Restoring a 1931 Dollhouse

We received a call in September 2017 from another dollhouse shop regarding the restoration of an old wooden dollhouse previously owned by a prominent New England resident named Frances Edwards (later Mrs. Prentiss Godfrey). Both families were held in high esteem in their native New England community. The dollhouse was built by a man (name unknown) in 1930 for Frances Edwards, she was born in 1921.

The dollhouse was built from wooden pallets. The construction was solid and amazingly still is, but of course 87 years of existence would require some restoration. We have before and after photos to give an idea as to what we were up against during the restore.

We filled every crack and pallet seam in order to make the dollhouse solid again and aesthetically pleasing. We painstakingly removed and restored 68 wooden window trim pieces from the dollhouse and removed all 10 damaged windows and fabricated our own. The house was re-wallpapered and new flooring was installed. The current owner did not want to electrify the dollhouse.

Enjoy!

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After photos:

Initial stage of Grandpa Munster Diorama

It has been awhile since we posted any of our work.  We started to make circuit boards as an accessory to a Moebius Grandpa Munster model kit that came out not too long ago.

We decided to put some animation into the control panel in this kit by wiring-in our circuit boards which allow LED’s that we installed in the panel to light up. Each circuit allows for an LED to flash at different rates giving the effect that it is a working control panel. The electrodes found at the top of the control panel were designed by Starlighting Projects, they are called “Electrodes of Doom”.

We still have to assemble and paint Grandpa Munster. Below is a photo of what we have so far. To see a video of the LED’s flashing on and off on the control panel and the electrodes, go to our Projects section found on the home page and click on Models. Enjoy!

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Lionel Layout in the Making

We have seen many train layouts  develop over the years, but one in particular is coming along absolutely beautifully. Paul and Lucy have built there first layout 8 years back while still living in Bayonne, since then, they have moved down the Jersey shore into a beautiful home whereby their new Lionel layout resides, nestled in a sunny room on the 2nd floor.

The layout spans 22 feet by 16-1/2 feet. They are just starting to add the scenery to their layout. Please enjoy these photos. Hopefully more photos to come. Sorry that images are on its side.

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Awesome Bayonne, NJ model builder

Bayonne, NJ holds many gifted and talented model building people, in particular a fellow by the name of Joseph Caci. Joe has been a patron of Pastime Hobbies for some time and has become a friend of ours. Joe has taken model building, airbrushing and weathering, particularly tank building to a new level. He can make a piece of plastic look like it is a worn and rusty piece of steel. His accomplishments in the hobby arena are the cumulative effects of his attention to detail. Please enjoy some photos taken of Joe’s finished work. Joe is a mechanic by trade and has even more talent in this field. Joe recently opened his own repair shop right here in Bayonne:

Joe’s Auto Electric

211 – 217 West  5th Street

Bayonne, NJ 07002

(201) 435 -7035

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Revival of Model Kits In Bayonne, NJ

You would be amazed of how many gifted and talented model building folks reside in Bayonne, NJ. Wow, it is truly awesome. One of our friends, namely, Joseph Esposito, a Bayonne resident started out as a customer of ours and has been building model kits for 6 years, but collecting kits for 30 years. His passion and desire to learn new techniques is quite remarkable. We have the honor of displaying some of his work here at the shop.

The first two photos are 2 different Horizon vinyl kits built and hand-painted and posed together with Cyclops (of the X-Men) and Spider-man. The third photo is a custom vinyl Rocketeer bust also hand-painted. The last photo is a styrene plastic kit built and hand-painted of Superman.

Please enjoy the photos of Joe’s work!

Sort of Hobby Shop Related

Back, last May 2015, we were contracted by a friend of ours who is also in the dollhouse miniature industry to fabricate a fence support system allowing for 8′ by 6′ vinyl fences to be installed on a Manhattan patio. It was a challenge and required 3,500 pounds of river rock stones to be poured into ten (10) boxes designed by us. Aida and I would like to thank Michael and Peter for all their hard work. We completed the trim work for this project two (2) weeks ago and have provided some photos of the finished product. Enjoy!IMG_2469IMG_2465IMG_2470

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Delivery of Fox Hall Manor Dollhouse

Delivery of the Foxhall Manor dollhouse was made on July 1st 2016.Aida and I have been working on this kit  for about four (4) months and was finally given the green light to make the delivery. This 14 room dollhouse had a special room made for it to be showcased in. The house is now safe and secure in a beautiful home in Hampton Bay Long Island, NY.

We would like to share with you some more photos of work performed on the dollhouse. The first 2 photos represent the tape wiring that is used  to power the lights that will be installed in the dollhouse at a later time. Real parquet and red oak flooring was used in this dollhouse to give it that magnificent look. We would like to thank Aida’s sister Margie for putting in the time and effort positioning each  piece of parquet flooring prior to being glued down. This process is critical to ensure a nice tight fit between pieces thus giving it that wow factor.

Enjoy!

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