SCENERY ADVICE

SCENERY, LAYOUT & WEATHERING TIPS

Concepts & ideas about the creation of realism

We have no intention to try to make this a comprehensive “how to” for scenery and realistic modelling however over the years we have had the benefit of lots of experience, input and help from some of the best modellers world-wide and even the odd original concept or idea!

This page is simply a compilation of all those things, and is intended to pass on ideas and methods that we found successful for improving realism, making it easier to do some tasks or simply new ways of using materials.

Sort of a Zen approach to modelling really….

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First thoughts:

Most new modellers dream of a layout with all of the good stuff, but in reality their focus on loco’s and lots of trains gets in the way of pragmatic layout planning, so they cannot see the wood for the trees!

We (well most of us) tend to do the following with our first layouts… We fool ourselves as to what will fit, cribbing a few mm of radius here, adding an extra siding there, cramming in another station, industry or feature there….

We draw up a diagramme of the room we have and then just become fixated on the trackwork… doing our best to cram as much as we can in a space that never seems to be big enough.

Once we’ve redrawn it a few times, we lose interest in the pen and paper and reach for the hammer and saw… So next comes the construction with a few dozen small modifications along the way, and eventually we get to the point where we can run our first train….

Then, and only then, does the truth kick in...

That really small compromise you made on the minimum radius really looks terrible and some loco’s just don’t like it… That hill you just had to have has ended up with a very steep gradient, the station area has had to be shortened because the pointwork took up so much space and the roads to link stations and industries to towns or villages… well… you simply forgot about them, didn’t you!

And then there’s the practical stuff that just didn’t seem an issue on paper…

lack of access to that back corner and the lack of a backscene comes to mind. Oh well, we can just reach if we stretch and as for the backscene… no matter, we can drop it in later…

So now we’ve cut the wood and laid the track, we are committed… we can’t ignore the shortcomings either, so we either close our minds and stumble onwards making the best of it, or, more commonly, sort of hit the wall as we know in our heart it’ll never look right.

Guess what comes next: We kid ourselves we’ll sort it, and that the problems will disappear, so press on for a while, knowing full well that it won’t work properly…

Eventually, Reality bites: Out with the BIG hammer, and start again.

You CAN easily change this common pattern of disappointment: Just change the order of your planning to match reality….

Simply taking a different and more structured path to your planning will make a huge difference! It can still be relaxed and fun.. You just need to make a few rules, and think about things in the right order!

You will need to think a little bit differently too….

Consider this:

Everyone should approach the hobby in their own way, so without any suggestion that there’s anything wrong with collecting an eclectic range of prototypes or mixing steam and diesel or any other way of doing it - or doing it in a freelance sort of way, there is one overriding thing that will make the parts of a layout “gel” and take a life of its own.

That is... “consistency and harmony in all areas of the layout”.

Consistency of layout content with the space it can occupy, the choice of buildings and facilities in harmony with the track needed to service them.

Of course, then the amount of track decided on must also be consistent with the geography it lives in…. And following on from that, comes the presence of hill, valleys, roads and houses, all in balance.

Lastly comes the quantities of rolling stock and locomotives to be run in order to give service to the area modelled and so on…

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In other words, stop planning a model railway and start planning something far more in line with the quality of today’s railway models...

“The creation of a model OF a railway”!

Here is how WE like to approach layout planning.

Coming soon…...

Do you still have questions? No problem – just click here to email us and ask, we’ll be happy to help!

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