It strikes me that we need a structures category. I need many large brick manufacturing structures since they lined the corridor through Philadelphia in the 50’s. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people have tried their hand at kitbashing and have some pretty nice buildings. I would be interested to see them along with what kits went into making them. Someone else may be interested in small building kitbashs also.
First, a picture. This is my “Strumpet Brewery.” It’s the Walthers “Arrowhead Ale” background building. I painted it a brick red, and added my own decals. Note that this particular structure is really very generic. You could change the signs and it would become a Buster Brown Shoe factory. It’s also only about an inch-and-a-half deep, so it’s made for the back wall of your layout.
But, my layout doesn’t have a back wall, so I added an interior and made it a “sliced off” building instead:
As for a separate “Structures” forum? I don’t know. Personally, I’m glad they created the Electronics and DCC forum, because that really was very distinct, and didn’t mesh well with “Layouts.” Structures, on the other hand, are really very integrated into “Scenery.” But, if we pulled “Scenery” out of “Layouts,” what would be left? Benchwork? Trackwork? Yeah, but are either of those enough to stand by themselves?
Large brick kits and walls may work best. For each building on a backdrop you need a front and two sides. (Plain styrene can be used for the roofs.) Vary the height, length, width, depth, and color of each building. Then line them up next to each other.
You also have the generic building wall sections produced by Walthers and DPM.
I also found these plaster wall molds to be interesting.
http://www.linkaworld.com:80/
Was thinking about getting the brick and stone molds for some scratch building.