Modeling Monday: First Craftsman Structure Kit - Window Glazing and Final Assembly

For this week's edition of Modeling Monday, we'll finish up this simple craftsman structure kit. Click here if you missed the first half of this build, or just need a refresher.

At this point, the walls have been braced, and they - along with the window & door castings - have been primed, painted, and weathered. I described all that in the last post.

Next step before assembling the walls, we have to install the windows and doors. But before that we should add the window glazing. Though the glazing could be added after the castings are installed into the walls, for what I wanted to try I figured it'd be easier to handle them seperately.

The kit comes with acetate that you can cut into "window glass" but I'd heard about using canopy glue for glazing and wanted to try it out.

Here's the glue I used. It's fairly watery, which is important for this technique. Alternatively, I've heard of using Microscale's Crystal Clear product for glazing as well.

The technique is to add the product around the perimeter if each window pane opening and "pull" it across the opening. It's kinda like making bubbles.

Once the product dries, it typically results in very thin "glass" - though as you can see above, the thickness varies. And - unlike acetate (or slide glass, which I've also considered but haven't tried yet) - it's not very clear. But it's fine for depicting very old window glass - or factory glass, IMO. The only problem is that the "bubbles" may pop during the process, so you'll need a little patience.

Now the next step is an example of "don't do as I did, do as I say" . . . In my excitement to get the doors and windows into the walls, I installed those before adding the trim. Unfortunately, that made it more difficult to add the trim flush to the front of the walls (since the window castings keep the walls from sitting flat on the work surface).
No matter what order you choose though, when you're done your walls should look like the above photo - and all ready to assemble!

For me, this is the Most Fun Part - seeing it come together. Like with all the assembly, I applied wood glue using a toothpick, and for the walls I used a square to join two walls at a time. . .

. . . then glued the two pairs of walls together.

Next, I added the short wall.

Gratuitous "What's On My Workbench" photo

Next come the roof pieces. While I could have used the wood glue again (it's cardstock-to-wood, after all), I decided to use Duco Cement so I could get a quicker joint/cure and wouldn't have to weigh down the roof or clamp while drying.
Speaking of the roof, I decided to use my newly-discovered "tarpaper" roofing technique.

Once I added the roofing material, I used "grimy black" acrylic paint to paint it.

And that's it!! Of course, you can add the signs that come with this kit, but I decided to skip those in order to convey an old, not-often-used building. Heh - though I probably should weather the roof a bit!

And here it is (temporarily) on the layout (along with an outhouse I practiced weathering on before using the same technique on the structure's windows & doors).

I hope you've enjoyed following along with this build, and if you decide to try it yourself I hope you'll let us know!