This is one of VP's earliest plaster buildings, and my kit had some severe molding problems.  Because these ceramic buildings are not produced with the same process or consistency as plastic kits, it's possible that there may be substantial variations in quality from one example to another.  I'd recently purchased it through VLS, so I assume that with regular turnover of stock it was not sitting on the shelf for any great length of time and is an example of their current practices.  

The kit is a corner building section and consists of seven plaster parts: two exterior walls with arched doorways for the first floor; two interior walls with windows; two exterior walls for the second floor; and an L-shaped cobblestone base.  Either the wall sections were removed from the molds before they were completely dry, or, more likely, the molds were not rigidly reinforced to keep the edges square.  All four of the wall sections needed a fair amount of sanding to get squared surfaces.  One lower wall was so badly misshapened that I had to remove nearly ½ inch from the bottom of the wall in order to get it to match on the top, where the wall was capped with a cornice.  This meant removing from the bottom a run of exposed stones.  Since these stones were repeated on the other wall section, I ended up carving a new stone border.  The final result is acceptable, if one overlooks the difference in height of the two doorways.

There are some dimensional quirks in this product.  The exterior wall sits on the outer perimeter of the cobblestone base, and the interior wall is set on the backside of the base.  The design is to give the effect of an enclosed passageway.  The result, however, is extremely narrow---a person would be brushing both walls with his shoulders.  To widen the passage, I moved the exterior walls to the very edge of the base.  I set the interior corner just over the edge of the base, so that part of it was resting on the scratchbuilt wooden floor.

Another problem is the vast distance between the window sills and the floor on the second story pieces.  I had to build up the floor to raise it to a height where I could position a figure by it and not have it look ludicrous.

A peculiarity of the interior walls is that one of them is partially bricked up.  If the back of the ruin is going to be visible, you'll have to decide whether to carve in the brickwork and suggest that these bricks were laid for protection or defense, or leave it smooth as if plastered over during some remodeling.

The kit comes with some nice photoetched brass gates for the outer doorways and assorted pieces create lock mechanisms and to mount the gates to the walls.  Typically, there are no instructions on how to assemble all these bits.  Fortunately I had this brass fret as sold as a separate product by VP, and the backing card includes instructions.  VP should really include this information with the diorama.

Overall, this is a mediocre kit.  The significant warpage of my pieces (and in other VP dio sets) suggests that "quality control" at VP is as fickle as the weather.  The lack of instructions for the brass is a major oversight.  A more experienced diorama modeler will be able to overcome these problems, but someone new to plaster buildings will experience some frustrations.