Project Update: Slim's Dogs & Burgers by FOS Scale Models

I have had this kit staring at me from a shelf for past few months. I was up to good start but then I got myself into confusion of what I really wanted to do with it. Then one day I was installing pharmacy from Raglan Road window "glass" and remembered that Slim's needed few last ones added too. Then I found time to glue stucco addition to the main structure. Well, not very much but at least there is some movement. Also I think I have gotten myself out of confusion. I am waiting for some detail piece to arrive from China within next couple of weeks. I hope it will fit well and will be neat addition to overall look.

Project Update: Raglan Road by Bar Mills

I have been steadily working on the pharmacy building since last update. Since I am changing it to candy store I have run into some sort of an issue. The kit comes with pharmacy signs that look like etched brass laminated on some black plastic. However, I needed them to be candy store signs and I wanted similar golden look. There were several options but they didn't look viable. I could do the same thing Bar Mills did, i.e. photo etch but I didn't have a set up required to do it. In addition, was not familiar with material they used. I could print the signs on ALPS printer but I didn't have an access to it. I knew there used to be some office/art supply store in California that sold silver paper for ink jets. I am pretty sure they sold gold paper too but at the time I wasn't much interested in it. I was looking into this because I wanted to build some paper models that had bare metal surface and there was no way to do it other than print on silver paper. Anyway, as far as I remember the paper was reasonably priced but shipping cost was very high. I wasn't going to pay $30-40 for some 50 sheets of paper I wouldn't have much use for. Then I was going through Games Workshop paint left over from my son's figure painting times. Among others I found gold paint and thought what if I painted area on regular paper with gold paint and then printed sign. I wasn't sure if ink would stay where it should or bleed. The result of my experiment can be seen in the picture below. I think it has turned out good enough to be used on the model. However, I wish black color was a bit more solid.
Although the pictures show the porches incomplete but at the time of this writing the are finished. That was quite pain in the neck to install them. This task has taken me three lunch breaks. That is roughly 2 and half hours. After this I already can see the light at the end of a tunnel. I would like to finish the kit before Christmas but I don't have much time left. Quite few lunch breaks will be spent doing other things than modeling over next few weeks...