This was about the most basic of kits, albeit crisply moulded for its day and blissfully free of flash - I suspect it was minted in pretty new tools thirty-plus years ago. There were a few finger-smudges on the off-white walls from handling straight from the shop way back when. Except for a couple of things detached and loose in the box, everything was still attached to its sprues.

First off, I sprayed the walls with Hobbycraft Ice-Cream aerosol. The walls came moulded with a very subtle stippling to represent stone rendering - I guess - anyway, with a nice fresh base colour to work with, I did a few trial assemblies. The chocolate brown of the windows, doors and drainage details failed to convince in a Borders setting, however, so that set of mouldings got a dose of oily black near-gloss from the same source, the parts looking pleasingly tarlike and weatherproof. A found Flickr image of a Keswick alehouse referred to on the superb resource that is the beer-in-the-evening www persuaded me to the all-black windows.

Typically for seventies kits of European origin, the Sow's Ear comes with a base, the L-shape and layout of the rear elevation (not self-evident from the serving suggestion) soon becoming clear.

Here's an early assembly shot:

Spot the deliberate mistake That was the view that triggered the build. I think it's a walker's hostel, but I just loved the location no prizes for guessing the railway connection. Seeing it reminded me I had the Heljan-Hales kit waiting in the wings, and that night in June I dusted it down with a can of cider for company.

Here's the promised early assembly shot:

And the rear, beer garden aspect:

Tensions were literally running high at this point. Liquid poly didn't feel entirely at ease with the elderly Europlastic, and there was a small but critical amount of permanent-set evident in the long walls, meaning the whole assembly had to be weighted and clamped whilst standing to set. Cue the le Creuset kitchenware again.

To finish off for this evening, how inappropriate does that Scandi roof actually look, as the Norse gods intended?

Note at this stage too that the bay window arrangement from the serving suggestion has already been placed on decision.

I'm gonna click publish just now and be damned, review the foregoing and you can catch up with the next stage in the Sow's Ear saga tomorrow night.

That's all for now folks

Kitchenware in action: