5.8. Gilmor Hotel

Gilmor Hotel's name was locked in from the beginning by the illuminated signs I'd added to Miller Engineering's Gilmor Hotel kit. I built it twice owing to revisions I'd made to the layout of the town. Unfortunately, its original corner orientation was opposite from what was required for its revised location, so a major challenge was creating a mirror image. This task was by no means trivial.

 

  

In order to make a mirror image of the building, I had to separate all of the wall parts and rearrange them. The original first floor windows couldn't be used in the new orientation, so I swiped windows from a different kit.

All of the separate parts were carefully soldered back together, along with the new first-floor windows.

I added a new styrene cornice, as well as styrene window sills. The corner of the building had a long slot to accommodate the illuminated HOTEL sign, seen here being test-fit.

I installed the GILMOR illuminated hotel sign on the roof, using braces from an illumination kit for Miller's N Scale Gulf station.

Almost a year after I'd finished the building, I added a fire escape to the back corner, wedged in between two other buildings. I'm not sure why I did it, since it was impossible to see from any normal viewing angle.

I applied transparent red paint to all of the signs so they looked better in daylight; it hardly change their appearance when lit. The R in GILMOR was deliberately disabled to give the old sign some character. The shot below is a rare view, since the hotel more or less faces the back of the layout.

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