Sylvanians invaded my house

 No xmas tree here, just our Sylvs making it festive!

Hot air balloons seem to be a reoccurring theme in Sylvanian settings. I finally stumbled on an affordable model, yet it was a lamp shade. So, some tweaking later, replacing the gondola with a free model which was big enough to hold some Sylvs and allowed a free sanding model without toppling over after mode remodeling, I created a usable model. Of course, to add a funny note, birds use the balloon. Papa bird is lifting his kids into the gondola. I have also updated my blog on cheeky insertions into my dioramas: https://sylvanianinvasion.blogspot.com/2023/10/cheekiness.html   It's printed in "vase mode", also known as "spiralize mode", meaning that it is only one print line thick. That allows adding a light to make it more realistic, yet it also becomes a bit more fragile. I had tiny battery ball lights from a set of miniature Asian lanterns I bought, these are just perfect to light it up. That's why it's printed with a thin wall. So, time for some pics ...

One thing the Town series really lacks, is road signs with a street clock. I made some myself years ago. After we move in a few years, my dioramas will change, so it forms one big setting. That means that the current road signs will have to change according to JollyOaksField's new layout.  Back then, I printed them when I had far less experience in printing, previous printers were slower, offered less quality prints and had no multi color 3D printer option available. First mistake I made then was the amount of filling. Since printing one pole took all day, and I never print at night because of safety reasons, more was not an option. Once that the road signs were glued on, they were a bit top heavy and 2 of them have to lean onto a building to keep standing. The new ones have 100% infill and they are bottom heavy. They only took 7 hours to print in the best quality possible each. Second mistake was the size. The poles itself had to be a higher, so the Sylvs are able to "walk un...

My sister from another mother gave me a voucher for my birthday and I bought a car model I did not have yet. I originally thought of buying the mint color of this model, but it was always too expensive in price tag, shipping and import taxes. So, I bought the red one. First, it got a soapy bath to degrease it and then let it dry. It came apart easily and it was sprayed soft purple. No primer was used, 3 thin coats sufficed. Then, with a chrome marker, the metal parts were recolored again. Needless to say that I love it! Thanks sis!! Small detail: the posh pigs have their handbags tucked right between them!

A year ago, I was so lucky to be able to tag along with my hub on his work trip to Las Vegas and we made a pit stop in Arizona, where my sister from another mother lives. We met new friends there too! We loved all the Mexican decorations we saw there and they inspired me to 3D print some items for me and my sis, like 2 styles of sombreros for example. I created a setting for my cinema. My Mariachi band is performing "Viva La Pinata". The band is called "Perritas Locas", which means "Crazy Small Female Dogs" and if you realize what a female dog is called in English, you get the humor of it, I hope! Here's sis's setup. Look at the cute pompons she added! And there is a cat who had a bit too much of alcohol to drink, wandering around the setup, lol! I love how she improved the 3D printed cacti, they look real! Here are the "Gatos Locos", or "Crazy Cats"! 

Now that I can 3D print in 4 colors, it was time to drag out a free model I discovered to print. It had a lot of errors and needed repairs, plus I tweaked a whole lot to have a 3 level Town series building instead of 2 and added the signature retro window shades to it. It's empty for now as I did not expect to print it now instead of over 6 years from today. It is supposed to be filled up with my apple cider lab that I have, but as that's already tucked away nicely to move in a few years, I decided to just leave it like that. As for now, I pretend that the lab technicians haven't looked into the building yet, although they were looking for better accommodation, lol.