CC sourcing Kryptonite

The most evil item on my BL
parts list right now.

My LEGO time in the last few days has been heavily focused on seeking out parts for a sourced Cafe Corner. It's been mostly fun so far, although there are some issues that are starting to worry me about getting this 100 percent accurate.

The biggest issue is getting the rare parts in quantity. The dark red slopes for the roof, the light bley door with trans glass, and Type 1 black door frames are out there. With a little patience and searching, you can find them for decent prices. The dark blue arch also comes up on ebay quite a bit and you can find it for under $20 if you wait. It's not pretty, but you can get it done.

However, the part that just does not seem to be out there is the white 1x2x3 panels (2362b). All of about ten sellers have them on BrickLink, with most only having one or two. The CC requires 20. If you go with US sellers, which I tend to do because I hate waiting for parts, you can't even find the needed quantity available right now. You top out at eight on BL for a total cost of just under $80 before shipping. Not a single seller has 20 in stock.

I had planned for my CC to have no substitutions. I even called the LEGO replacement parts line trying to track them down, but they are out of stock and out of production. The closest substitution would be to go with the solid stud version (2362a). The price on those is better, but supply is also non-existent.

It appears I have two options with this: Substitute the color or go with the newer mold on the part, which has a raised side rail on it. I feel as if a different color would disrupt the asthetics of the building too much, since the panels are meant to represent windows. All of the other windows are white. It looks like I'll be making my first substitution. I'm not happy about it, but my budget dictates this approach.