New Ankh

[Hroth]

Let's be thankful we don't reproduce smells and aromas on our models, Steve.

A kipper in a tin on one of those USB hotplates should work...

[HonestTom]

What tends to happen on this project is that I say I’ll only do one job and then I wind up doing several. I’ve now paved the streets. Unfortunately, this highlights that the baseboard is quite uneven and so the buildings don’t sit properly. Still, this was always intended to be a busy scene, so hopefully I can disguise the gaps.

[SRman]

Surely the streets, and even the buildings of Ankh-Morpork were uneven anyway!

[HonestTom]

Surely the streets, and even the buildings of Ankh-Morpork were uneven anyway!

 

And several of the citizens...

 

Having stepped away from it overnight, it's not bothering me as much now as it was yesterday - I need to stop posting immediately after stopping modelling for the night. The only issue that's really bothering me now is the gaps where the buildings sit on the paving slabs - I think I can disguise this with a little weathering and some street furniture.

 

I now find myself considering a curious question. Obviously as a city very reliant on horses, Ankh-Morpork presumably has plenty of manure on the streets. As far as I'm aware, there's no scenic product available to replicate this. I shall have to apply my brain to this one.

Edited November 27, 2018 by HonestTom

[Hroth]

What tends to happen on this project is that I say I’ll only do one job and then I wind up doing several. I’ve now paved the streets. Unfortunately, this highlights that the baseboard is quite uneven and so the buildings don’t sit properly. Still, this was always intended to be a busy scene, so hopefully I can disguise the gaps.

86935FDE-0689-4C50-B97A-C9B7E8A69427.jpeg

The city is allegedly built on loam, but is mainly constructed on earlier versions of itself, so a certain amount of unevenness is to be expected and certainly prototypical!

 

I do like your buildings.

 

More dirt!!! 

[Hroth]

And several of the citizens...

 

Having stepped away from it overnight, it's bothering me as much now as it was yesterday - I need to stop posting immediately after stopping modelling for the night. The only issue that's really bothering me now is the gaps where the buildings sit on the paving slabs - I think I can disguise this with a little weathering and some street furniture.

 

I now find myself considering a curious question. Obviously as a city very reliant on horses, Ankh-Morpork presumably has plenty of manure on the streets. As far as I'm aware, there's no scenic product available to replicate this. I shall have to apply my brain to this one.

 

Don't overdo it.  The cobbles/setts of the street would be covered with a thin slurry of horse byproducts plus occasional lumps that hadn't been trodden in yet.

 

 

Early 20th Century Liverpool (amongst other places) makes a good model for a great horse-driven metropolis.

 

 

The women are replacements for the normal council street operatives, away fighting on the Western Front.

Note the occasional unswept "dollops" in the background.

 

I surmise that the Ankh-Morpork city council would have little to do with this, and that Harry King would be in control of this aspect of city life!

[HonestTom]

Don't overdo it.  The cobbles/setts of the street would be covered with a thin slurry of horse byproducts plus occasional lumps that hadn't been trodden in yet.

 

 

Early 20th Century Liverpool (amongst other places) makes a good model for a great horse-driven metropolis.

 

Liverpool WW1 Street Sweepers s.jpg

 

The women are replacements for the normal council street operatives, away fighting on the Western Front.

Note the occasional unswept "dollops" in the background.

 

I surmise that the Ankh-Morpork city council would have little to do with this, and that Harry King would be in control of this aspect of city life!

 

Yeah, maybe I'll see if I can fit a Harry King cart in there. I'm planning on featuring Mr King himself somewhere on the layout, inspecting his new branch line.

 

Actually, it occurs to me that I do have a book on working horses in Victorian London, which may offer a lot of useful information on the subject. This article has some interesting (?) info on the subject. I suspect that in Century of the Anchovy Ankh-Morpork, dead horses are probably not left on the street for long, between the Igors and the sausage-inna-bun sellers.

[SRman]

And several of the citizens...

 

Having stepped away from it overnight, it's bothering me as much now as it was yesterday - I need to stop posting immediately after stopping modelling for the night. The only issue that's really bothering me now is the gaps where the buildings sit on the paving slabs - I think I can disguise this with a little weathering and some street furniture.

 

I now find myself considering a curious question. Obviously as a city very reliant on horses, Ankh-Morpork presumably has plenty of manure on the streets. As far as I'm aware, there's no scenic product available to replicate this. I shall have to apply my brain to this one.

 

I wanted a sort of manured effect for a diorama I did many years ago, only for some sheep. I ended up finding the solution by accident. I had used dyed sawdust for a field (an older product that has been all but superseded by newer products and, now, static grass). I had not brushed or vacuumed off the excess 'grass' when I painted the road surfaces. As I was doing this outdoors, a gust of wind blew some of the excess sawdust onto the roads. Once the paint dried, I had the effect I wanted. It doesn't show up terribly well in the photos I have, but this is probably one of the best I can find.

 

Royal Blue MW - country lane 3 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

 

 

I have had a few other "happy accidents" with modelling techniques over the years too. Sometimes luck plays a hand in our modelling!

[HonestTom]

I wanted a sort of manured effect for a diorama I did many years ago, only for some sheep. I ended up finding the solution by accident. I had used dyed sawdust for a field (an older product that has been all but superseded by newer products and, now, static grass). I had not brushed or vacuumed off the excess 'grass' when I painted the road surfaces. As I was doing this outdoors, a gust of wind blew some of the excess sawdust onto the roads. Once the paint dried, I had the effect I wanted. It doesn't show up terribly well in the photos I have, but this is probably one of the best I can find.

 

Royal Blue MW - country lane 3 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

 

 

I have had a few other "happy accidents" with modelling techniques over the years too. Sometimes luck plays a hand in our modelling!

 

That's a neat idea, ta! Pretty sure my local model shop has some dyed sawdust in a dusty corner somewhere.

[Marly51]

What tends to happen on this project is that I say I’ll only do one job and then I wind up doing several. I’ve now paved the streets. Unfortunately, this highlights that the baseboard is quite uneven and so the buildings don’t sit properly. Still, this was always intended to be a busy scene, so hopefully I can disguise the gaps.

86935FDE-0689-4C50-B97A-C9B7E8A69427.jpeg

Great group of buildings! I’ve made some double thickness card bases, built up to the internal footprint of my buildings and fixed this first to the baseboard, platform etc then glued the buildings permanently. Then it is relatively easy to fill in the small gaps with filler, tufts of weeds/grass, etc. I appreciate this may not suit everyone if flexibility is required.

[Imustbemadatmyage]

Surely, to be true to the spirit of modelling, you must have the Patrician playing with his little train (presumably in Z scale)! And, of course, Drumknott on the footplate of the loco. Do you have a small child being rescued by Moist von Lipwig?

[HonestTom]

Because I like to do everything backwards, I finally got around to laying track today. I also filled in the gap on the backscene.

[bazzer42]

I've found this thread more and more intriguing to the extent I feel I need to try the books. Is there a chronological order or can you pick up anywhere?

Please keep the pictures coming.

[Imustbemadatmyage]

I've found this thread more and more intriguing to the extent I feel I need to try the books. Is there a chronological order or can you pick up anywhere?

Please keep the pictures coming.

The discworld series is best started at the beginning with The Colour of Magic. Happy reading! You will have weeks of enjoyment ahead. Lots of the later books refer to previous ones so it's worth reading them in order.

[Imustbemadatmyage]

Have you a copy of Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook? That has lots of information on the railway, including maps of the country and details of stations, rolling stock and, of course, Iron Girder.

[Hroth]

Have you a copy of Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook? That has lots of information on the railway, including maps of the country and details of stations, rolling stock and, of course, Iron Girder.

If only I could find mine......

 

I think the GuideBook Fairy has whizzed it! 

[joppyuk1]

Have you checked out the Discworld figures from 'Micro Art Studio'? They seem to be too large for you, but might be inspirational.

[HonestTom]

Surely, to be true to the spirit of modelling, you must have the Patrician playing with his little train (presumably in Z scale)! And, of course, Drumknott on the footplate of the loco. Do you have a small child being rescued by Moist von Lipwig?

I'm still playing with what's going to be included. One of the locomotives will be (my interpretation of) Iron Girder, crewed by Dick Simnel and the enigmatic Stoker Blake.

 

I don't want to overload it with specific cameos, because most of the characters are based within the city walls, and the railway is outside. However, Dibbler, Harry King and the Librarian will certainly appear, and probably Death. I'm also going to include some non-specific Watchmen, some assassins and a swamp dragon.

 

I've found this thread more and more intriguing to the extent I feel I need to try the books. Is there a chronological order or can you pick up anywhere?

Please keep the pictures coming.

 

The books are in a rough chronological order, but it's kind of an anthology series following lots of different sets of characters. I would actually say that it's best not to start with The Colour of Magic, because the series took a while to get into shape. The early books are basically general parodies of classic fantasy - if you're not into classic fantasy, the jokes aren't all that funny, and the characters and settings are nowhere near fully formed. IMO, the series doesn't start to come together until the fourth book, Mort. Put it this way, every time I've come across someone who didn't enjoy the series, it's because they started with The Colour of Magic.

 

I would suggest that the best book to start with is Guards! Guards!. This introduces several major characters and fleshes out a number of others. It's the first one in the Ankh Morpork City Watch sequence and, as such, is the first one to really centre on Ankh-Morpork as a fully fleshed out place. The characters are great, the jokes are funny and you can enjoy it without prior knowledge either of the series or the fantasy genre.

 

Another good one is Wyrd Sisters, which is basically a spoof of Macbeth in which the witches are the good guys. It introduces a lot of characters along with the folkloric country of Lancre. Technically it follows on from Equal Rites, but there are virtually no references to the earlier book in Wyrd Sisters.

 

Have you a copy of Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook? That has lots of information on the railway, including maps of the country and details of stations, rolling stock and, of course, Iron Girder.

 

I do have a copy, and I am planning to filch some ideas from it, but I must admit I wasn't very wowed by it. To be honest, I did wonder whether Sir Terry had any involvement in its writing at all. It doesn't feel like his style and a lot of the jokes feel kind of laboured.

 

Have you checked out the Discworld figures from 'Micro Art Studio'? They seem to be too large for you, but might be inspirational.

 

I have, and they are very neat, but as you say, a little overscale.

[Imustbemadatmyage]

This is great. I love Discworld and I think you've got New Ankh sorted. Being New Ankh of course it will have a few 'newer' buildings. But they would get grotty quickly.

[BR60103]

I've found this thread more and more intriguing to the extent I feel I need to try the books. Is there a chronological order or can you pick up anywhere?

Please keep the pictures coming.

https://imgur.com/a/Yqipw

This is a diagram that any competent railway modeller should be able to follow. 

 

There are certain sub-series that involve sets of characters or scenes.

Some feel that Terry hit his stride at Wyrd Sisters.

I envy someone who is about to encounter them for the first time.

[joppyuk1]

Not Pratchett steam world, but similar, there was a Noggin the Nog book some years ago called Nogmania. One of the illustrations had a railway with dragon powered locomotives. My copy disappeared in one of our house moves so I can't give details.

[Corbs]

I would recommend starting at Guards! Guards! and just reading the Vimes/City Watch series to begin with - I really like listening to a single character arc all the way through the book series.

Then I'd do the Witches series finishing with Tiffany Aching's last book to get the countryside bit.

Then The Truth and Monstrous Regiment.

Then the Moist Von Lipwig trilogy.

Then the Death/Susan series.

Then the Rincewind/Wizards series.

Then possibly the gods trilogy?

Edited November 30, 2018 by Corbs

[SRman]

Agreeing, at least in part, with Corbs, they don't really need to be read in strict order, but I like the idea of reading character arcs, although I would recommend starting with the first two books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, as they introduce the Discworld itself and some of the characters that feature later. In particular, a few of the Vimes series and The Truth had me laughing out loud many times (just think of a Troll policeman who keeps knocking himself out when he salutes, or a vampire, Otto Chriek, as a newspaper photographer who can't survive a bright flash of light!), but there are hilarious spots in several of the others too.

[Corbs]

I did think that if you like Audiobooks, listening to the Tony Robinson abridged versions of the first two books might be a good way in as it cuts out some of the chaff, but I'd recommend the unabridged versions of all the others

 

Also sorry Tom for thread hijack!

Edited November 30, 2018 by Corbs

[HonestTom]

I did think that if you like Audiobooks, listening to the Tony Robinson abridged versions of the first two books might be a good way in as it cuts out some of the chaff, but I'd recommend the unabridged versions of all the others

 

Also sorry Tom for thread hijack!

 

No worries, I could talk Discworld until the cows come home (although That Is Not My Cow). If my efforts inspire others to look into these books, then I'm not going to complain.

 

Raising Steam is one of those rare books written for non-enthusiasts that actually gets the train stuff mostly right (albeit with allowances made for the fantasy setting). It's particularly fun for rail nuts because there are a lot of gags and references that most people won't get. For instance, I don't know any non-enthusiasts who'd get the significance of the railway's lawyer being named Thunderbolt, or why Dick Simnel would be particularly uninterested in the opinions of poets who write about daffodils.