The 4th floor (roof) of the tower is not added till further in the construction so I used Krylon Matt Finish and sprayed the photos then set the assembly aside. I have not glued the roof panels in place, they are just placed to make sure scene looks right.
The next section to work on is the third floor. The 4th floor has slotted walls that lock into a slotted floor. The floor is also the ceiling for the 3rd floor and they lock into each other when assembled. You can see what I mean in the pictures. Prior to applying any of the following prints I used a gray colored Sharpie pen and carefully slid the edge of the paper across the side of the tip so that the design has a finished look and you do not see the white edges. One of the members on the Forum taught me that trick and it really makes a difference. Be careful as you color the paper edge or you will slip and mark up the printed design (yep I know, that's one reason I make extras).
I put one of the 'ceiling murals' on the ceiling side of 3rd floor using contact cement. The back wall gets the picture of bookshelves and door. HOWEVER, rather than being glued completely only glue the center of the picture at this point. We are going to use the area where the corner bracing meets the picture to hide some wires in a few minutes. For some reason the jpeg I uploaded does not have the books on left side, if you cut and paste it will fix that. Finally, the animal print pattern is glued to the sides and front. I sized the print (about 3.5 cm) so it pretty much covers the corner bracing. I did not worry if the bracing is seen a little, with windows in place it will be hard to see corners. AFTER the contact glue fully dries, yes I know I used an exacto knife with a NEW blade (the paper dulls these blades in no time) and carefully trimmed out the window and doors.
I again used the gray Sharpie. The ink bled a little on the wall patterns which actually turned out great. The inside of door and windows looks trimmed out. Here is view when back wall wall glued in place.
I had some cornice moulding bought for another project and decided it to use it to trim out the ceiling and more importantly act as a shade so the LED lights would provide soffit lighting. Using my little modeling table saw I cut the moulding to the correct length and then miter cut each so the four sides would align like real moulding. Frankly this was over kill and I did not accomplish a very good fit (but it works). You can use a 1 x 12 board cut to length and accomplish the soffit look needed. In either case the wood trim was stained using Hunter Red Barn, followed by Hunter Medium Brown (like the flooring). The brown wash really brought out the shades in the wood, too bad it is up next to ceiling and will be seen only briefly. When dry, and key, glue the trim pieces to the corner braces at the point just below the ceiling so that a gap is left between the trim and the outer wall.
Now I drilled the two small holes (just big enough to allow the LED to pass through) for the LED lighting. Each hole is about 1 cm from corner of the bracing on the back wall and located behind the cornice moulding. The LED lights were put in place and the wires are run down either side behind the back wall photo. Two notches are made in the bottom of the back wall so the wires can come out at the floor and then go into the main building. The lights are locked in place using UV activated CA glue and then the picture is completely glued in place using contact cement. Sounds like more then it is. One thing I did forget was to coat each picture with the Krylon Matt Finish. Since the walls are in place the matt finish needs to be applied prior to attaching to inside walls. I plan to use my airbrush and use Dulcote to accomplish the same thing.
The lights are on the left side in this photo.
Here shows where to place the lights and glue them in place:
The two nano lights are connected in series and will eventually be hooked up with all the other lights. To test each series I have a Plug and Play module from Woodland Scenics. Using it with their connectors is great as it is essentially a voltage regulator. I start at zero and turn the knob until (hopefully) the lights turn on. This way I can test without current limiters or resistors and not burn out the LED's. Those will go on when we finish up connections.
That covers the third floor library.
The next section to work on is the third floor. The 4th floor has slotted walls that lock into a slotted floor. The floor is also the ceiling for the 3rd floor and they lock into each other when assembled. You can see what I mean in the pictures. Prior to applying any of the following prints I used a gray colored Sharpie pen and carefully slid the edge of the paper across the side of the tip so that the design has a finished look and you do not see the white edges. One of the members on the Forum taught me that trick and it really makes a difference. Be careful as you color the paper edge or you will slip and mark up the printed design (yep I know, that's one reason I make extras).
I put one of the 'ceiling murals' on the ceiling side of 3rd floor using contact cement. The back wall gets the picture of bookshelves and door. HOWEVER, rather than being glued completely only glue the center of the picture at this point. We are going to use the area where the corner bracing meets the picture to hide some wires in a few minutes. For some reason the jpeg I uploaded does not have the books on left side, if you cut and paste it will fix that. Finally, the animal print pattern is glued to the sides and front. I sized the print (about 3.5 cm) so it pretty much covers the corner bracing. I did not worry if the bracing is seen a little, with windows in place it will be hard to see corners. AFTER the contact glue fully dries, yes I know I used an exacto knife with a NEW blade (the paper dulls these blades in no time) and carefully trimmed out the window and doors.
I again used the gray Sharpie. The ink bled a little on the wall patterns which actually turned out great. The inside of door and windows looks trimmed out. Here is view when back wall wall glued in place.
I had some cornice moulding bought for another project and decided it to use it to trim out the ceiling and more importantly act as a shade so the LED lights would provide soffit lighting. Using my little modeling table saw I cut the moulding to the correct length and then miter cut each so the four sides would align like real moulding. Frankly this was over kill and I did not accomplish a very good fit (but it works). You can use a 1 x 12 board cut to length and accomplish the soffit look needed. In either case the wood trim was stained using Hunter Red Barn, followed by Hunter Medium Brown (like the flooring). The brown wash really brought out the shades in the wood, too bad it is up next to ceiling and will be seen only briefly. When dry, and key, glue the trim pieces to the corner braces at the point just below the ceiling so that a gap is left between the trim and the outer wall.
Now I drilled the two small holes (just big enough to allow the LED to pass through) for the LED lighting. Each hole is about 1 cm from corner of the bracing on the back wall and located behind the cornice moulding. The LED lights were put in place and the wires are run down either side behind the back wall photo. Two notches are made in the bottom of the back wall so the wires can come out at the floor and then go into the main building. The lights are locked in place using UV activated CA glue and then the picture is completely glued in place using contact cement. Sounds like more then it is. One thing I did forget was to coat each picture with the Krylon Matt Finish. Since the walls are in place the matt finish needs to be applied prior to attaching to inside walls. I plan to use my airbrush and use Dulcote to accomplish the same thing.
The lights are on the left side in this photo.
Here shows where to place the lights and glue them in place:
The two nano lights are connected in series and will eventually be hooked up with all the other lights. To test each series I have a Plug and Play module from Woodland Scenics. Using it with their connectors is great as it is essentially a voltage regulator. I start at zero and turn the knob until (hopefully) the lights turn on. This way I can test without current limiters or resistors and not burn out the LED's. Those will go on when we finish up connections.
That covers the third floor library.