An American Diner!

The first stages of this build can be found here: Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie Fried Chicken!

I'm having a lot of fun with this build.  I've not made any scenery since completing the city for our games of All Things Zombie last October.  I've missed it.  I really have.

Of course, the danger in these circumstances is that you plough on ahead buoyed up with your enthusiasm and forget to do things in the correct order.  You'd never make that kind of mistake in the middle of a project, but it can happen when there's been a gap in making stuff.  I was worried I had done this myself with this mini project.  I don't think I have.  I think it's just a case of having to work out something I've never done before.  And of course, there's always more than one way to approach each build.

So, with every pore of my being encouraging me to fill the windows and paint the interior black before starting assembly, I successfully resisted and began gluing the walls around the base.  Why did I do this? Let me explain...
 I'm using up some of the last of my sheets of foamcore rescued from a shop bin a number of years ago.  If I had the money I'd purchase black foamcore from an artists shop for all my builds.  Then I'd be guaranteed two things.  First, they'd be flat.  No warping at all.  Unlike the stuff I'm using for this build.  Second, they'd be black and I wouldn't have to paint them.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have designed the interior and made this diner with a removable roof. But it's going to be used primarily in our games of ATZ.  I love these rules.  But they do abstract action within buildings.  I like the way it does it very much.  And if you don't need to model interiors as a result, you shouldn't have to.
 Which begs the question of the windows.  Because if you have a heap of them (as I do) then you're going to see inside.  And if you're not detailing the interior, then you need to make it as dark as possible.  I decided it was best to construct the building apart from the roof and then paint it.  I did this because I remember painting the sections of the big city buildings before assembly.  This was logical because of the lack of space for getting a paintbrush in after construction. But I still needed to stick a brush through the windows after assembly to tidy it up the joints.
 When it comes to this diner, I wanted to assemble as much as possible before painting.  Unlike the city buildings, I need to attach the windows before the roof goes on, or they will be impossible to do.  This, you understand, is all the fault of the great big curved windows.  Of course, I'll get a better hold if I glue the windows to the building before I cover the inside with a coat of black paint.

So here goes...
I have a 2cm deep rim round the base of the curve, and a narrower 1.5cm rim above the window. It's best to keep them together for the next task.  Now, foamcore is flat, but this section needs to curve.  So I marked guidelines 5mm apart across the length of the pieces.  I then cut freehand at around 40 degrees,  roughly 1mm either side of the guideline.  Once that was done along the length, I carefully cut the two sections apart. This is what you're left with:
 And when the first one was attached, it looked like this:
 And from another angle.
I then I got out the old compass and made a ledge for the window as you can see in the next shot.
 The job was then repeated for the top of the building.  From this point on, the building had to rest upside down to allow everything to dry out properly.

 Well, for a while anyway.  I then turned it round to insert some interior walls.  I know I said I wasn't doing any interior to this build, but this part is entirely necessary.  There are so many windows on this building, that we need to block sections off.  You wouldn't be able to see from the restaurant through the kitchen and out the window at the other side. Nor would you be able to stand in the bathroom and look out the curved windows of the restaurant.  The large rectangle is the kitchen area.  The small section houses the bathrooms.  Painting everything black and using transparent plastic windows that reflect the light and surrounding terrain allows me to get away with not detailing the interior of the building.  I hope.

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