Buildings

Most of the buildings were constructed when I first started landscaping.  I wanted to set them out so that I would have a better notion of where to place the lighted Christmas trees.  I wanted to eastern highlands to be a farm, the lowlands to be a small town, and wasn't sure what I'd do with the western highlands.

The farm consists of the Adams Dairy Farm barn (with the roof repainted blue to match the carriage shed) and fencing, with Faller black and white cattle in the barnyard, the windmill, a farmhouse and a carriage shed. You can also see the horse-drawn sleigh coming along beside the barnyard in the picture to the right.

The town has the train station, the Midstate Bank, Gulf Gas Station, Dolly's Diner, a house and garage, a Victorian home, the Gilmor Hotel, and a fire station. .

Several of the buildings were of laser-cut wood and were fairly lightweight - plus they had a floor.  These were easily glued to the ground with Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue.

The photo-etched brass building were larger and heavier - and they had no floor.  Some had folded under metal edges, but for others the walls simply came in contact with the ground.  I wasn't sure what type of glue to use with this.  For a layout which remained horizontal - the traditional model railroad layout - it wouldn't matter much.  But for a Z scale layout in a suitcase, which might find itself on edge for carrying or storage, I was afraid that the heavy metal buildings might come loose.  I've been using Hobbytown Maxi-Cure cyanoacrylate glue and Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue, and thought that silicone cement might also be good.  So I e-mailed Micro Structures and asked about what type of glue they would recommend. They said that either the cyanoacrylate or silicone would be best, but they might work better if I glued the buildings to a thin board and then glued the broader surface to the Styrofoam"ground".

I cut out "floors" from the cardboard support that comes in each of the Micro Structures kits and used cyanoacrylate to glue the buildings to these.  Then I used Scenic Glue to adhere these floors to the Styrofoam.  The Gulf Gas Station was already intended to set on a large concrete slab, made with the same cardboard, so it was done the same way.  I extended the floor of the garage (picture at the right) and painted it black to form a driveway out to the street.

No way to know yet how well this works.  Keep your fingers crossed!