Metal Minis for the Dollhouse

Watch the video here.

Today I wanted to share with you how I work with the metal minis that are available to use in our dollhouse scenes. These come unpainted and can be used in so many ways. I have been purchasing mine from the same source (Dollhouse Portal) for several years. There are many places to get these I would suggest checking out your local mini store first to see if they carry them. If they don't or you don't have a local store just use your favorite search engine to find them or just check out the Dollhouse Portal and buy from there.

You do need to keep in mind that these do contain lead so you need to be careful to wash your hands with soap and water after handling them (especially before you have sealed them with paint) and NEVER give them to children that might put them in their mouths.

As you can see I usually place a good size order when I do order these. I do this for a couple of reasons number one I can save a bit on postage this way. The other reason is that it does take about a month to receive your order so I try to have on hand the things I use most often.

The first step when the package arrives is to check what you receive against the invoice. Mistakes can happen in packaging so I always check ans at the same time I look over each piece to check for breakage. These do break and if they arrive broken or something is missing I send an email to the company I purchased from letting them know right away. I have never had any problems that weren't immediately corrected.

Next I wash, or rather soak the metal minis in hot soapy water. This removes any residue left from the molding process and after they are completely dry they are ready to sort and put away to use in projects.

When I am ready to use the items I decide what color I am going to paint them and use an appropriate color of spray primer for the first coat. I don't normally prime ahead of time because I wouldn't know what color primer to use until I decide what color the finished item will be. I prime with a white primer if I will be using a light color paint and with either a gray or black for items that will be painted with a dark final color.

I usually use a spray paint for the main painting of these because I can get a better coverage with a much thinner coat of paint. I do sometimes use craft paint to further decorate the items. And some items will be coated with a high gloss spray finish to make them look like ceramic.

In the next few weeks (possibly months) we will be making some foods that will be in some of these metal minis. If you can't get the metal minis feel free to use what you do have that is similar. I just wanted to start this with the instructions to use what I will be using.

I have found that most of the metal minis cost between $1 and $4 each so they aren't horridly expensive. There are many more things than just what I show you in this video too. If you have checked out my Dinner for Two scene I used not only the plate, cup, saucer, and silverware that were metal minis so were the black portions of the bench that is in the scene.

I hope that you can find lots of uses for metal minis in your projects. 

Just a few of the pieces I got

Before and after