Thanks, Peter.   The whole thing is successive layers of 3 mm MDF.  The bases of the buildings are also 3 mm MDF as you can see in my thread on the Town in a Box.

I want to be able to remove each building for repairs.  For example, the CAFE neon sign has died, so I'll have to take the roof off the cafe to get the gubbins out.

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

…………………………………………………… as you can see in my thread on the Town in a Box.
…………………………………..

Ooops !! :oops::oops::oops:

Started on the back row.  3 mm MDF frames around the buildings make dams for the flushing plaster to be built up to make the surrounding yards.




Hmm.  I must untwist those fence wires.




It's hard to get it all into the one shot.  I hope you're not getting bored.

Far from it, Max.

Not bored at all Max, keep up the information flow.

Ummm  reminds me of when we fixed up the house to sell it - spent weeks working on it - then the wife complained that I should have done all the fixing up while we were living in it as it had never looked so good ….
at least your layout is not co-owned with the missus  … or is it ?

I guess we co-own everything when it all boils down, Dave.  ;-)

I understand what she meant, though.

I sat down the other day and drew up a track plan for the next layout I'm going to build once I've sold this one.  You know where this is going, don't you?

Yep.  It was almost the same as this one.  :oops:

The more I read this thread Max, the more I realise it's a waste of time - just keep the layout !!  You know you want to. thumbs

It is very useful for me to see how you fit the buildings in place.  I'd often thought setting them into the layout is a good idea but hadn't really given much thought about how to ………….now there's a funny noise coming from the cogs between my ears …………..:cheers

On edit - forgot to ask - what's "flushing plaster" ?  If you've said earlier, I'll go and stand in the corner now ………..;-)

It's for when the loo leaks.

My son in law is a Gyprock installer.  Gyprock is a plaster board used for lining the inside walls of houses.  It started it's life in the '60s when houses in Oz were made with a timber frame, clad in Gyprock with a veneer of brick work on the outside walls - the so-called "brick venereals."

Almost all houses are built here like that now.  The flushing plaster is used on the joints.  An adhesive open weave bandage is applied across the joints and the flushing plaster is trowelled across it and then sanded off to make a flush, invisible seam.

Courtesy of Nick I have a 15 kg tub of the plaster, (which is about 20 litres).  It doesn't go off unless you forget to replace the lid.  I have done all of my scenery with it and it's lasted about 5 years so far.  There is about 25 mm still in the bottom of the tub.

It's great stuff - no mixing or mess - just trowel it on.

Thanks Max. :thumbs

The Gyprock boarding is called - wait for it - "plaster board" in UK (usually made by "British Gypsum") and "placo-platre" here in France - "dry lining" is the system.  The "modern" jointing bandage is a self-adhesive fibre glass weave about 2" wide.  In days of yore, it was either hessian "bandage" or a simple paper roll.  The hessian was stuck in place using a plasterers float and very fluid plaster - your "flushing plaster" I'd guess.  We use a similar ready mixed compound (but thicker) for both the paper strips and the fibre glass bandage.  Building practices are the same the world over - basically !!!

I'd never thought of using it for your purpose  :roll::roll:……………doesn't it crack under the slightest flex ?

It doesn't seem to crack, Peter.  The first fill shrinks a little, leaving a hairline crack, but I find I usually need several applications when I'm modelling.  Now that I have the plaster up against the frames, it should be easy to screed the second fill.

Having said that, any spills just scrape off and it's very soft to sand it back.

In the front row, I used MDF to fill the larger areas - except for the triangular space on the left end.  I noticed that when the plaster there was painted, it looked like bitumen which will be the treatment of the paved areas in the industrial block at the back.  The MDF looks more like concrete when it's painted, so it should give me another option.

I think it's called drywall in the US.

Drywall, etc
Drywall - Wikipedia

I need something to occupy myself while the flushing plaster sets, so I'm making some street lights.

I've resurrected my old design used in the yard lights and security lights.  I've changed from the white high intensity LEDs to yellow ones, and I'm trying a few different designs to replicate the different styles often found in the country town streetscape.

Here's a few different ones I've done so far . . .

Better than any kits, Max.

[user=394]ddolfelin[/user] wrote:

Better than any kits, Max.

Don't tell him that exclam:  he will now charge me the earth for the lot I was about ask him to build for me

Thanks, Pete.

:hmm  It's the labour that costs, Sol.

I've just finished the 12th one.  I think I'm over it.  :shock:

Now those lights look just like the kind of thing we need as a Monthly Project Max.

Er, OK Bob.  I have to go and get some more brass tubing.  :oops:

Back later.  Just talk amongst yourselves.  :shock:

Now, where was I?   Oh, yes.  The back row.




At the back will be a 6 foot chain mesh fence.  So the posts are in.  They are pieces of a wire coathanger.  The baseboard is drilled and the posts are coated at the foot with PVA and driven into the MDF.  A gauge was used to set them all at the same height.




A bit of gratuitous land fill in the forground, just to tidy it up.  I can always scrape it off again if I decide to put up some more buildings.  I'll just whack in a few trees for the time being, once the glue dries.