Bert's and Dilly's
I had some quiet time and went ahead with installing windows at Bert's and gluing the walls together. Usually I use an old-school ruling pen loaded with paint to draw on the window frames, but this time I used a Sharpie white paint pen with an extra fine point. It's definitely easier, but I'm not so thrilled with the result. I can adjust the ruling pen to produce finer line work. Over on the left is Dilly's. I used a ruling pen filled with green paint to line its window frames, and it's not too bad. I might pop-off Bert's front doors and replace the windows - I need to think about it.
If I was doing a totally old-school, E. L. Moore style HO-scale build, these pens might be the way to go because of the convenience, and they come in a range of colours.
Once Bert's is done I'll have a small collection of retro N-scale builds on the shelf. They'll either show up on the EVRR build when it's restarted, or maybe on a very small diorama, just to show them off. Well, that's the far future, the near future sees more pleasant work on Bert's ahead.
There's something different about your windows. They're not framed like ELM's. Add a thin wooden frame, maybe with a bottom sill and it'll be more 3D than this is. The white paint looks good but the 3D quality seems too plain without the frames. On a similar subject, my N scale windows were ruled with a thin paint brush guided along with a steel rule straight-edge, held at a 45% angle, parallel with the penciled guidelines taped beneath the "glass". I'm hoping you're using something better than packaging acetate which yellows over the years. (Don't ask me how I know!)
ReplyDeleteI got anxious to build up the thing and figured I'd add the frames later which helps it look weird. Yes, the 'glass' is from a box of Christmas chocolates, so yellowing could happen in the years to come.
DeleteThe yellowed acetate becomes tremendously obvious if you have white blinds or white signs behind the windows, which you don't. You might try adding thin cardstock frames to the front of your windows. If you prepaint them (also the side edges), it could add a nice 3D quality you're missing. Maybe even a well-placed (and maybe notched) sill to stick out a tiny bit. Just eyeball-cut some thin slices of cardstock and use similar sized pieces. I'll bet that would give you more satisfying windows, even if this ends up not being a foreground structure.
DeleteI'll give it a try! Thanks!
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