I'd like to thank everyone who replied to my message below. I feel a lot more confident now with your guidance.
Richard
I want to start building a roundhouse, a diesel repair shop building and other large buildings. I would like to build them "on the bench" and then place them on the layout. I want to tap the experience of those who have built these before. What do other modellers use as a base for these buildings?
Thanks, Richard
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
I built my layout on 2 layers of oriented strand board (OSB). When I built my sawmill, I built it on one layer of OSB, then I traced the outline of the sawmill base at its location on the layout and used a router to cut out the hole. The sawmill base dropped right in. After scenery you'd never guess what I'd done.
I took a similar approach with my turntable; the pit is medium density fiberboard (MDF) set in the layout OSB:
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
I've used 1/4-inch foamboard for some bases like this. However, I have noticed that it may warp when I apply scenery to it. If I glue it down firmly to the 2-inch construction foam base, I don't have a problem.
On most of my structures, though, I leave the bottom open. This lets me do interiors and illumination a lot easier. The structure itself can be removed without disturbing the surrounding scenery.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
This is what I do when placing a structure. I trace the outline of the building on the spot it will be located. Next, I cut a foundation for it from a presentation board to the height I want the building to sit. I glue that down on the outline so it becomes permanent. If the foundation is concrete, I apply a thin coating of drywall mud and color it with either paint or chalks (drywall mud is perfect for making crumbling concrete). If made of other material, I apply it the outside edge of the foundation. I like my buildings removable, so I apply a very thin coating of drywall mud on the top and let it begin to set up; I place the building onto this with a slight pressure so it leaves an indent in the almost dry mud. Remove the building and let the mud set up. Now I can place the building on the foundation and the slight indentation allows me to place the building exactly every time and helps hold it in place. It also makes the building look like it is attached to the foundations (in case there was an irregularity on the bottom of the building that would have left a gap). It seems like a lot of work, but it looks really good, and it works for me.
Chuck
Modeling the Motor City
I have tried foam core which is easy to find and relatively cheap especially if you look for recycling opportunities. I also like to blend it into the scenery without making everything permanent. Any moisture causes it to warp. I tried spraying with the tan ultra flat camoflauge paint which helped a lot and made any scenery gaps not be too noticable.
Second choice is gator foam board - a little more expensive but doesn't warp when wet. My only downside was that it is 3/16" thick.
This business next to mine is a sign shop and I found that they use a lot of thin aluminum which is easily cut on a table saw with carbide teeth, is very thin, doesn't warp or deteriorate with moisture and did I mention free? Check your local sign shops for possibly free of cheap throwaway pieces. They also use another white plastic material which is pretty good for small projects but can flex some in larger pieces. Forgot the name... too much steam has gone through my old pipes.
I also like PCB printed circuit boards with or without the circuit traces etched on. They are fiber glass base, rigid, impervious, readily cut with a band saw or table saw. And they are thin and rigid. I find mine in an electronics surplus store.
I like to paint all my bases with a latex 'sand textured' paint that is the same color as my layout base. This hides the imperfections and lets me blend the structure into the base. By cutting the bases irregular, they are easily covered up on the layout with whatever I am using at the moment for the ground. The thinness and impervious make them easily blend in to the surrounding scenery and removable without major destruction. I fasten them to the layout with a couple of drops of Ailene's tacky glue. Holds well but is still removable.
For my "downtown" buildings, I cut the raised sidewalks so that the structure bases just fit snugly inside of them. Here, the sidewalk (a piece of styrene, painted a light gray with cheap craft paint, lines applied with a #2 pencil) is one thickness above the level where the building base sits. You can see the interior lamp in this shot, fastened to the base.
Here's the same building (DPM's "Other Corner Cafe") with the structure in place. The raised sidewalk hides any gap at the base. There is no attachment from the structure to the base here, making it easy to remove. You can see the lamp through the window in this picture, which I normally consider a no-no, but I removed another structure to take this picture, so this angle is not usually visible to the viewer.
Again, I've printed up the interior brick wall and floor patterns on the computer. I made up a few crude tables and benches, and added Scottish-themed tablecloths and window coverings.
Anyone have any or have they done any mills that had multiple truck/rail entrances at different heights? What was used as bases then? We might want to push the envelope here a bit. Me i spent time carving out and trimming multiple layers of insulation type foam. Pink/Blue stuff.