A Mid-Century Motel In O Scale - Part 3: Windows and Siding

To me, one of the most challenging and fun aspects of scratch building is making windows. I have nothing against commercial window castings. I just really enjoy making them myself.

When you build windows from scratch, you can make them any size you want, and in any style you want. You aren't limited to what's in the detail parts catalogs.

There are several techniques for making windows. Most involve building up the sashes in layers. Muntins can be painted on, or made from graphic ruling tape, stripwood, or bits of wire. In this build, I'm using painted strips of paper, and using a glue stick to apply the strips. A glue stick has a nice advantage -- you can remove glue smears from the windows with a damp brush.

For the exterior of the walls, I'm using strips of card stock to simulate random-width siding. I'm leaving a tiny gap between strips. That allows the dark paint underneath to show through the thinned paint in the cracks, enhancing the detail.

I installed yellow LEDs in the front walls to simulate porch lights. Yellow "bug lights" were common back in the day. (Yellow bulbs were supposed to attract fewer bugs. I don't know if they really worked or not.) I'll be reducing the brightness of the LEDs by pairing each with a 390-ohm resistor. I plan to put some sort of fixture over them too.

For the interior walls, I printed a wood paneling texture. Here's the texture I used:

And here's the build video: