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Another building on the AGHR layout, the "Hotel Del Rio", is starting to fall apart and is in need of some re-work.  I've been looking for a means to work in a "Gusteau's" restaurant (from the Pixar film Ratatouille), and I think this is it.  The front architecture looks about right, and I should be able to squeeze in a decent first floor interior. 

 

Here's the building before I got started.  There are several cleaver (and cost saving) ideas  employed by the original builder:

-The "vents" on the roof are cabinet knobs

-The roof is a pizza box (deja vu?)

-The "pipes" are soda straws

-There's a waste can on the back of the building that is actually a toothpaste cap

-The curtains and lobby scene are cut out of magazine pages

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Here's the original interior and exterior after removing the windows.  I peeled out most of the original glue later:

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First step was to add a bunch of internal supports to reinforce the structure.  I glued wood to wood using yellow wood glue, and wood to plastic connections were made using Household Goop.  Building is face down, since most of the reinforcement was against the front:

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Last edited by frizzinbee
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I've made a bunch more progress on this building since the last update.  Here's the latest below!

 

First, after the building was reinforced, we went over it with steel wool to tone down the whitewashing a little more.  Also removed the decorations from the roof, as we'll need something slightly smaller in size to best go with the signage that's planned:

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Rear of the building, before touch-ups began:

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Here's the front after reattachment of the decorative molding:

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And here's the roof as a "blank slate".  The caps on the wall have all been freshly repainted:

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A little joint compound to seal any gaps.  Here's the look before it was cleaned-up:

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Traced and cut the base for the 1st floor interior.  The bottom center will be a restaurant in the hotel:

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New roof vents painted, weathered, and added:

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Front doors touched up, molding complete, and white trim touched-up:

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-Dustin

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Got some more work done on this building, slowly but surely, over the past several days.

I thought some "stained glass" would look good in the front transoms.  This inkjet printed paper one actually looks pretty good!

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I also started building the interior of the restaurant, for the bottom center of the building

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First test fit...

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I also installed the windows in the building.  Messing with glue, especially within the skinny confines of this building, is a good way to get windows ruined.  I got around that by using Skor tape (heavy duty thin 2-sided mounting tape_ available on amazon), which is also the same stuff I use to re-window passenger cars.  Works like a charm!

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All windows installed!

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Here are the roof supports that will be used in the Gusteau's sign:

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...and some sceneray sheets curtains:

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Test fit of interior, with curtains and stained glass installed:

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I painted the curtains in the remainder of the windows, mostly for variety sake:

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Gusteau's sign supports getting painted!

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Restaurant tables get their tablecloth and make their way to the dining room:

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Measuring and cutting the main board for the sign:

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Table and chairs in place!

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Sign support coming along!

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....and finally, added an angled piece of wood to hold the lighting for the roof sign!

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Thanks for the compliments!

RRDOC posted:

Great work!

Where did you get the printed sheet of curtains?

Bob

The printed sheet of curtains came from forum sponsor John Bull Trains

bigtruckpete posted:

That is awesome!!!! Where did you get the images for the stained glass, restaurant interior and curtains?

Thanks!

The curtains came from John Bull Trains (link above).  The stained glass and restaurant interior I just found on a google image search.  I searched "stained glass transom" and "French restaurant", respectively, and got a few decent options to choose from.

-Dustin

 

This building is pretty much done.  All that remains is to finish out the exterior detailing.  Here's the latest...

 

That angled piece of wood is painted:

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The Gusteau's sign was added to the billboard:

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LED strip added to the angled piece of wood to illuminate the sign:

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Gluing the sign in place:

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And voila!  The building is lighted!

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Interior shots with the lights on:

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