Looking through the foundry building to the layout after spraying the interior black. I can see some light leaks now that its painted on the interior.
My layout has five structures that will be located between the edge of the layout and the tracks. I have built one of them so far. There are a number of ways that this can be tackled by modellers to make them look good. You can put a false back on so the fascia board extends to close it in, you can build full, detailed interiors, or you can make them see through “shadow boxes”. I am going with the shadow box/theatre staging version of making them see-through. I don’t really know what the interiors looked like, and they are all slightly compressed and the widest is about 1 inch deep. That doesn’t make for great model space, and I think, as you can see, it creates a bit of a shadow box effect. I don’t have “glass” in the windows yet, as I still have to paint the window frames on the finished building side, so I can’t glaze them. I think the effect of looking through a shadowbox building will be really interesting and less distracting than made up interiors.
Musings on my Model Railroading Addiction 
The shadow box effect is a great idea! I have the same “problem” as you: I’m modelling an elevator alley and have aisle-side buildings. I was also toying with making an interior, but like you, I have no idea what the interiors looked like, and they will be distracting. Making them shadow boxes will keep the focus on the trains.
Hi Colin, glad it hopefully inspires you. I spent a lot of time mulling how to best treat them. I am hoping when it’s all done it both looks good visually/photographically, but helps operators not lose equipment behind the buildings.
Stephen