STEP BY STEP
The kit is arranged in two floors, so both were assembled as modules and worked on separately. This is the upper floor assembled with the four walls and floor fitted so it remains square while the glue dries. Care is needed to interlock the brick courses at the corners.
Lighting was to be added by using the Just Plug lighting system. There was to be a light in the roof of the office, a light above the retort front and an outside light on the office steps. Here the two office lights are being fitted and tested with a battery pack.
As can be seen from the inside, the floor provides alignment and strength to the structure. Both floors were to have a hole cut in them but it was decided to do this after the structure was built by cutting through onto a block of wood.
Both floors were finished with wooden model boat decking, which provides a lifelike imitation of individual planks. Any wooden flooring could be used by either scratchbuilding or printing off a wooden floor on an inkjet printer and glueing it to the flooring.
The upper floor needed the cut-out to make room for the retort unit and the lower floor required a similar process as the building was also going to hide some electronic components. This would be accommodated by the fitting of a raised plinth for the retort unit.
The lower floor has now been fitted out with a retort unit sitting on a brick plinth. The retort furnace was a section of domestic drainpipe with the retort ends formed from sections of plastic tube. This was enhanced with circular doors and pipework from a Knightwing pipe kit.