Good judgement call and a good job all around. I would have caged the brakes so the wheels would turn. Each brake "can" has a bolt on the side that can be removed and inserted into the spring brake chamber and drawn up to compress the spring and release the brake.
What I have done is file the back top corner of the front sight at a 45 degree angle to get rid of the slightly rounded side corners and then paint the filed part black (Testors Flat Black). Then also paint the vertical part of the rear sight the same.