Graham

I've built a lot of Downtown Deco kits.  One thing to remember is they are (relatively) heavy.  And the hydrocal material is fragile, i.e. easily chipped.  

Downtown Deco kits are thicker than other brands of hydrocal kits (C.C. Crow, Ed Fulasz, Thomas Yorke, etc).  So to me, the thick walls look funny when placed next to a styrene or wood structure.  So I try to take that into consideration when placing them on my layout.

I built a long flat (24") out of some warehouse parts and I actually glued the wall parts to a piece of plywood to use as a backing and reinforcing plate.  I used good, 9 ply half inch Baltic Birch plywood and sealed it so it wouldn't warp.

Hydrocal kits are a neat alternative from wood and plastic building materials, but require some care and different approaches when working the material.  You can follow Randy Peprock's instructions (owner of DD) and prime with white primer first, or go the other route and put paint directly on the hydrocal walls and let the hydrocal soak up the paint, which gives a more splotchy, weathered appearance.

And beware, if you have to file an opening larger (say, a window opening), go slowly, as a file takes off a lot of material quickly.  I've made this mistake more than once!

Probably more than you wanted to know; sorry...

Al Carter, Mount Vernon, WA

Here are some N-scale buildings

These are on my Silicon Valley Free-MoN module.  They work great for the "seedy" part of town

Building them was a lot of fun.

In progress

I like them, but they definitely are different to work with than wood or styrene.  As Al Carter mentioned, they can look a little different next to styrene or wood buildings, but you can make it work with a little experimenting.

Here are a couple in progress photos.  I haven't got around to finishing them yet, but hopefully I'll get them done in the next few months.  Too many projects on the go and not enough time...

And these are the DD sidewalks.  I quite like the sidewalks.  This is another one of those in-progress things and my first goal to finish - a little town diorama to display buildings as I finish them...

Kits

They are a lot of fun to work with. The 2 kits you mentioned I always thought would make for a great warehouse row scene against the back drop with multiple car spots.

One comment about breaking a wall. I had a florescent lamp get away from me when I was moving one. It did a direct hit on the back side of a DD kit I had propped up. No paint and not glued together. Looking at my instant earthquake disaster, I laid the wall pieces out in a line. The 2 long walls had broken into a total of 5 pieces with no small chips. It dawned on me that almost all buildings can settle and cracks can be pretty normal. I suspect but can't prove that the fronts of store fronts are patched up pretty well. The back side...well not so much. Some of them are in very bad shape and cracks or break joints from being dropped look a lot like building settling cracks.

Jack

Built several

As mentioned, they are a little thicker.  So in this front building, I put a spacer behind the windows so that they are not recessed so far in.  They take paint really well but it is a lot of hand painting.

Steve J

Steve, nice work!  I don't recognize the Olga's Hair Salon kit (probably because you've done such a masterful job disguising it's origins).  I like how you have debris on the streets against the sidewalks, too.  Great scene!

Al Carter, Mount Vernon, WA

I have built several as well

I think they build into great looking structures!

You can get some of the best looking brick colours on Hydrocal walls.

Anyways here's some of the ones I have built over the years.

Greg