The office block - part 1

In the far corner of the shop ground floor is the administration area. A very small space comprising office, with a large safe desk and wall shelves full of wonderful old leather-bound ledgers and suppliers' illustrated catalogues dating from the turn of the century.

In one corner of the office was the cashier's enclosed kiosk where the financial transaction was completed.

The entire structure was originally formed of many panes of glass held on position by very fine pine glazing-bars.

At some point (a few decades ago) the whole structure was re-organised to eliminate the cashier's kiosk, give direct access to the rear or the counter, and re-shape the perimeter form. It then became clad with pegboard to offer extra display surfaces.

In preparing for the making this particular component, I researched and experimented a fair bit on ways to represent the glass. I became clear?!? that any attempt at glazing on such a complicated model would become very demanding indeed.

One issue is that real regular glass is way too thick (I needed 0.3mm thick). Clear plastic sheet is available at that thickness, but is very difficult to keep in pristine condition with so many processes involved. It is also rather susceptible to "blooming" in the presence of Cyanoacrylate adhesive (my preferred approach for  joining very small components).

All this coupled with the fact that certain views through the model will mean peering through up to four layers of plastic (plus protective case), I decided to not represent glazing at all - other than the wooden frames and the complex glazing bars.

So, in starting the building process, I began with the lower panels of pine planking being represented with 0.8mm Birch ply. Very fine sections of Obeche is being employed in the fabrication of the framework and glazing bars.