Building the bay window

It's a long weekend here in the UK, so I am getting a lot more done on the kit than I have for the last week.  Yesterday I kitbashed my Houseworks H5008 Bay window so that it looks more like the dining room bay window on the Pickett Hill (PH) house.

The window is designed to fit an opening 3 3/8" wide by 2 1/2" high.  However, the PH has a window seat fitted into the bay underneath the window.  So I started by cutting my opening to be higher than the actual window.  The bottom of the opening is at a similar height to a chair seat in this scale.  When I wallpapered this wall, I folded the wallpaper into the opening to cover the raw edges of the opening.

You will notice that the bottom of the window is missing.  I carefully it away on my Unimat toy scroll saw.  My learning from this experience was that I should have glued in the window frames first (which arrive loose in the packet) as once you cut away the bottom, the window becomes unstable.  I managed to snap the glue joint on one side of the window and had to glue it back together.

On the PH, the bay window continues on the outside right down to the bottom of the exterior wall.  To build a similar extension, I started with a piece of card, scored to bend in two places so that it matches the window.  I cut two pieces of foamcore to be the internal braces.

I glued one brace at the bottom of the card, this will be the bottom of the window on the outside.  The other brace, I set about 1/4 inch down from the top edge of the card, so that it will be level with the bottom of my window opening - thus forming the window seat.

I then turned to my trusty stock of coffee stirrers, to add panelling detail to the outside of the bay.

Then painted the structure in GW Bleached Bone beige.  But I won't be attaching it until the exterior walls are finished.