Route 66 Rally/Raid layout.

[downtowndeco]

I added the street & sidewalks for my small town main street scene. The street is masonite, and the sidewalks are cast plaster w/detail carved in. I'm test placing buildings by using cardboard boxes to see how much the sight lines are affected (or not). Basically though buildings/businesses w/line both sides of the intersecting street. Where the main street crosses the slot track there will be stop signs and/or street lights/crosswalks.

[/URL]

[/URL]

[dreinecke]

Looks good Deco! Did you cast the sidewalks? They look great!

[downtowndeco]

I'm starting on my first structure for my "Main street". The facade is a pair of 1/48th Scale building fronts from a company called Ameritown. I needed to raise it a bit by adding some extra to the bottom because the front doors were too short for 1/32. I then custom built 4 new doors that seem to look pretty good.

[/URL]

The right side wall is a hydrocal plaster casting. I hand carved the brick pattern for my line of 1/35 Scale military miniatures, made a rubber mold, made copies & then cut it to fit & added windows. The sign is simply paper applied w/white glue.

[/URL]

[/URL]

This is the first of 6 or 7 structures that I will scratch build for my "downtown". Questions?

[Ember]

How thick is your wall cast? I can't get hold of hydrocal (plaster with a small percentage of cement added) without paying a small fortune for shipping, so I attempted plaster cast of a brick facade in plaster from a latex mould with only limited success.

[downtowndeco]

About 1/4". Again, the front of the building is plastic.

If you can't get hydrocal try running small strips of fiberglass drywall mesh into your castings. It adds a lot of strength.

[whitworthnut]

Would 20 minute drywall compound perform the same function as hydrocal. It dries by chemical reaction rather than dehydration. It is about $20 per bag of 20 pounds. It dries very hard and much less dusty than regular dry wall compound.

[downtowndeco]

I don't think so. Hydrocal has pretty unique properties. I have not experimented with many other materials though as I buy hydrocal 500 pounds at a time. My advice? Pay up & get the stuff that works. You'll spend more time messing around than it is worth experimenting than it is worth.

[downtowndeco]

I glued the two walls together & have placed them tentatively. I will need to add a foundation to bring the structure up to the height of the sidewalk. I also need to figure out what the storefronts will be. Maybe a downtown diner & a bank(?)

[/URL]

[whitworthnut]

Excellent job on the brick work.

[dge467]

That looks great!

[Ember]

The larger one looks a little like an old-fashioned department store. The smaller one could pass as a bank if you add some fancy decorations; urns, facade statuary, that sort of thing.

[demether]

Really cool. The weathering on brick is really,really well done. Bravo !

[HRWJim]

Another great building. I second the bravo on the weathering of the brick. Jim

[bobbyraz49]

STUNNING !

[downtowndeco]

I'm back. I uncovered the layout, dusted it off & am going to finish it. Here is the beginning of the next structure. This will be an art deco supermarket/drug store. Stay tuned!

[/URL]