I ordered some more Kingmill background flats. Next week I've got to go out and get some foamcore, since the project below has used up most of the illustration board I had on hand. One nice thing about the Kingmill kits is that once assembled, they're easy to swap around, and the background on this part of my layout is still in flux. I have at least two more kits to add in this area. Here's the illustration board form:
And here's the redoubtable Belmont Label Company in place:
The more I work with Kingmill kits, the better I like them -- luckily, I have a good many places available for them.
I have a Fos Scale Forley Lithography kit that was produced as a low-relief flat. I installed it in a spot where the wall takes a jog, and the deep part of the jog was deeper than the deepest possibility of the Forley kit. I thought for some time about what to do with that and eventually, when I ordered a Kingmill "Commerce Street" set of background flats, decided to fill the space with one of those on backing that was raised enough to fill the gap between Forley and the wall-behind-the-jog. Here's the Forley before:
And the Forley after:
I've seen layouts on other forums that use Kingmills glued directly to the wall, and I don't think they work as well. Seeing the way Dr Wayne and Mr Nutbar have done them, where they "pop" on low-relief forms, is what inspired me to start using Kingmills myself. Now I have to figure out how to fill the gap lower down between the Forley and the Walthers Plant No 4 or whatever it is.
More to come on this area.
I cut that particular Commerce Street set in two and glued the rest of the set directly to the backdrop -- no choice here due to the lack of space in that area.
However, the fact that the ones on the right stand out more does help. I'm still stuck with what to do below the Commerce Street buildings, but I think there are several good possibilities. I'm also thinking about adding more Commerce Street buildings directly behind the main Forley roofline.
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That's really coming together nicely, jwb. 
If you control your photo angles, you may be able to add a representation of "a road going up a hill" between Forley and the Walthers building. If there's sufficient depth, a piece of cardstock or sheet styrene with, hopefully, a short flat section between the tracks and the backdrop. Allow the "road" to curve and disappear to the left, then plant a two dimensional tree at the area where Forley's meets the Kingmill structure behind it.
An alternative, if there's room, would be a "T" intersection at the top of the hill. A vehicle, fully modelled, or low relief, or even a photo, within that intersection would suggest the cross road, which wouldn't otherwise need to be modelled at all. If there's room at the bottom of the hill, place a vehicle facing the viewer (or going away) between the tracks and backdrop - this will attract viewers' eyes away from the condensed bits and make everything appear to be more fully modelled.
Wayne
Thanks, Dr Wayne, I'm a big admirer of your work! The whole scene here is about 7 inches wide, and the building flats are about two, so a hillside street would work only directly from the front and, as you say, with a carefully controlled camera angle. And the actual space between structures is just an alley. My current thinking is to put a tree and various other vegetation in this spot, with a fence along the bottom between the two structures. Here's roughly how that would go. The ruler also shows the space I have to work with.
And here's the rest of that Commerce Street set. I posted a photo of the cutout tacked up with tape, but now it's got a backing made thick enough to pop slightly. It's with a Walthers N scale smokestack.
I made up a panorama of this area on my layout -- maybe a 200-degree view.
It's giving me a better idea of where I need to go with the backdrop. The area more or less above the PC baggage car needs to be basically the rear of a terminal headhouse. From that point to the middle will be urban-industrial.
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I think you've come up with some very effective background buildings! Nice selection! My own expereince has been that the illusion works best if there isn't any space between buildings.
Thanks! -- yeah, I'm still in the process of swapping them out, and there'll be another order to Kingmill later this week.
Here's a Jefferson Street building added below the Commerce Street structures to the left. The tree is still in tentative position.
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Very nice! It's shaping up to be quite a spectacular urban scene. 
Mike
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I like the stacked buildings. It gives a good impression of a city.
Reinhard
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 , although I'm not real sure about the "shoe place" sticking up above the rest. Its lack of side walls too-readily reveals its lack of even "apparent" depth. I think that it might look better to the left of the one that it's currently behind.
Wayne
I weighed the pluses and minuses before I glued it all in! The problem is that in that area, there is thickness available for EXACTLY one layer of heavy paper glued to the backscene, plus a 3/16 layer of foamcore with the Jefferson St on it! This is because the Railway Express building/DPM Cuttings Scissors has to clear the switch and curve for the street trackage. On top of that, the area to the left of the scene/Jefferson St building shown has to be the immediate start of the terminal headhouse. The good news on that is that I have a video with a lot of scenes contaning the rear of the Memphis, TN Union Station headhouse and have gotten a lot of ideas, so this is going to move forward. (I just sent an order in to Kingmill for a building that can be kitbashed into part of the headhouse rear <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kingmill.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=195">http://www.kingmill.com/shop/product_in ... cts_id=195</a><!-- m --> )
Here's another panorama covering the most recently assembled Kingmill background flats. No guarantee that things will stay this way, but the area is now filled, anyhow.
Beyond the terminal headhouse, the next area that I think is going to benefit from some Kingmill kits is this one:
Certainly they're good candidates for covering the open area where the wallboard wasn't. But I also need to get back to the black styrene carbodies in the lower right center just behind the roundhouse. These are patterned after some carbody structures I found on the SP at Suisun-Fairfield, CA:
Here's another Kingmill flat adapted to serve as the rear of a terminal headhouse. This is a first hack at roughly where it will be, and it's just sitting on top of the platform sheds right now. It will go on lattice girder supports from Central Valley when it's finalized, and there will be somewhat more background detail behind it. But it's passable as a headhouse rear a la the union stations in places like Memphis and Houston.
It's on a triangular block made of foamcore.
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