The Easy Cutter Ultimate - a review

Today I got an Easy Cutter Ultimate (from Hobby Builder Supply.)  So that I could finish cutting this:

and turn it into this:

Kitchen Appliances!

My refrigerator looks small next to the massive stove - but it's 5 ft tall in scale!

I got my Aga stove from Scale Designs today!  I'm stoked because now I finally have all my kitchen appliances, and all I have to make are the cabinets (well, at least when it comes to what I have to make structurally, that is...) I have been drooling over this unfinished stove for several months and finally decided that I needed to get it before it was gone. It's made by Rosemarie Torre and is the only 1:24 scale Aga I've seen made in the US and the only one with such exquisite detail. The listing on the website indicated the hood was no longer available so all I would get is the stove, which was fine by me - I was planning to insert the stove into the alcove of the "old" kitchen hearth, so having a hood wasn't really necessary.

Circular Stair - Part 1

Real-life inspiration for my mini-version

The spiral staircase is an elegant, beautiful and utterly silly invention. To be effective as a staircase that allows for a person of average athleticism to travel to a second floor as well as the moving of furniture (otherwise, you'd have to use a crane, rope or other mechanical means to haul your solid oak library desk up over the balcony), it has to take up a lot of floor space.  And if you don't have the floor space, then it becomes a steep incline best assailed by people who climb mountains in their spare time.  It is, of course, quintessentially Victorian.

The Fairfield does not have a lot of floorspace to convert to stairs.  But it demanded a lovely, grand, eye-catching spiral staircase. Here's how I did it.

Updates & News

It's been some time since I updated.  A LOT of time, I guess!  And since then, a few things have happened:

Greenleaf's Fairfield Dollhouse

First, I decided to postpone the "big" dollhouse (Clockwork House) in favor of starting smaller.  I made that decision because it was moving into the rainy months and I didn't want to be trying to cut the wood in the rain, plus we are considering moving, and I really didn't want to have to figure out how to move an assembled 4 ft long dollhouse. But I also made the decision because I wanted to hone my skills and build an even finer steampunk mansion.  Which is why I decided to start on something smaller - a half-scale kit, The Fairfield.  I have liked this kit for a long time and when I found it on ebay for $25, I decided to go for it.  I promised myself that I would just do a straight build - no experimental stuff or kit-bashing involved - and I promised my husband it would cost less because, well ya know, everything is half the size.