Adhesives used on Exhibition Layouts

[4railsman]

What adhesives do model railway clubs currently use on their exhibition layouts to secure their resin buildings to the baseboard.

I'm thinking principally about those layouts that are transported in pairs, fixed together scenic-scenic, where one board is upside down, and may also be stood on end for storage or during transportation.

 

I have addressed my question specifically for Clubs and Exhibition Managers, as I am looking for advice from those that regularly transport their layouts in cars and vans to venues that are many miles from their home location and have the necessary experience in moving layouts around the UK.

 

Large items, like Engine Sheds, Bus Garages etc are quite weighty, so are these normally glued down or removed and transported separately?

 

With low relief buildings in large groups, such as shops that are in a high-street setting, are the resin models glued only at the bottom or also at each side to the next building?

 

Many Thanks

4railsman

[jonhall]

I would screw or bolt them down

 

Jon

[Gilbert]

On the only one I have done I have drilled into the walls from below and used thin straight piano wire (about 1mm or more) in walls and board as pegs to aid the glue. I made up a simple paper template to ensure holes matched up.

[peach james]

The ones we had on our club layout had cast in holes, which we bolted across.  I'm unsure what glue in addition would have been, but there was scenery right up to the bases of them. 

James

[dasatcopthorne]

We remove a lot of our heavy one and stock in plastic crates. Others are glued down with evostik.

If they are card, we also use PVA

 

Dave

[James Makin]

I’ve used a lot of Bostik across my layouts so far for medium weight buildings, and as above posts, used arrangements of bolts and screws for the bigger heavier ones! 

[doctor quinn]

I like to bolt buildings down so they can be easily removed but are firmly fixed so I can store the layout on end

[4railsman]

Thanks for all your suggestions. Unfortunately all the low-relief resin buildings of High Street shops that I have bought cannot be bolted down as they are far too shallow with a lot of them also having images fixed to the bottom part of the buildings rear.

 

The only other option, I suppose, would be to replace the high street resin buildings with card buildings which are available to download from the internet and are much lighter and easier to join together.

 

In the meantime, I think I am going to have to manually remove all of the buildings each time I need to turn the layout on its side to do maintenance which is impossible from underneath the layout (eg soldering, wiring and installation of new features).

 

4railsman

[ColinK]

I’ve used Evostick and none of my buildings have ever fallen off. Roughen the resin base a little with a file for better adhesion. They can be removed later if it becomes necessary. 

 

If you are really worried, try Devcon 5 minute epoxy, you will not be able to remove them.

[polybear]

If you want an adhesive for securing buildings that most definitely won't break, fail, go brittle, sticks to virtually everything then.....

"Sticks like sh1t" is the stuff (yes it really is called that).

It's like a silicone sealant to use but is more like a building adhesive and is very, very strong.  Over-paintable too, and available in white and clear.  Available from any DIY shed.

[doilum]

2 hours ago, 4railsman said:

Thanks for all your suggestions. Unfortunately all the low-relief resin buildings of High Street shops that I have bought cannot be bolted down as they are far too shallow with a lot of them also having images fixed to the bottom part of the buildings rear.

 

The only other option, I suppose, would be to replace the high street resin buildings with card buildings which are available to download from the internet and are much lighter and easier to join together.

 

In the meantime, I think I am going to have to manually remove all of the buildings each time I need to turn the layout on its side to do maintenance which is impossible from underneath the layout (eg soldering, wiring and installation of new features).

 

4railsman

Is there room for a strip of Velcro behind them?

[4railsman]

15 hours ago, polybear said:

If you want an adhesive for securing buildings that most definitely won't break, fail, go brittle, sticks to virtually everything then.....

"Sticks like sh1t" is the stuff (yes it really is called that).

It's like a silicone sealant to use but is more like a building adhesive and is very, very strong.  Over-paintable too, and available in white and clear.  Available from any DIY shed.

 

oooohh ~ I like the sound of that suggestion. Has anyone else on here got any feedback after using that product in this type of environment?

 

14 hours ago, doilum said:

Is there room for a strip of Velcro behind them?

Not really, as they will be tight to the backscene board which I'm currently in the process of fitting.

 

4railsman