Thanks for the welcome, ya'll. I started with a 50"X30" piece of styrofoam for the base. I used some styrofoam packing from a stereo componant that was the right size for the building to simplify getting it squared up. I put some of the 1/2" Midwest Products clapboard siding on it, stained dark mahogany for the outer walls. The roof is some old plastic sign material cut to size. The gravel parking area is a covering made from three or four different colors of HO and N ballast material mixed together and glued down with Woodland Scenics spray adhesive.
The wooden fencing is plain old popsicle stickes for the wide boards and corn dog sticks for the narrow ones. I'm gonna stain them but haven't decided how dark I want to go with them yet. The chain link fenced-in security area is just some steel rod cut and bent to shape with the metal mesh from a full size automotive air cleaner element. I used copper wire to attatch it to the rods much like the wire is attached to the full size fencing.
I cut holes in the front for the doors and just backed the holes up with sheet styrene. The roll up doors just have lines scribed in them to replicate the sections that would fold on a real door. I've got a Coke machine and a few other little details that I use from time to time and am planning on some new signage and maybe even a four wheeler and a lawn mower to dress the place up a little.
I've also built a few racetrack "sets" to use, also built from styrofoam for the light weight and ease of cutting.
Here's the dirt track version,
And here's the paved version.
Both of them use the old style steel guard railing because the majority of my cars are from the fifties and sixties. I used wooden dowels for the fence posts with just some black magic marker to replicate the creosote used on the full sized ones. I found some corrugated cardboard that only had the flat paper covering on one side so that the "rolls" show on the other. I've cut it in two "roll" wide strips and it looks pretty convincing after a coat of silver paint.
I've even got a main straightaway patterned after Darlington of the fifties that I built to use at a model show to display some race cars and a pace car. It's 48" long with concrete grandstands and retaining wall, again made from styrofoam, with some plastic rod and fibreglas screen combined to replicate the tire fence.
Here's an "under construction" shot of the grandstands as I was building it, showing how I laid up strips to make the seating area.
I've got an even larger "museum" in the works with parking for many cars and a stone or concrete wall around the whole thing. It's still in the early stages so it'll be awhile before it's ready to use.
Sometimes I like to do a little work with airplanes too, as that's what I started with in modeling around fifty years ago. Here's a shot I did for a photo contest using a Monogram 1/48 Corsair I built almost thirty years ago.
Here's what I've gotten into lately- the 1/18 planes that make fantastic pictures.
Thanks for letting me ramble on and take part in this forum and I hope I can maybe be of some assistance and contribute to the members here.
Oh, and by the way, the "armor all" is prototypically correct for a new race car of that vintage on the way to its first outing, or maybe even a start of the season car show. LOL