As my horticulture expert and wife, Sharon, progressed with the planting, it became evident the layout would require a lot of watering. For that reason I avoided wood structures and began to assemble POLA plastic buildings. I applied the good looking stick-on signs that come with the kits but, after about a year, the edges of my signs began to curl and, within another few weeks, some peeled off completely. I tried again using extras I had on hand but, after another year, the same thing happened.

AN IDEA STRIKES

One day I was browsing through an antique store, still annoyed about losing my miniature signs, and noticed a display of refrigerator door magnets at the cash register. Some were reproductions of old signs. A few were even the same as those in the POLA kits. That's when the idea struck. Why not use refrigerator magnet signs on my buildings?

I bought half a dozen. They consisted of enamel artwork on a metal backing, the same as a full size metal sign. When I was able to examine them at home, the magnet turned out only to be an adhesive strip. It peeled off easily.

Great. Out came the CA and I glued the signs onto my buildings. They looked wonderful and I found even more at antique and craft stores, swap meets, and flea markets. Soon I had replaced all the POLA stick-on signs with new ones advertising everything imaginable: Automobiles, soap, shoes, farm equipment, beverages, even motorcycles. They represented eras ranging from about 1900 through the 1940s.

But after another six months, the CA had begun to lose its grip and signs again began to fall off my buildings. I tried various glues but the problem was moisture: The back of the signs developed a layer of rust. When the rust invaded the area behind the glue, the glue let go. Now what?

ANOTHER IDEA STRIKES

The solution eluded me until the day I happened to look at hat pins. One was a miniature Railway Express sign. Another light went on! "Golly, Dean," I exclaimed to myself, "If you solder a brass rod to the back of your signs you could turn each one into a kind of pin. Then you could drill a hole the same diameter as the rod through the wall of a building and attach the sign mechanically!"

I removed what signs still clung precariously to my structures and sanded the rust from their backs. Then I bent .040-inch diameter brass rod into 1/2- by 1/2-inch L-shaped pieces as in the illustration. I tinned the sign backs with tinning fluid and solder, held an L-shaped pin against the sign with a pliers, and applied heat with a soldering gun. The larger signs were easier to attach with a U-shaped rod (also in the illustration) because it offered dual mounting pins.

The rest was even easier. I drilled .040-inch diameter holes through the walls of my structures, inserted the pins, and bent them over against the interior of the wall. It took under two hours to solder and attach about two dozen signs.

The metal signs have been outside for years now and none has fallen off. Their prices range between two and five dollars apiece depending on size and where I bought them. And don't overlook hat pin displays. At swap meets I have found REA, railroad, and telephone signs.

Happy hunting.