I finally had time to pick up the 3D print fences from Chris who had kindly re-scaled and printed the file for me.

I now had everything I needed to start building the “mouse houses”.

For the first house I cut a 120mm square piece of mdf and organised fencing with five sections on each side including one gate.

A short pathway from the gate to the house was “paved” with cut-up old business cards and then the fence and pathway sprayed white. This will also be the final coat for the fence.

The path was painted grey and the rest of the base green. I find that I often have “bleed” through with white and black undercoats when flocking so the green will prevent this.

Suitable wild life was added.

As was a potential guest.

The pathway was washed with black ink.

Highlighted with a white dry brush.

Bushes were added into the corner where it would be difficult to get to once the “house” was glued in place.

The house and visitor “accommodation” were then glued in place.

Flower beds and pathway hedging was added.

The base was then “flocked”.

To provide that “nursery rhyme” look the house was finished with a satin varnish.

The new owner moves in.

Mates arrive for the house warming!

I now only have another eight more to go!

Here is the grand plan (at the moment):

The original plan was to have eight meece retreats surrounded by a central garden with the “magic bower” in the centre and mushroom forests in each corner. With two of the houses completed I finished two of the mushroom forests to see how the looked.

I did not like them as it made the village too red so I opted for a vegetable patch in two corners diagonally opposite each other to tone it down a bit.

A ninth rodent residence will be the Mouse Mage’s Mausoleum with spider webs, dead trees, and spiders all over, and of course a dilapidated fence using some broken pieces!