I was unfamiliar with the company RoLife and I have never built any Dollhouse miniature kits before, but it looked like a fun project. Further, it was supposed to be easy with all of the parts pre-cut and/or painted. I even found Youtube videos showing how to assemble it.
While researching it I discovered that it is based on a famous Japanese anime movie Kiki's Delivery Service which I have seen with my wife, a huge anime fan. (As an aside, my favorite anime movie is Whispers of the Heart and I included a movie poster of it on my Japanese T-trak module as a reference to it).
A lot comes in the box, including a few tools like plastic tweezers, a paint pen, and a bottle of glue.
Speaking of that glue, I tried using it and found it awkward. It is clear and gummy and leaves trails of residue behind it. However, it is very easy to clean up the excess. I think it is rubber cement, which is a good choice for a mixed medium kit containing painted and unpainted wood, wire, paper, and plastic parts. However, I quickly switched to superglue gel and Aleen's tacky glue for most of the assembly to speed up the process.
The painted wood parts are in various bags, but unpainted ones are still left on the sprue. The logic behind the bag sorting escapes me. The instructions take a bit of reading to understand how things are organized. English is clearly not the first language of the writer and left me confused in places. I had to keep pulling out every bag and reviewing every piece to find the ones I needed. (Later on I discovered a nice color full-size schematic diagram identifying every piece of wood on every sprue, but by then the hard parts were over).
A note about the instructions. Some of the paper signs and such were nowhere to be found. So, I dug out the oversize instructions and looked to see which page there were on. And ironically, some were on the same page as the instructions itself! The instructions showed a life-size image of the paper part, and right next to it in a separate area with dotted lines was the same part ready to be cut out. Why the duplication? I dunno.
The kit involved skills that I normally don't use for model railroading, including paper folding and wire bending. The kit included a wooden "form" that was to be used to help bend some cabinet drawer handles from soft wire. I instead used a pair of pliers. The ends were later flattened and trimmed. My finished handles matched the instruction's dimensions but I think they look oversize, though that might be appropriate for the look of the original anime movie.
The kit also called for painting some silver trim on one of the cabinets with an included pen. I thought this wouldn't work at all but was too lazy to dig out my own silver paint so I gave their pen a try. It turned out working great and I will need to remember these metallic paint pens for the future.
After about 90 minutes I only had these four pieces of furniture to show for my efforts. But, I was still learning the process. The laser cut wood is pretty nice though some edges are still the raw burned wood. In such a busy magic store like this it probably won't matter, but were it for my layout I would definitely touch up the edges with more paint. Ironically, they even included a small piece of sandpaper to wear (age) the wooden shelf on the left.
It took me almost as much time to pull out of the various bags all the necessary parts and organize them as it did to clean up any flash and glue them together. Lots of little bits of paper were trimmed, rolled, and glued in place. Assembling some of the drawers from five pieces of wood (front, back, sides, and bottom) and gluing on the bead handle took a bit of effort.
The chair, on the other hand, was a nuisance. The legs, leg braces, and back braces are all cut from toothpicks. Everything was glued up, and trying to keep all the legs at the correct angles so they touched the floor and didn't lean over annoying. I relied on superglue here to keep my sanity. I can't imagine trying to build it with rubber cement as the instructions called for.
Then, I got to move on to the fun parts like filling up the glass jars with various paper scrolls, beads, flowers, and the like. This part of crafting is enjoyable. Thank goodness everything is provided, as having to source all of this would be a nightmare.
The candles in particular are made from paper tubes, the same type that that are used as lollypop handles. You are supposed to unwind the edge until there is just a thin strand left in the center and then paint that black to look like a candle wick. I didn't understand the instructions so instead I just glued on a thin piece of solder which I later painted black. Either way took a bit of effort, but I think they came out alright.
The hanging branch "things" started off as plastic Christmas tree (?) material that I had to cut up, bind with thin wire (that had black insulation which first had to be stripped), and then superglue for extra strength.
At this point, all of the interior details were just waiting to get put onto the shelves.
But first, I had to cut up some twine and red thread and make a broomstick. That wasn't much fun, and I set it aside for later. It was the last thing I ended up doing on the kit.
A lantern, composed of six pieces plus the wire handle that I had to bend myself, were glued together. You can see the instructions on the left that I referenced.
For extra security, I superglued the handle to the bottom and then filled in the rest with white glue to really hold it.
At least a half-hour was spent folding and gluing up the boxes and lids. Then labels were attached. Thankfully the bend lines were pre-scored.
Here is where I was after six hours:
Now that all the fun internal decorations were finished, it was time to start on the actual structure itself. The core of the building consists of white painted wood pieces and non-painted masonite. Most of the smaller pieces on the left were for the battery box holder.
The entry steps were pieces of wood wrapped in stone paper. Then, everything was glued together. I did it in stages to allow proper glue time while keeping everything in the alignment that best allowed gravity to assist me. The "wood floor" is more paper, and for that I used the rubber cement they provided.
The roof involved gluing on braces (which were warped from the kit) so I used weights to hold them flat. I also added cut metal hooks which will later support the signs and stuff.
The LED light didn't come prewired so I soldered it up (the instructions just suggest making contact joints under heat shrink tubing). The lamp is more pieces to put together.
Then, the light was glued to the roof using clamps and glue.
The overhead window material was glued onto the underside of the roof and then I could call that finished. Almost...
Extra weights were required to hold it all flat while the glue dried.
The instructions call for routing the wiring sideways out the top of the building, rearward under the eave of the roof, then back inside and down through the back corner. To hide the wires inside the building they include a piece of white shrink tubing (a neat idea), but routing them outside in the first place is stupid. If I had a lot more time I would have reengineered this step, but as it is I just built it as called for. You can see the wires glued to the outer underside of the roof edge.
I had to get creative with the clamps and weights to get everything square and neat. Underneath that pile shown in the picture is a piece of vertical heatshrink tubing in the corner joint.
This part of the build really slowed down, as I would apply glue to the windows or wires or whatnot and have to let it dry a couple of hours before coming back and gluing something else.
Here is how it turned out:
And from the other side...
All told, it took me 10.5 hours to build it and I enjoyed most of the process. I think I may build something of my own (or perhaps a gift for my wife) as it really is a neat project. For those who enjoy crafting, it would be a lot of fun. As it was, I found it similar to scratchbuilding something with lots of castings. Little bits, insignificant on their own, come together to form something much greater than the sum of its parts. And in the end, you have a lovely structure.
I hope my friend will be pleased.
