A method of applying coconut

Post by **Tom Hull** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 2:31 pm

I have recently acquired a short set of very old houses (1933 or earlier) That though complete and with little structural damage needed complete resuscitation as they at sometime had been pulled off their bases and painted in enamel paints of some type - many years ago. Of course the old cellophane and doors were either gone or toast and NO coconut survived the paint job. 5 years ago I would NOT have bought these as Coconut did not yet exist and we had very little hope that it could be made. But Pete did it as have others. I paid a pretty heavy price for them too! How quickly things can change.
This is more of a tip than an instruction. What I have been doing is mixing paints In an old tin Mayonnaise jar lid.
They have the advantage of being eminently disposable or wash up and reuse them. Which is what I do as such lids are plastic anymore.
In this first photo you can see that I am squeezing some clear Aileen's Tacky glue in a couple of different colors of paint. In this instance white and a sort of putty off white. To these I add a bit of water and mix up. My aim is to wind up with a mixture the consistency of table cream.
I then paint it on (and in this instance needed the extra fluidity to get in all the crannies that the painted over coconut had.) Additionally it should be noted that the water keeps it liquid longer and hence the coconut will stick better as it dries up slower than if it is more normal paint like. I like the clear glue as I believe it helps with the sticking of the coconut with the added water. I have also thinned down this clear glue with water and used a brush to paste in the real cellophane windows.
The last picture shows lime green paint being applied over which I put some green coconut.

Post by **Tom Hull** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 2:43 pm

This shows the finished house along with some awaiting restoration.

The second photo is an FYI. Only one of these bases needed to be rebuilt - due to extreme warping I had to take it apart, remove the fences and iron it flat again. In so doing I found that these VERY old house had a corner staple in them which usually only occurred in the late thirties especially to Dolly Toy Houses but also some types of Japanese houses. These don't normally seem to have staples at the corners but this one did! Much earlier than I would have supposed.
And lastly all but the church restored and ready for another 90 years! Enjoy Tom

Post by **Tom Hull** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 3:02 pm

Here are a few before pictures of some of these houses. A couple of the houses had the doghouses with chewed up entrances and corners of the roof missing but nothing all that hard to repair.

Post by **Howard** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 10:00 pm

Tom...

for some reason I have never tried clear craft glue...but I'm definitely going to get a bottle soon...

And it certainly is rewarding to see these houses given new life...

my very best regards...Howard...