I have not actually done this before, but I believe a spray adhesive is the glue of choice. I know of others who have used something as simple as a glue stick. However, you are correct in that large temperature swings could cause problems. Jamie
Walthers makes a few different background / flats kits. You can check their online catalog. I think they're a bit pricey for what you get though. For modern buildings you could probably bash together something from Pikestuff (Rix) kits - they're basically just "steel" walls with doors and windows. One thing I want to try is casting preformed "concrete" walls for a modern warehouse. Have to make a couple molds out of styrene and experiment with some different plasters.
Walthers makes quite a few backround building kits: Centennial Mills: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3160 Heritage Furniture: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3164 Armstrong Electric Motors: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3172 Commissary/Freight Transfer Building: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3173 River City Textiles: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3178 Bud's Trucking: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3192 Arrowhead Ale: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3193 The ADM Grain and Wed Wing Flour Mill kits also make excellent background relief structures and are fairly easy to cut down to whatever width you need: ADM Grain: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3022 Red Wing Flour Mill: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3026 Other large structures are the Steel Mill Buildings. They can also be cut down relatively easily to make Background buildings. Pretty much, for the most part, all the Walthers Cornerstone Structure kits can make great background buildings when cut down.
Background buildings, flats. Here are some more background building flats that you can copy & size to your scale.
Love this link that was given, http://www.kingmill.com/ Going to get some of them for sure. That is great stuff there and very reasonably priced.
I've tried them with N Scale Back Drop Buildings and am quite pleased. They look good and the price is excellent Like $7 for a backdrop building not including the Gatorboard of foamboard you use. I just received one of King Mills' Side Street Flats in HO. Quite impressive. nice detail. I'll sure be picking up one of their kits. Compressed Cityscape; I like that thought. More room for track..
You could try one or two of the buildings on this site. www.scalescenes.com Although UK based some could be suitable or modified for for US use e.g http://www.scalescenes.com/products/T026-Factory-warehouse You download the pdf and can resize OO buildings to HO.
I'm stirring up an old thread, didn't think this was worth a new thread... I have several older kits from previous layouts that have been "broken down", so I am going use them for background building flats. How are the background building flats attached to the walls/background?
Here's a whole bunch from another forum: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/cCQcT3...ic Otto's Photos/Sketchup module 01212012.jpg
I think it depends on the backdrop partly. But for a photo or cardstock background building, I would think a person can just glue it directly to their backdrop. For a low releif background building, simply use adhesive if needed. I am planning on using a mixture of low relief background buildings and flats for my Minesota Commercial layout. The large grain elevator on my layout is a kitbash of a Walthers grain elevator where it has been slpit in half and the extended using the silo halves. I must confess that I did not build this and purchased it here on TrainBoard. However, I was planning on doing this myself and stumbled across this being sold on here at a reasonable price. Made sense to purchase vs build in this case. Here is the grain elevator low releif background building (no longer directly placed on my backdrop)
I have thought about using velcro strips to attach my plastic building walls to the backdrop, however, I think this will cause gaps between the building flats and the backdrop, which will look odd. Wood glue likely wouldn't hold to the slick plastic back of the building walls well enough to glue to the wall...... hmmm.
Look at all the background buildings in this tread that you can copy for your layout. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?128328-Paper-and-Card-Structures Here are some shots with paper flats in the background.