Soo Down

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'Soo Down' will be a section of English landscape served by a two-foot narrow gauge railway, in the foreground, and a standard gauge railway towards the rear. The modelled part will be framed by the essence of an Ikea APA box stood on its long side and the whole thing will fit inside the 4 x 2 x 1 foot envelope for the 'framed picture' category of the challenge. 'Modelled life' will include very limited train movements and some lighting such as an open fire effect.

 

The model will rely on its 1/64 scale foreground to provide the bulk of the 'modelled interest' with some ready-made 1/76 towards the rear. The narrow gauge part will have a small station, this will have a building based on the 1/48 "Station Master's Cottage" by Petite Properties (their SMC48) converted to a linear 1/64 scale model for possible future re-use. Details here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/84929-dollshouse-to-station-building/&do=findComment&comment=1424893.

 

Goodness knows what the vanishing point will be. At the moment I'm thinking of a canal passing below both railways, with a lock running away and downwards from the viewer. This would be a single vanishing point, offset to one side of the 'picture frame'. The background sky might be curved (I daren't write semi-parabolic) and might extend behind the depth of the APA box frame to use up the whole 12 inches allowed.

 

I've got an empty APA box, and I've started the station building. July looks like a long way away, but it isn't. For the foreground railway I'm thinking of something from Worsley Works, etched to 1/64 scale and sitting on an N gauge chassis.

 

- Richard.

 

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My golly this is difficult, goodness knows what I was thinking when I wrote the post above.

 

Here are two photos of how I am thinking of putting perspective into an APA box. There will be a strongly modelled 1/64 scale foreground, the green box represents a NG engine shed. A 9mm gauge track will go from the engine shed to the station, this track will work. There will be a point in the middle with a track leading to the far left hand corner of the model, with its gauge gently reducing to 7mm or so and its sleepers getting closer together. This is to the tin of varnish, there will be a bridge here.

 

The narrow gauge part frames a standard gauge mineral line, modelled in 00. This will also work and it has a short fiddle space in the far right-hand corner.

 

The buildings will be linear scale models so I can re-use them on a future S scale layout, but most other items are sloping or curved or both. For example the mineral line slopes down to the left and curves forward, the backscene slopes away to the bottom and the front fascia is bowed outwards. The 12 inches of modelled depth extends about two inches behind the rear limits of the APA box so there is a bit more deception here if you look at the ends or the top of the box. The alignments of the two railway tracks try to exploit the diagonal space inside the box vertically as well as horizontally.

 

There will be another curving fascia at the top, this will hide some lighting and so the lighting will be in front of most of the model as well as above it.

 

Well that's the general idea!

 

- Richard.

 

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I'm afraid I dismantled 'Soo Down' after a month or so. It looked quite good from one angle (as photographed) but a bit odd from some other angles. Moreover, the lack of depth meant I found I could focus on both the foreground and the background too easily from usual viewing distances. The choice of a narrow gauge element was bad - narrow gauge trains come in too many different sizes. The difference from 1/64 to 1/76 was about right for the style of model and the depth available, but a 1/76 standard gauge foreground and 1/87 background would have been better.

 

I rather like the sprung curved front on the APA box and I hope to build this into whatever layout I end up building into this box. Also a curving background, to take the depth of the model up to about 12 inches or so (box stood on its narrow side). A shape where the ground slopes downwards from the front of the box towards the back seems to help to give a feeling of extra space too.

 

I like the container ship and desert island entry.

 

- Richard.