Oh I definitely don't limit myself when looking for parts. I've got drawers full of all sorts of parts for all sorts of scales/purposes. But I haven't been able to find anything that looks like it'd work for this power car in my stock.
Back when I was in DFW, and I could hit up a couple well-stocked hobby shops, browsing for detail parts was never a problem. Now though, with an LHS with virtually no N-scale, and no N-Scale detail to speak of, I can't do that. I have to find what I want online and I'll go to the LHS just to order the stuff and send some business their way. But 'browsing' for detail parts online is nearly impossible, as most of the time you can't even see a picture of what you're buying, and if you can at all it's large enough to really see what you're buying. Whenever I go back to the HQ in Fort Worth I always make sure I stock up on various detail parts and styrene sheets that I don't have -- not so much because I need the parts (though I don't buy anything I don't expect to use at some point), but because I need an inventory of stuff to look through so that when I am building something, I can pull out all my labeled Plastruct sheets and figure out which one is the one I want and then go order a bunch through the LHS here in Lincoln.
ALL that said though, the venetian blind thing is a real good idea. I'll have to check that out. Combined with some styrene strips I think I could do a pretty reasonable approximation.
