The brick on the Newport is a finish the manufacturer completes before shipping the kit. If it’s marred, there isn’t a way to fix it. And, there’s no way to replicate it, either. The photo of the front porch below shows how the front of the house is recessed by the front porch window.
If built per the manufacturer instructions, the second floor would mimic this recessed pattern. Here’s the Real Good Toys photo showing the way the house is supposed to be put together.
Since I extended the front porch, put the addition on the “wrong” side — I planned it that way :] — and flipped the stairs, I needed to push the front wall on the second floor forward. This not only eliminated the huge flat roof on top of the porch but also gave me more room inside the structure. My problem is getting the front to look like one continuous wall on the outside.
The rub is that the walls are pre-cut with the brick finish. So, I couldn’t just glue the two pieces together since (1) the brick pattern wouldn’t match, (2) there was a gap between the two wall pieces since there was supposed to be room for the connectors that make the recess, and (3) the reason for the recess in the first place was to give the illusion of a tower running up the middle.
To fix the gap, I used a 3/8″ x 3/8″ strip of wood.
I glued each wall to the strip wood and let it dry.
To mask the strip wood and to follow the original vertical line of the mock tower, I cut a piece of 1/2″ x 1/16″ strip of wood and painted it white to match the other connectors. I glued it in place, lining it up with the connector on the first floor.
The strip wood connector won’t show on the inside once the wallpaper is in place. :] Problem solved!
