Life's not perfect

I had a bit if a whinge about the kit in my previous post, so I may as well continue here.

There is a good reason to do this - please take it as a reminder that if you want utter realism and you are a perfectionist then a kit build is almost definitely not for you.  Different makers will vary in quality but even within one maker the houses will vary and I am sure they will all fall short of perfect.  That said - try to assess how fussy you will be and then if you are in the fussy bracket, be very careful choosing your house.

tiddly steps

Just today, with all the house front done, I suddenly noticed that that the steps up to the door looked more like a staircase rather than the usual few steps.  So, already a bit peeved, I then spotted they consisted of treads just half an inch wide. If you translate this to real world, we would have steps with a six inch tread.  Believe me you will struggle to ascend them and its sideways only and with care when coming down!!!!

I finally figured what the overall problem was with the basic design .... the exterior pavement/basement isn't deep enough - so we have the issue of not having enough height to get into the house from the area and having to have a staircase rather than a couple of steps to enable us to get into the house.  If they had made the stairs a reasonable depth they would have come all the way to the front edge of the entrance wall which clearly wouldn't do.  The only option is the one taken, they have squeezed in a steep climb over a short depth and so very narrow treads.  Hey ho, let's try hold the thought that dollhousing is all about illusion.  It is miniatures that are about realism.

good fit railing

The railings also left something to be desired.  The ones on the right edge were too long and I spent ages drilling into the post to take the excess horizontal bars rather than cut them shorter.  My thinking was this might be a good idea to give the whole run added support.  I then went to the left hand side and, guess what, they just touch the post (this is an OK thing) so no drilling was needed on this side.  Now I wanted the sides to match.  Back to the right and trim those to fit and turn the post so the drilled holes go to the back.  Left and right ends now mach and are sort of sorted.

boo hoo

As for the railings at the front and centre on both sides of the stairs, there is a big gap and there is nothing I can do about this.  W...e....l...l there is actually.... further down the line I think I may have nice metal ones made by The Iron Works and Black Country Miniatures.

I repeat - do not let this complaining put you off DHD kits - they are nice designs, good sizes, good value for money and for any normal person would be just brilliant.  I just find that with every build I do I get pickier and pickier.

Since writing this DHD are now using a laser cutter and have whacked out a lot of nice and also fairly unusual houses; even Dalton House has been tweaked.  So please interpret this post as being more about deciding what level of perfection you want to work at before buying a house rather than it being a moan about a particular vendor.