The Worst Block in Town

I thought I'd try to get away from the small extension I've been adding to the layout. That's been turning out well I think, but I just kind of wanted to take a break from it and do something different for a while. I saw a building kit on the website of a local hobby shop - if you can call 80 miles away local - that I thought would fit in well on the layout if I just shifted a couple of things around. So I ordered "The Worst Block in Town" and received it in the mail 3 days later.  Great service from Otter Valley Railroad in Aylmer, Ontario.

Made by Downtown Deco, this is only the 2nd Hydrocal kit I've ever put together, but the first one went together well enough, so I wasn't too concerned about this one.

The four wall sections are at the top of the picture, with 2 "concrete" pads and stairs at the bottom.  The concrete pads are to represent the foundations of buildings that have been razed. Other kit parts and details are to the left. I don't think that both of the concrete pads will fit in the space I'll have available, but I like the idea of including at least one of them.

Following the assembly suggestions from Downtown Deco, I used 5 minute epoxy to hold the walls together. I tried to be as careful as I could to get the walls square, but I did end up with a gap between the back wall and the side wall of the building. In hindsight, I should have maybe taken a picture of that, but it didn't occur to me at the time.

The instruction sheets warn that the Hydrocal doesn't have any "give" to it and will be likely to crack or break if you try to force the walls to bend. This problem gap was about 1/8" wide. With Downtown Deco's warning about breaking the wall in mind, I just mixed up a little Hydrocal that I had on hand and filled in the gap myself. After it set overnight, I sanded it down and carved in a little bit of brick detail with an Xacto knife.I had no problem doing this and it actually made this project a little more fun anyway. I'll have more on this building next time.