Hey mini-makers!
If you’re on the hunt for a kit that will push your patience, precision and tweezers to the max (and come out the other side with serious bragging rights), here are a few I’d recommend.
I’ve tackled a fair number of kits myself and I’ve also pulled real feedback from the community.
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1. ROBOTIME – “Cathy’s Flower House”
When I say “hard”, this one comes up again and again. One Reddit user wrote:
“Cathy’s took me like 20 hours!”
Another:
“I must have the older kit cutting out flowers… …Cathy’s flower house not for the faint-hearted!”
In my own experience (with the older version ), it was really the detail work: so many tiny flowers, tiny leaves, glueing one petal at a time, ugh. But also, the issue I had with assembling the actual final greenhouse took a lot of my patience!
The newer version has many simplified parts, but if you can still find the older one, that's the one I'd pick if you want to spend a maximum of hours and are ready for a challenge!
Here’s my review of it: EverythingVerySmall – ROBOTIME Miniature Dollhouse Kit A Expanded Review of Cathy’s Flower House
2. ROBOTIME – “Dora’s Loft”
Another one from the ROBOTIME camp that people repeatedly mention when it comes to “painful but rewarding”.
“If you’re looking for difficult, I recommend Dora’s Loft”
One commenter even claimed 80+ hours.
So if you like wire-work furniture, mini wiring, fiddly bits and want to stretch out a build over several days (or weeks), this is a great pick. I’d plan ahead: good lighting, sharp tweezers, a magnifier maybe, and plenty of time. (and frustration on the wirework? )
3. ROBOTIME – “Miller’s Garden”
Interestingly, this one comes up as harder than expected despite being marketed as “easier”.
“I think I must have… Miller’s Garden because all of the flowers and plants. You have hand cut a lot of little leaves and petals. Plus there’s doors windows and books. It took me weeks.”
Yes, I assembled Miller's Garden as well, and yes, I did say that it was the easiest I had made so far, but remind you: I came from Cathy's flowerhouse, wich I tackled at first, hahaha. Everything after that, seemed easier to me. But it is actually deceptively time-consuming and the wirework again, I admit, can get quite frustrating hahaha
I link to a review of Miller’s Garden here: EverythingVerySmall – One of the Easiest ROBOTIME DIY Kits: Miller’s Garden
4. Hardest kits from other brands (because variety is good)
If you’re open to branching out beyond ROBOTIME, I’d also flag a kit from Cutebee. In my own build of the Cutebee-kit I review here: EverythingVerySmall – A Cutebee Dollhouse Review Versus ROBOTIME Le Chocolatier I found the chairs agonising.
Glueing the wires together to form the chairs, well, I had to do it in phases, and the precision required were all far more work than I expected. If you enjoy furniture building and don’t mind tearing your hair out over seating details, this is a really fun (if slightly masochistic) choice.
Have you done more difficult DIY kits that took forever, but were so rewarding when they were finished? let me know in the comments below!
Happy crafting!
Lizzy
