Yes, I know... about 6 months without a post, right? I admit it, I was too lazy to edit pictures (to fix the light, adjust the size for internet use), write texts, translate... Each post takes several hours of hard work!
Bem, mas vamos lá. :) Nesse tempo eu consegui concluir a construção do relógio cuco. Não foi nada fácil! Além de ter que esperar as peças, as instruções não vêm na ordem de montagem. Muitas vezes a sequência de uma etapa está vários fascículos depois. Muitas vezes as instruções que vêm em um fascículo não têm nada a ver com a peça que veio nele. Então tem que esperar chegar tudo!
Well, let's do this. :) During this time I managed to finally finish the cuckoo clock. It wasn't easy at all! Besides having to wait for all parts to arrive, the instructions do not come in the order of the assembly. More often than not, the continuation of one step comes several issues later. Too often the instructions that come with one issue do not correspond to the parts that also come with it. So one must wait to have everything first!
Isso quando não acontecer o que aconteceu comigo, que veio fascículo em duplicidade e outro faltando. Tive outros problemas também. Por exemplo, logo no começo uma tinta veio seca.
When it doesn't happen what happened to me: one of the issues came twice and another one was missing. I had other problems too. For example, in one of the first issues, one of the paint bottles was completely dry.
Faltou um dos "personagens" animados. Em todos esses casos entrei em contato com a editora. Foram simpáticos e prestativos, claro. Mandaram o certo. Mas tudo isso envolve espera, demora, atrasos... Por exemplo, mandaram outro personagem, mas em vez de mandarem o que vai do outro lado, por engano mandaram igual ao que eu já tinha! Sim, isso foi consertado (agora sou eu que estou em falta com eles, pois preciso mandar o que está sobrando agora). Até chegar o certo, ficou tudo parado, esperando a remessa chegar....
One of the 'characters' was missing. Truth to be told, I did contact the publishers and they were very nice and helpful. They did replace the missing parts. But it all took time, delays, waiting... For example, they did send me another 'character', but instead of sending me the one placed on the other side (the missing one), they sent me another just like the one I already had, by mistake! Yes, it was fixed (now I am 'in debt' with them, as I still have to send them the extra one back). Until the right one was finally here, everything had to remain there, taking up place, waiting...
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| dois destros, nenhum canhoto! two 'right-handed' drinkers, no 'left-handed' ones! |
Anyhow, before I left for Castine, the cuckoo was at this stage:
Já tinha deixado prontas as janelas também. A madeira é um compensado fino, que quebra e solta farpas muito fácil. Tive que lixar com cuidado, envernizar e pintar cada janela.
I had already prepared all the windows too. The wood in them is a thin plywood, easily breakable and "splintery". I had to sand every part carefully, seal, and paint.
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| esquerda: depois de lixado, direita: antes de lixar; left: after sanding, right: before sanding; |
Instead of gluing the parts together, inset the dowel, cut to size, and glue the piece to the parts/hole, as they instruct, I chose to glue the dowel to one of the sides, cut to size when dry, sand and paint while parts were still separated and only glue them all together in the end. It's easier to give parts a proper finish like this. Can you imagine having to sand and dye or paint each dowel tip after everything was already finished up and glued together? No thanks!
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| pinos cortados e colados em uma das partes, prontas para encaixe. dowels cut and glued to one of the parts, which are ready to fit in. |
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| agora juntas dá para lixar e acertar as bordas... now that they are together I can sand and make the borders even.... |
Também usei essa técnica para partes móveis: colando antes no lado que fica fixo. Como é o caso do fechamento do painel traseiro:
I used this same method to put together two parts when one of them had to remain mobile: by gluing the dowel in place first only to one side. Like the back panel clasp: |
| parte do mecanismo de fechamento do painel. part of the back panel clasp. |
Before my trip I had already started working on the balconies banisters. I had only dealt with part of it, as this was one of the most hard-working steps of all! Each part had to be sanded, removed from the board, sanded again to smooth the sides (hard to reach openings!), dyed, glued together, varnished, assembled.... phew! It took me several weeks just to finish this step!!!
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| Prefiro lixar antes de tirar as peças pré-recortadas (antes e depois de lixar) I prefer to sand the boards before removing the pre-cut parts (before and after sanding) |
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| placa pré-cortada, partes removidas e lixadas, e coladas (em cima). pre-cut board, parts already removed, sanded, and glued onto each other (above). |
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| muitas e muitas horas de trabalho aí! many, many hours of work there! |
When I came back from my trip, I slowly finished this step of the construction and added the balconies to the main building. But the problems did not stop there... the frontal panel, on top of which we place the fake 'stones', did not fit! Too big in the middle when positioned according to the placement holes. So I had to carefully saw the panels to make them fit. The side panel was also too big...
As pedras, fiz de 3 jeitos diferentes: Uma foi usando bandejinha de espuma:
About the stones, I made them using 3 different methods and materials: one using foam...
Outra foi misturando cola com cascalho de maquetes. Fiz isso na cerquinha lateral. Já a chaminé, usei a técnica de embalagem de ovo (como fiz no passeio da Casa Toscana). Só não fiz do jeito que eles instruem, hehe...
The other one was by mixing glue and model making gravel. I used this one on the side fences. For the chimney I used the egg carton method (the same I used to make the Tuscan House sidewalk). The only method I didn't use was the one they wrote in the instruction, haha....
Mas os problemas continuaram: as abas frontais não encaixavam no telhado, por nada nesse mundo! Sem contar que as aberturas vinham cheias de farpas! Muitas vezes eram apertadas, quando não ficavam folgadas demais...Tive que cortar tudo de novo e preencher os buracos com massa de madeira...
But the problems didn't end there: the roof ornament could not fit at all! The original holes where in completely different places. And most openings were poorly made, full of splinters. Either too tight or too large... I had to cut them in the right place and fill up the previous openings with wood filling....
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| cadê o alinhamento? oops, they don't line up! |
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| onde a abertura de encaixe deveria estar (esquerda) e onde veio (buraco aberto) where the slot should have come (left) and where it came (open slot) |
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| vendo de baixo o erro deles.... viewing their mistake from below (the roof).... |
Várias tiras de telhas vieram com defeito. Nem fiz questão de reclamar isso, seria mais demora e espera. Preferi escolher uma que estivesse boa e usei como molde para cortar outras em papelão cinza fino. Como já estava pensando em pintar o telhado em vez de tingir, sabia que não ia aparecer mesmo....
Several roof tile strips had huge flaws. I didn't even bother to complain about those, though. It would only add more waiting time until they sent me other ones. So I chose to pick one that was good enough and use it as pattern to cut other ones on holler cardboard. As I had already planned to paint the roof instead of dying it, I knew the difference in material used wouldn't show up in the end, anyway....
Quase todos os encaixes de mecanismo dentro do relógio estavam fora de lugar, tive que furar tudo de novo...
Almost all the slots where we're supposed to fit the mechanisms inside the clock were misplaced. I had to drill them all over again....
O passarinho (cuco), veio com o encaixe de uma das asas quebrados. É feito de plástico e esse pininho é muito frágil. Consegui consertar usando um arame fino....
The cuckoo bird came with one of its wings joints broken. It's made of plastic and this little pin was very fragile. I managed to fix it using a small wire...
Os "degraus" da escada vieram com tamanhos diferentes. Substitui cortando alguns em madeira balsa mesmo.
The stairs "steps" came in different sizes. I replaced the different ones by cutting on balsa wood.
A placa de comando não encaixava no suporte, os furos eram pequenos demais. Se forçasse muito, quebraria! Com muito cuidado aumentei os furos, mas não podia aumentar muito em direção à borda senão quebraria, nem muito em direção ao centro da placa, pois poderia intervir nos circuitos. Quase uma cirurgia!
The command circuit board did not fit in the support pins at all, as the holes were way smaller than the pins. If I forced them, it might have broken the whole thing! So, very carefully, I enlarged the holes. But I couldn't enlarge them towards the edges, as it would get too thin an break. Neither could I enlarge them too much toward the center of the board, as it might interfere with the circuit itself. Almost a 'brain' surgery!
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| O buraco acima à esquerda já foi aumentado... The upper left slot has already been enlarged... |
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| é sério isso? really? |
Os painéis frontais, sob o relógio, também não encaixavam no lugar. Tive que abrir novos furos. Para cobrir os furos errados (ou maiores que fiz), preenchi com cola quente e cobri com um "arbusto de flores", que também foi feito para ir nos balcões, como ensinado nas instruções.
The lower ornamental panels under the clock didn't fit in the gaps either. I had to make new ones. To cover the wrong ones (or the ones I made but ended up being a little bit too large), I filled them with hot glue and covered with a 'flower bed', which had been made for the balconies, as per instructions.
Se essa fosse minha primeira montagem, eu teria desistido no meio do caminho.... Como já tenho experiência em montagens de miniaturas, frequentemente usei as técnicas que já conheço para contornar os inúmeros problemas. Para marinheiros de primeira viagem, esse tipo de montagem é muito frustrante, não recomendo. Pode até comprar este tipo de coleção, mas peça para alguém mais experiente montar!
If this had been my first assembly, I would have given up midway... But as I already have some experience in putting miniature buildings together, I often had to use techniques I know to go around the several problems I came across. For first-timers, though, this kind of assembly can be very frustrating, I wouldn't recommend it. If that's your case, you can even buy such item to be assembled, but hand it out to more experienced hands!
Finalmente, depois de muito tempo gasto e muitos obstáculos superados, o relógio ficou pronto! Agora está no meu ateliê, e toca de hora em hora, animando meu dia (às vezes lembrando-me que o tempo está passando e ainda não fiz o que tinha planejado para o dia, rsrs). Mas como são 12 melodias diferentes, traz sempre muita alegria e não enjoa! :)
Finally, after a very long time spent on it and many obstacles overcome, the clock is ready! Now it's in my craft room, and it plays every hour, cheering up my day (sometimes reminding me that time is going by and I still haven't done what I had planned for the day, lol). But as it has 12 different tunes, its always a joy to listen to! :)
Atualizando: Me perguntaram sobre alguns detalhes então vou colocar fotos do meu cuco pronto para facilitar.
An update: I've been asked about some details, so I'm adding some more pictures of the finished clock to show them better.
1) comparando o "original" anunciado pela editora e o meu finalizado...
1) comparing the "original" clock as per publisher ad and mine, finished...
2) os tipos de "pedra" que fiz, com mais detalhes:
* da "cerca", misturando cascalho de modelagem com cola e aplicando.
* da "parede", onde texturizei e pintei isopor de bandejinha.
* da "chaminé", onde usei pedaços de caixa de ovos, sobreados com sombra (maquiagem)
2) the different kinds of 'stone' I made, in close-up:
* the 'fence' one, where I mixed model making gravel with glue and applied the mix on it.
* the 'wall' one, where I textured and painted foam board.
* the 'chimney' one, where I used small pieces of egg carton, and shaded with eye-shadow (yes, make-up)
