A Meter MADE!

As most of you are aware, I have been working furiously for the past 2 months trying to get
#43 Green Dolphin Street 
ready for the West Coast Miniature Show which happens this Sunday.  
I have re-worked the exterior of the house since you last saw it and in the process I decided that I wanted to add a gas meter to the exterior kitchen wall, after I saw how cool it looked when
Brae "Otterine" blog
 installed one outside the kitchen of her 
"Haunted Heritage" doll's house. 

After looking for an English style gas meter, and getting very frustrated with not finding what I thought I needed, I gave up and went for what I could see outside my own back door.
It just so happened that while standing in line at the dollar store I spied these mini lip gloss novelty pots shaped like ice-cream pops.

They had a demo opened and on display in the store so that you could see how it worked and for me the shape was PERFECT! 

I tried out the gloss when I got home and it was  the typical greasy goop that teenagers enjoy wearing but I didn't even bother  scooping it out.

Using a pair of heavy duty pliers I nipped off  half of the plastic stick

 I sealed the edges with Quick Grip glue, gloss and all. 

I saved a top from a McDonald's coffee cup for this project

The spout cover would become the dial component after I trimmed it down

A trial fit.... hmmmm?
(you know this kinda looks like the beginnings of a bathroom scale doesn't it?) 

 moving right along...

I tried to use a plastic zip tie as part of the project but it didn't work in the end and I had to remove it later AFTER the entire meter was painted.
* more on that later....*
Meanwhile the photo below is what I started with.

I added eyelets and crimp beads to the exterior of the meter.  It was slow going as the glue would stick for a little while and then detach with too much handling.
Trying to find the RIGHT adhesive was very challenging.

I added various bits and bobs trying to get
"The Look"
using my own gas meter as a photo reference.
It only had to get close to looking like a meter.

When I needed a pipe for the meter, I recalled what 
Doug at "Miniature Endeavors" blog
used for a project in his 
STEAMPUNK MANOR 
and incorporated sections of plastic-coated wire stems from artificial flowers.  It solved the problem of both sturdiness as well as allowed for bending an elbow into the 2 connections. 

To make the round flow valve, I used the two circles from the McDonald's coffee cup which I trimmed and then glued together.

This is where I decided to stop and spray paint.

It was at this stage that my problems began.  I had spray painted the meter with a white gloss enamel base.  After the 2nd coat, I got too impatient and before the 2nd coat had
 COMPLETELY DRIED
I sprayed on a gloss grey acrylic paint which didn't sit well on top of the still tacky enamel. It started to react to the enamel undercoat by LOOSENING EVERYTHING I had glued on.  The hard plastic zip tie would not stay put, no matter what kind of glue I used.  Eventually I gave up and replaced the zip tie with a flat rubber band.  It worked so much better but by then everything had to be re-glued and re-sprayed, and waiting for paint to dry is not very much fun!

(Showing the old rubber band that I replaced the zip tie with)

Okay,.....
 so I forgot to take photos of how I did the dial but that was 
a total FAIL too. 
Here is what happened and why it didn't work. 
 I used paper correction fluid which was my first mistake. It dried stringy and lumpy. To try and fix it I used white nail enamel.  It was better but the correction fluid made the nail enamel unstable.  I waited a day for it to dry but when I went to draw the dials it caved inward.  
ARRRRGH!!!!!!
><
well, so much for that!

 I am NOT happy about the face of this meter but it is what it is. 
I'm too frustrated with this project by now and the time is too short.  I used Glossy Accents over the surface of the dial plate which dries clear and simulates glass when fully cured.
I then had to "anchor" it into the landscape. 
It had to be glued only to the house and not to the ground so that if I needed to lift the cottage off of the garden base, I wouldn't tear the meter up and out.  
AND
Because I left the lip gloss inside the case
( another wrong move in hind-sight),
 the meter was way too heavy for the faux pipes to support its weight.  I gave it an assist by gluing black furniture sponge pads, cut to shape to fit the back of the meter, which was then glued to the side of the house.
Now that I am reviewing the photos, I think that I will add a horizontal gas pipe, for more visual balance because to me it still looks unfinished.

Hello, little bunny!

Ahh YES!,
that's much better! 

AND
while waiting for the paint to dry,
I gave the rabbit some whiskers 

....and Bob's your uncle!

elizabeth