Building Calamity 5 - Row House

Today ate up some serious time on the Row House. As I have said before (and actually pointed out by Lasgunpacker in a comment) I need these to go together relatively quickly. That would indicate commercial products for the windows and the doors and cutting the openings to accommodate those detail parts rather than an opening I have scaled off of a plan. I spent time going through the Grandt Line catalog online and after making a lot of calculations (and a spreadsheet to track it all) I was off to Caboose Hobbies to pick up some S scale parts. I went through the O scale parts but overall those were just to big for this building. Doors in particular are just huge in O scale. I also found some S scale doors and windows from the Tichy Train Group but I'll have to mail order those.

So I spent a lot of time shimming openings that had already been cut to get good fits from the commercial parts. There are going to be some visible seams I think but it should just add character. I also made some of those changes to the parts I have cut out for the second Row House as well. It will be easier to hide those changes on that model. That one should also go together much faster, its almost like a kit at this point.

I also thought about adding a shack/extension to this one but I'm going to pass on that for now. The second one may get one just to add some variation between the two of them.

I need to do a little more painting on the interior and then I'll do the exterior painting. I pulled out my shingles and I have a set picked out for this first row house. Shingles are another way to add some variation to the row houses along with adding some decorative gables. I'm also thinking they maybe a bit on the large side, I think that they would look better if they were narrower. I think I should go back and check my measurements.

I started with the front door and made the front door opening smaller to accomodate the transom door (Grandt Line 4039, RGS Style Depot Door)

And a little shimming on the front window so the top of the window is sitting on the same line as the new door.

The shimming as seen from the inside

I didn't have to make any changes on the back openings. I found parts that mostly fit. The window just barely covered the already cut opening. These detail parts are also from Grandt Line;  36" door 4025, 8 Pane Window 4027

Pulled out the airbrush and primed the trim and the components that I had already mounted. I really need to create a list of the order I should be doing things in.

Here you can see the front window finished, all done with strip styrene. You can also see the side windows which are Grandt Line; 4 Pane Station Window 4056. The width for this window was just about perfect but I had to make the opening taller to accommodate the casting,

Weathering paint work is done. Now on to the finish painting. I'm definitely going to lighten up the inside and I'm going to have to touch up the white interior trim.