Is it level?

As I was coming to paint the next section, I was aware that the walls of the model weren't flush to the floor. Due to the nature of applying the clay to the substrate beneath. the clay surface ended up being tapered towards ground level, and indeed with shrinkage, was about half a mm away from the bottom in some places, so a distinct gap appears when siting it on a flat surface. To remedy this, I placed the model on a sheet of greaseproof paper on a flat surface and with the edge of a scalpel blade, pushed filler under the gaps, scraping smooth with blade and allowing to dry. Once dry I was then able to shave the surface flat with the blade and then rescribe the stonework covered by the filler. The result was a pleasingly flat wall.

The same will have to be done with the Stationmaster's house section of the building. As you might be able to see in the photo, it's not quite level, but that can be easily remedied. It'll need a bit of retouching, but that's not really a major problem, especially as I'll be gluing the booking office to it and filling the resulting gap between the two walls, so it would need a bit of attention blending the two structures anyway.

An initial undercoat has been applied to the Booking Office, the next stage will be to glue the two structures together, fill in the resulting gap and then begin blending the colour to match the existing building

Windows and Doors

Now that the walls are pretty much complete, it's now time to come to the windows. I drew in the window shapes when I drew the elevations for the wall sections, basing them on a sash window design. I'm lucky enough to work at a company with access to a vinyl plotting cutter, so having drawn out the window and door frames, I then output the files using the vinyl cutter onto a matt white vinyl. This was then applied to a piece of semi flexible CD case material and then cut out with a sharp scalpel to the outside edge of the frame (The door frames were applied to a piece of 1.5mm cardboard)

To give the frames a bit of rigidity when siting within the apertures on the model, I glued a 1mm x 1mm square strip of foamex to the rear of the frame. Apologies for the quality of the photo - I'm still getting to grips with the camera on my phone :)

Test fitting showed that a little shaving of the inside of the window apertures was necessary, but much better to do this now, rather than after the model is painted.

The windows have now been taken out and the  inside of the apertures were then scribed as necessary, ready for a coat of paint before gluing in permanently. Now I know all the windows and doors fit, it will be much easier to paint the walls with the windows removed, then they can be glued in once dry. Of course a little touching up may well be necessary, but hardly a hardship with a fine brush.