I may add a mullion too, but I may fake it by having it overlap the frame on the front. If I can get it to fit nicely between the frames, I'll try that first, but Plan B will have it on top. I can't put it behind since it will interfere with the glazing. I have the perfect styrene strips for it.
Yes, by using the thin styrene sheet as a 'building surface' I was able to maintain squareness without effort. In fact, it was so elegant, it could be used to build much larger frames as an alternative to laser-cutting.
Speaking of laser-cutting… it's looks like the estimate for cutting the stools is very inexpensive ($5.40 plus shipping). My talented number 2 grandson's coming home from camp next weekend and I'm going to give him stuff to do. He's a budding artist and I'm going to have him sculpt the occupants of the cafe. He started learning how to do it when he and I built the "Old Man and the Sea" diorama for school last year. I researched it on the web and found a wonderful source on how to really use Sculpey when making figures. You do it in layers, firing each to harden it. That way you're not distorting previously shaped areas when messing around with others. You build the mandrel out of aluminum and roll a core of Sculpey on it and get the posture, then fire it. You then add each layer carefully, firing each time until you're working on the final little details (noses, ears, creases, buttons, etc.). It really works.
I'm also going to have him assemble the one dozen bar stools. We're picking him up with his older brother, visiting U of Wisconsin for the older one's college selection challenge, and spending a couple of days in Chicago. The older one's a Jr. Counselor now and we'll go back to camp in Wisconsin for another four weeks and we're bringing the 14 year-old home.
And on the magazine article front… the last set of images were acceptable and the article's going to press. As I noted before, it will be three parts in RMC. If you remember back a couple of years, O'scale Trains refused to publish my substation article because I post all this stuff here, and it was you folks that suggested I turn to the newly re-vitalized RMC, which accepted the article without reservation. They're now publishing my second and I feel there will be more in the future.
Like the great line in "Pretty Woman" when that snooty clothing store refused to serve Julia Robert's character, "Big mistake… big mistake!" I doubt that many of OGRR's forum members are Railroad Model Craftsman subscribers. RMC is oriented to a different audience, and they don't even share the same advertisers. And, different numbers. I doubt that I have 20,000 people reading my missive every day. O'scale Trains needs to get with the times.
