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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

"Go ahead, touch the Cornballer. You know best."

I love "Arrested Development", so I have to sneak a few references to the show into this dollhouse. (If you haven't seen it, "Arrested Development" is a brilliant, insanely detailed, wickedly funny sitcom about a wealthy Newport Beach family who lose everything when their patriarch, George Bluth Sr., gets arrested for defrauding shareholders.)

One of the show's many recurring jokes is the Cornballer, a fry-at-home hush-puppy device George invented in the 1970s...which was promptly banned because it caused severe burns (which didn't stop George from continuing to market the Cornballer in Mexico).

Of course, I had to make a Cornballer (out of basswood, illustration board, wood putty, aluminum paint, and a toothpick). It's definitely not a perfect copy - my attempts to copy the fryer basket weren't successful, so I omitted it and have decided that this particular device has been broken for years but the family living in this house still haven't gotten around to tossing it in the scrap metal recycling bin.


I also couldn't resist making a few more related items: "Boyfights" videos, a copy of "The Man Inside Me", a 45 of "Big Yellow Joint", and copies of the "Balboa Bay Window" (unfortunately, I have not yet been able to get a clear, full shot of the issue in which a 10-year-old Buster Bluth explains why he wants to marry his mother).


The imaginary people who live in this house are NOT members of the Bluth clan (you won't find Teamocil in the medicine cabinet, a dead dove in the freezer, or a stair car in the driveway), but since they live in the same geographic region, it's plausible for at least some of these items to be found in their house.

I also made one more accessory referencing the show that isn't pictured here. I'm going to unveil it later, after the interior is finished (it's not a scale model of the banana stand - I'm not that good yet).

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Completed Exterior

I FINALLY finished the bungalow's exterior.


The "solar panels" are made from leftover Greenleaf greenhouse roof panels and black illustration board. I painstakingly marked off a tiny grid of 1/8" squares on each piece of mat board with an ordinary mechanical pencil and coated the whole thing with several layers of Mod Podge. (This was also an easy way to conceal a large area of badly warped roof shingles.)


The front porch in place (again). I can't help it; I just love how this house is shaping up.


Now to get started on the interior...