Worktops

Still on the kitchen this week, although at least I made it as far as applying the worktops (counters) to the cabinets.

I cut up some leftover cornice from the kids' bedrooms and used it to finish the tops of the wall cabinets.  After I glued it in place, I gave it all a few coats of 'Tapioca' so it matched the cupboard.

Then it was finally time to tackle the worktops / countertops.  I bought the resin? granite-look worktop from a supplier at Miniatura, who told me it could be cut with a good handsaw or a sharp knife.  Um, no it can't.  Or at least, not in any reasonable timescale.  Several minutes of carefully scoring across the underside with various sharp knives, and my razor saw, produced a very shallow modest groove.  So it was into the attic and drag out my Unimat Basic which has a primitive scroll saw.  It made hard work of it, but did manage to cut a more or less straight line.  I was then able to clean up the cut quite well using fine wet&dry sandpaper.  As well as trimming the width, I trimmed off the corner above the corner shelf, similar to the counter in the original kit.

For the main cupboard, I again cut it to width.  Then to cut the sink aperture, I used the original counter from the kit to mark the opening - ensuring it was centred under my cut-out in the wall cupboard.  Then I used my Dremel multi tool to drill a hole in each corner of the rectangle, so that I could fit the blade of the Unimat up into the rectangle to cut it out.  The hole in each corner let me turn the blade to cut the next side.  I cleaned up the cut with sandpaper wrapped around a stick.

The sink came with the kit, and was made of clear plastic.  I carefully cut off the excess (but I wish now I had trimmed even closer to the 'sink') and painted the underneath in Games Workshop Mithril Silver.  I also painted the bent wire 'faucet' that came with the kit, and the two bead 'taps' in silver.  Then I glued them all in, drilling a hole for the faucet.

The Miss Lydia Pickett kitchen island has a nice gingerbread trim under the breakfast bar.  I cut up a Northeastern Apex Trim to make a similar effect on mine.

Now I just need some 1/24th stools for my breakfast bar.  I couldn't find any at Miniatura, so I may have to try building them which could be tricky.

My last picture is of my teenage son's contribution to the project.  DH and DS went to a modelling show on the weekend, where their goodie bags included this small metal car.  DS painted it for me in his choice of 'girly' colours, and I've asked him to do the other one in 'boy' colours for the boy's room.