Well, I cut a second set of glass semi-circles, slightly smaller than the first set, and discovered that they didn’t fit correctly either. Apparently the arch is not an exact semi-circular shape. So I ended up just trimming the ends of the first set until they were roughly the right shape to fit.
The glass was secured using clear silicone sealant. Normally I do this before the window frames are installed in the building but of course that wasn’t possible here. As a result it got a little sloppy and I had a lot of excess silicone that needed to be removed:
I decided to enhance the look of the faux metal roof by giving it some real rust. I used the iron paint, and chemical rust solution, from Sophisticated Finishes. Right now it’s a bit too orange but over time it will become darker and more brownish:
The sign that hangs down over the entry was in very poor condition, but looks much better now:
The upstairs office has a simple, three-bulb light fixture on the ceiling. I removed the old grain-of-rice bulbs and replaced them with “chip” LEDs. Then I used silicone to glue clear glass beads to each LED, making them look more like lightbulbs and also helping to diffuse the light:
The desk lamp had to be completely rebuilt. I used a “nano” sized chip LED, with a fluted metal bead as the lampshade. A tiny, frost glass bead was used to represent the lightbulb. The lamp was painted gold. The brass tube on the bottom of the lamp fits into the lamp’s base on top of the desk:
Now all of the incandescent bulbs have been replaced with LEDs. Each subassembly worked fine, but when I connected the plugs between the various parts of the building, I ran into problems. Apparently the sockets for the two-pin plugs were rusted out. So I had to eliminate the plugs and sockets, and instead used small copper alligator clips to make the connections.
At last the building is finished and reinstalled on the layout:
That’s all for now. Enjoy!
.
