Shingles and Corbels...and Hot Glue

So I'm happy to say that I've made progress on the dollhouse...

I'd also like to advise those of you out there who haven't used a hot glue gun that they are very hot.  That might seem obvious but when you get hot glue on your fingers... well its one of those things that you think you know, until you get the glue on your skin.  Ouch ouch ouch. 

Contrary to what you guys might think I've used this glue gun before.  It's actually the only glue gun I've ever used.  And its not like its this huge thing.  See?

It's what? Five inches at the most?

So really I have no excuse for my klutziness.  But this is a warning to all you would be glue gun users, shaking fingers and hot glue don't mix.

However I did manage to get some of the shingles on.  The instructions called for half shingles or copper flashing.  I really didn't care for either one of those things.  So I used black paint on the lowest edge of the roof.

See? To show through the angles of the shingles.

So I started at one side and glued my way over to the angled edge of the roof.  Getting the singles cut at an angle so I could fill in that little corner space wasn't easy but I found that sanding half shingles at an angle seemed to do the trick. 

It's not easy to see but on the right is where I sanded down little shingles.

I'd like to say that this was quick work... That would be a lie.  It takes a couple of hours to do one side...by the way what do you guys think of the color?  I'm really wondering if I shouldn't get some dark stain and put another layer on the shingles.

Yep at least an hour and a half of work.  And the top row still has to be done.

The top row has to be cut down so only the right amount of shingle shows.  Basically a third of an inch cut off the top of the shingles.  Yeah, that's what I thought, an awful lot of cutting and sanding going on here. 

But I got it done eventually.

It doesn't look bad...but I'm still not sure about the color.

But I started to work on the front of the house and painted the room edges and top of the bay window area.  I'll need to paint the whole roof before I can put my widows walk railings up but I also need the shingles on before I do that so the shingles are the order of the day for a while.

I'll do the top row later today or tomorrow.

I'm debating doing all the regular shingles for the whole roof and then doing the half shingles of the top, but we'll see how I feel.

The last thing I did was add the corbels to the eaves.  See?

Maybe I'll put another coat of white paint on the spindles of the railings...

Or maybe I'll just relax... we'll have to see.

But if I don't see all of you before Christmas I hope you have a Merry one.