Making the walls

To make the walls of my cottage I will be using my own method which involves car body filler.

If you wish to try this method out for yourself you will require the following items:

2 pack car body filler, available from halfords or online. It comes in various sizes and is great stuff to sand and scribe.

A flat board bigger than the surface area of the walls you want to make. A piece of melamine shelving is my weapon of choice but a large tile or anything smooth will do.

Some 5mm ply for gauging the depth and done glue to stick it onto the board.

A filler spreader/spatula wide enough to drag along the depth gauge ply.

80grit sandpaper.

A hand saw.

Some 2" masking tape.

A sharp knife.

Start by preparing the board. This can re re used anytime as the filler never touches the board itself.

I cut out two thin prices of 5mm ply. This can be done with anything really, as long as both pieces are the same thickness. I glued mine straight to the board as guide rails and depth gauges for my filler. Then I laid down masking tape onto the flat area between the ply. This is where the filler will go, which can be separated from the board along with the tape as the same time when the filler is dry.
It is important to make sure the tape is lines up like wallpaper with no gap. Failure to get this right results in a line running along the finished surface of the filler. (Note that a fine line will occur but can be scratched of with a flat blade). Also, add some tape to the ply so that it stays at a true 5mm.

The reason for the tape is twofold; the filler is easily removed by slowly peeling off the tape with a knife under it, and the fibre of the tape gives the face of the filler a lovely rough texture for your brickwork.

Now, take your plan and cut it out as a template as in the image above. Test this fits accurately within the ply runners  and then put it to one side for later.

Next we will look at mixing the filler and applying our first fill.