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Making a Mockery - Why Mock-ups Are So Useful!

SouthernRegionSteam

Entry posted by SouthernRegionSteam

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Making a Mockery!

 

 

I've been busy the last two days making some cardboard mock ups of the buildings and track to try and get a feel for what might need changing. I'll warn you now, I only had bright coloured cardboard so it does look like something out of a primary school class (or maybe Blue Peter!). So in that style, here's one I made earlier...or rather, several!

 

 

 

Mock1.jpg

 

Mock2.jpg

 

Mock3.jpg

 

Mock4.jpg

 

Mock5.jpg

 

Mock6.jpg

 

 

In my opinion, mock-ups are a crucial part of layout design. You can't really get a proper feel for problematic sight lines, and building placement without them! Of course feel free to disagree with me, but I really feel they are such an important part of layout planning. It doesn't take any skill to do either, and it may give you the encouragement you need to carry on with your project. For this layout, I wasn't sure about how much I could fit in to the space without it feeling crampt. Thus mock-ups were the perfect answer to find and fix problems BEFORE any money and time had been spent on them!

 

Anyway, I expect that I'll be moving around these mock-ups for a couple days until I'm 100% happy with how it looks. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on what you would change, add or even if you think the composition looks about right.

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bgman

Tracey Island next then :) !

Seriously, it always helps to visualise a proposal much better and is time well spent in my opinion.

Hope you end up with a satisfactory layout.

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  • RMweb Gold
SouthernRegionSteam
  • RMweb Gold

Hahah, sadly the mill pond will not open up to reveal a secret base :D

True story - my dad made a "Tracey Island" for me when I was younger - complete with rotating glass water! I wonder what happened to it...

 

Anyway, thanks for the comment. I appreciate it!

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Londontram

I always work this way, to me being of the old school I cant picture it on a PC plan only if it's done in real time where one can like you spend a few days moving things around, also some times it's good just to be able to go away for a day and come back and look at it through fresh eyes. Well done. Steve

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  • RMweb Gold
Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Agree, and for your design in particular I can see how important mock-ups are. This really gives a good visualisation of your plan already - there are going to be some fantastic views here. 

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  • RMweb Gold
SouthernRegionSteam
  • RMweb Gold

Thanks gentlemen!

The mock up has already shown me a few things I might want to consider changing. One such thing is to move the NG loop near the filling shed (large orange building) actually into the building, and then turn that into a hidden traverser! To facilitate this, the filling shed will need to be rotated 90 degrees. I also have an idea to add a loading canopy on the outside of this building with a spare siding for added interest.

 

I'm also thinking about making the power house even bigger (more akin to the real thing). An amendment to the mock up will prove whether these decisions are worthy of making! I really want the trains to be dwarfed by these buildings, and I like to see them weave in and out of them and pop in and out of view as they make their way around the layout.

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  • RMweb Gold
SouthernRegionSteam
  • RMweb Gold

I will be diverging from the prototype in this regard, so, yes there will be embedded track in cobbles!

I too am a sucker for embedded tracks, so this layout will definitely include them. I'm looking forward to doing that.

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MikeOxon

I agree about mock-ups.  You can sort out sight-lines and all those interesting 'vignettes' that can make a model so much more interesting. I like to poke a small camera in, at track level, to check the various viewpoints.

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