I have dreaded building my layout structures for a long time, and now that I am in the throes of it, I am trying different techniques as I go, the first being the other thread on ink mortar joints.
When I was in high school I was in a vocational four year Architectural program. I built competitive architectural models way back when. One of the things I learned is that windows always appear black from across the street, unless there is light from behind, then you can see in.
As such I decided to use thin black gloss Mylar appliqué, added to the front of the glass to represent the reality above, prior to gluing them on the back of the window castings. I peel off a large piece sticky side up, and stick the pieces of glass to to as evenly as I can. Then I run a knife along each piece of glass to trim the excess Mylar away as shown below.
The second idea I had is the windows. Historically. I hate adding “glass”. It’s just too easy to mess up and get glue everywhere. Frustrating. Then it dawned on me that I have a tub of Liquitex clear gloss medium! Knowing it will dry clear, even if I mess up, and adhere the windows in place. I applied a small daub to each corner of the inside window casting. Then I attach the layered glass with the Mylar against the window frame. So far so good!
The third idea is adding tar lines to an otherwise plain roof surface. Granted, I would not want to try this on a large roof surface, but it would work. First, I add Tamiya tape at equal intervals, along the roof. Then I add a thin brush line along each tape edge, on one side only using gloss black acrylic paint. After it dries, I add new tape, 90 degrees to the first paint lines at similar spacing apart. Then I alternate the gloss black paint from one tape to the other, creating an offset, staggered pattern.
