Today was shortened due to chores and exercise, but the bricks have been alcohol washed, the window frames are painted, a loading door was fabricated and painted and the interior walls are done.
I realized some time ago, that I had forgotten to draw a rear loading door in the plans, so it didn't get laser cut. Rather than bothering André about one piece that I had forgotten, I quickly scratch-built one out of 0.020" styrene sheet and some 0.015" X .125" strip stock. I measured the opening with the digital caliper (no measure, just transfer) and cut the stock on the Duplicutter. The picture also shows the brick work with the alcohol wash. Door lintel bricks in this picture are engraved directly on the building wall. The door fit is perfect! BTW: which direction should the diagonal bracing go? I think the door is upside down in this picture.
After finishing it, I stuck it and all of the other window frames onto a piece of cardboard on blue masking tape and air brushed Model Tech Pennsy Green (same color as the main house windows.)
I spray it in four passes with some setting time in between. I force dry with the hot air gun. Each pass comes from a different angle to ensure the the mullions are sprayed on all aspects. I let this dry overnight since it was still tacky later in the afternoon. The Pennsy Green was starting to kick and was pretty thick. I used Testor's Acrylic Thinner to bring it back to life and it seems to have worked okay. I'm not sure what the thinner is, but it seems to work better than just using water.
Lastly, I painted the upper interior walls with craft paint and a wide brush a light interior-looking green. Then, using the surface gauge, scribed a line around the room a scale 6 feet off the floor and masked along that line. I should have used Frog Tape since I had some bleeding under the blue masking tape. I then painted the lower wall a nice brown shade again with craft paint and wide brush. I touched up the line with a smaller brush after the brown set up a bit. I'll need to paint the inside of the back door also since it's now styrene white.
I will probably install the floor after the windows go in. For lighting, I'm thinking about facing the LEDs upwards and putting some reflective surface on the inside of the roof. I want the lighting to be more thorough and diffuse. The LEDs are very bright and make hot spots directly below them. By bounce lighting it should give a more uniform lighting. Or at least that's how I'm imagining it.
It's the weekend again, so maybe no shopworn. But, the grandkids are in our custody this weekend and #1 grandson wants to work in the shop on the retaining wall. So... if he gets to work there so do I. We'll see.
