scale haberdashery for the miniaturist and doll-maker

McQueenies Miniature Gypsy Caravan Workshop - July 2011

Christine spent a couple of days with the McQueenies at a workshop near Leicester building her Gypsy Caravan kit.


Here are the photographs of the how the project is coming along
(updates at the bottom of the page)

The carcass The first stage was to attach the stable door to the front panel, then construct the caravan body The sides, front and back panels are all in place, and glued together on the base. The pieces went together like a dream.	Roof starts Next were gluing in place the fancy frills and other extra bits, porch floor and seats (which I forgot to photograph in progress). Then onto the roof, the arches in place and the roof planks are glued in place one by one.
Roof all done Here is the main roof and the roof vent panel all planked, and well sanded until nice and smooth all over. (yes I know you can't see that from the photo - but they are)	Undercarriage done - and ready for painting Again I was getting on enjoying myself so much that I forgot to take regular photos. Here shows the stage I got to after the 2 day workshop. The undercarriage was put together, the horse bar rounded off by sanding. With the basic construction done, it's now ready for the painting (interior and exterior) and the internal furniture.
Furniture Some of the furniture (all part of the kit), along with the steps and chicken coops with their first coats of paint - ready for the next stage of fancy paintwork.	A Finished caravan (not mine!) This is the beautiful caravan made by another student from an earlier workshop. She did a brilliant job, adding to the basic carcass with decorative stick- ons and fancy paint work. My photo really does not do it justice, but it gives you an idea of what can be achieved.
August 2011 - Started painting Finally started painting the inside and outside of the caravan shell. Window frames and shutters have had a base coat, and the roof paintwork has been started. Plus I bought a couple of books on painting Bargeware. So hoping to use the techniques to decorate parts of the caravan.
More pictures to come as I find the time to progress with this project.