Aoshima Apartments Ground Floor

I completed my construction of 4 Aoshima Apartment buildings into one large apartment building last March.  While I was pleased with the general look, the ground floor didn't look right.

Additionally, I had this Tomix "7-11" that I really liked, but was having trouble figuring out where this single-story structure would fit in my increasingly dense inner-city.  Below is my original implementation of the 7-11, which was pretty much shoving an LED into it and leaving it at that.

I've seen a couple examples of these 7-11's being used as the ground floor for other buildings, and that seems like a pretty good way to go.

The Aoshima Building is considerably longer and wider than the 7-11, so additional architecture was needed.  I used some plastic brick sheet that I hoped matched the 7-11 brick pattern as close as possible (well, not really.  Short of recasting the 7-11 or buying another kit, this proved to be difficult, but the result looks and feels 'close enough') and glued these onto clear acrylic which I attempted to mimic the door/window style of the 7-11 to make sure the entire ground floor had a consistent look, even if the 'new' section is really just a lobby/entry for the apartments.

I mocked up some 'fake furniture' for the new lobby, painted the interiors and exteriors, found some awnings in my unused 'bits' drawer to go over the doorways, and added more LED's.  Yes, their is a 'loose' SMD LED on one side that is planned for a future billboard that will go against that wall (which I expect will be street facing....given the width of this model, its almost certain that one end will face a street).

This work was all done last May/June, but I didn't have a chance to shoot any photos until recently.  I'm not doing any 'building work' until all my track, scenery, and (most) of the electrical is done on the "Expansion"!