A return to Nantford Spinney

[AndyB]

 

4 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Hi Andy, this looks great - looks like a big advantage to modelling in N scale: I’m not sure the “disguise” would be as easy to achieve in a larger scale (where the ‘hole in the wall’ is bigger).

 

Thanks Keith. Appreciate the encouragement.

 

The scale certainly does make some things easier - I'm not sure I'd be up for making a woodland in 7mm scale. I'd probably have to invest in some not-so-very Bonsai trees! 

 

The scale does lend itself to a proper "trains in the landscape" approach and with about 18' of scenic run there's room to let the scene develop with cameos dotted around to add interest 

 

So for example to the right of the bridge I'm planning a Scout camp.  

 

 

[AndyB]

Afternoon and may I wish anyone glancing at this thread all the very best fo 2021.

 

I'd long wanted to feature some Weeping Willows in my river bank scene. Pretty much since seeing an atmospheric photo of the Stour Valley line with a train passing over a viaduct in the background and the Stour river in the foreground framed by these lovely looking trees. Marvellous.

 

I also figured that a tree that dipped into the stream would partially disguise where it goes straight into the back scene. 

 

This is how I went about it....

 

First of all I went in search of a prototype. It's obvious really, but mid winter is a great time to do this as devoid of leaves and it's easy to see the structure of any tree you fancy modelling. And a brisk work helped dust off the cobwebs too!

 

 

Starting with florist wire - as I'd done for the clumpier trees in the spinney - I built a skeleton. This time with branches glued on individually with superglue.

 

 

 

After that I filled in some of the wires on the trunk with contact glue and toning down with grey paint. Most of the trunk will be hidden by the ravines that hang down.

 

I then used Woodland Scenics light green foliage to make the individual racines, teasing out a few strands rolling them up a bit then glueing each one in place.  

 

 

As it took most of the afternoon to get this far I'm taking my time before putting it in its final position.

 

But here's what it might look like. 

 

 

 

Now that I've seen what it'll look like I reckon it could be improved by making the racines long enough to trail in the water. 

 

I think the scene will also need another one on the opposite bank,  with a major branch jutting out over the stream to act as a more pronounced view blocker. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by AndyB

[AndyB]

So on a bit of a roll with tree making at the moment. And very therapeutic its proved to be.

 

As mentioned in my last post I wanted to beef up the first weeping willow that I'd made and this was easy enough to do by adding more Woodland Scenics light green foliage. I also wanted to block off the view where the river meets the backscene. So this morning I set about making a second weeping willow but this time with a branch that would extend over the river.

 

 

This tree came together much quicker than the last. I used less branches this time as I wanted to keep a sense of seeing through the tree, rather than it being one big homogenous splodge of foliage.

 

 

I used a bit of fine earth scatter underneath the tree to break up the uniformity of the grass. 

 

And finally this is the overall effect....bit of a moody shot - looks like rain is threatening!

 

In truth when I came to take the photos the sun had just swung round to shine through the garage door and hit this part of the layout.

 

 

 

I'll see if I can get some shots loaded up  later showing a bit more of the scene. But for now I think I've pretty much reached the file upload limit for this post. 

[AndyB]

I thought it might be nice to show some photos of this little scene now that I've made a bit of arborial progress over the Christmas holiday...

 

A late afternoon freight train heading towards Nantford Quay from Northwell Junction.

 

 

 

 

[AndyB]

Morning all,

 

I'd seen the Petite Properties range of kits mentioned a few times in the modelling press. As I was looking to create a boat builders yard for Nantford Quay their Harper's Yard kit seemed to fit the bill nicely. 

 

I was also keen to see how the kits built up. 

And in a word - easily - is the answer. 

 

The minimal number of laser cut parts are well engineered and fit together precisely with small notches to help parts slot together. 

 

 

I then had a think about how to create appropriate finishes for the building's roof and walls. 

 

I had in mind a corrugated sheet roof. And as the building was next to the sea it was likely that it was going to be fairly well rusted through. 

 

Coincidentally in January's Railway Modeller (Vol 72 #843) Callum Wilcox had explained a nice way of creating corrugated iron sheets from disposable aluminium roasting trays. 

 

According to swmbo these are on clearance  sale for about 20p each in the supermarkets as Christmas didn't see so many big family meals. 

 

For an N gauge model those might be too thick,  so I used thinner aluminium kitchen foil. Callum's method is to lightly score the material, spray it with primer then fit to the model. I went a bit off piste as the foil was quite delicate and I Pritt sticked it (shiny side down) to the model before painting. I overlapped the sheets and did some additional horizontal scores.

 

 

 

I was ok with the sheets lifting in places and looking a bit distressed around the edges as the eventual rust effect I was going for would have done this in real life; there's nothing like a winter battering with salty sea spray to accelerate a building's ageing!

 

 

Before painting with Railmatch light rust colour I gave the foil a light coating of spray on matt varnish to give a key for the paint. If you try this yourself then it really doesnt take much paint at all; just a bit more than you'd use for dry brushing. I subsequently gave the roof a light coat of hair spray so I could add weathering powders. 

 

 

 

Finally for the walls I used a Humbrol matt enamel paint. I didn't want anything too garish so went for an olive brown colour (#110). Windiw sills picked out with (#31).

 

The next step for this model is to cut a smallish piece of foam board on which to build up the boat yard scene. That way I can work on the model indoors as it's a bit "tatters" out in the garage at the moment.

 

I know a lot of people reckon that for N gauge models there's no need to add texture to buildings. I tend to disagree for the simple reason that as the quality of rolling stock models has increased the rest of the model needs to keep in step. You can see the detail on rolling stock, so why not add texture to buildings? And as this building is close to the front edge of the baseboard then the detail - or lack of it - will be easily seen.

 

I'd looked at one of Evergreen's styrene corrugated sheets to add texture. But at around £8 for an A4 sheet I felt this was a bit too expensive. So thumbs up to Callum for his idea. I'll be using this again for the fishermens' sheds. 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by AndyB

[AndyB]

Hi all,

I had a few minutes spare the other evening so picked a small job from the "to do" list....adding a couple of figures and a letter box, so that....

 

The morning post can be delivered to the  farm adjacent to Nantford Spinney halt. 

 

 

In due course I'd like to add more bits to this scene - maybe a few beehives? Perhaps I could recreate the honey selling scene from the "Birds vs Bees" episode in To the Manor Born with a rare bird in the nearby Spinney attracting twitchers - entry to a hide at a price!  

 

When I created this bit of the landscape I wanted to give the impression of depth by dropping the ground away as it meets the backscene. I also bent the lane round and down so that where it meets the backscene is hopefully also not so obvious. Plenty of hedgerow to help disguise this.

Edited January 6, 2021 by AndyB

[AndyB]

Afternoon all.

I hope this update finds those reading it well.

Back to work this week so progress has been a bit slower working on smaller jobs that I can do in the evening. 

 

First up I painted up the lytch gate and used a small blob of DAS to help settle it in. The church sits in an internal corner of the layout. From where I normally stand toook at the layout I only get an oblique view of it. 

Having now taken a face on photo I'll need to level it up - I didn't realise it was on such a slope!

 

 

One of my aims with this layout is to try out new techniques and develop new skills. 

As you may have seen in recent posts I've been making trees. Although the layout has plenty of depth I wanted to see if I could put some additional visual cues in to further force the perspective.

So I built a further 2 trees of different sizes with the smaller one 3 or 4 inches behind the larger one. Not sure if that's worked or not?

 

 

As you can see from the photo I need to put in some lineside fencing. I did have one of the Peco plastic kits but tbh this looks a bit chunky. So I'm thinking of a homemade post and wire alternative. More on that in a later post ('scuse the pun).

 

I've also an update on the Nantford Quay signal box...but for now lunch calls!  

Edited January 10, 2021 by AndyB

[AndyB]

A while back I started a thread asking for advice on how to signal the layout. 

 

Based on the advice given this is how I see it working out.

So, left to right:

A starter covering the main platform.

A second starter (yet to be made) covering the bay.

A trap (to be made and crammed in) shown in situ at the moment by a spare bit of rail.

A signal box. Where I've located it, it's side wall would be very close to where the trap point ends. Not sure if that's right so may need to shift it?

A Home signal placed upstream of the bay turnout. Distant arm to be stripped off.

 

 

Next two photos show the approach to the Home signal. I'm guessing drivers approaching round this final curve before reaching Nantford Quay would approach at a very slow speed to ensure they could bring their train to a halt if the signal is set against them; there's precious little breaking distance.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and always happy to receive comments. Andy

[AndyB]

As I mentioned earlier I wanted to use the layout as a vehicle for getting some new skills under my belt.

 

One of these was to get to grips with etched kits. I'd had a brush with etched parts about a decade or so ago when some of the fine detail under frame parts for a OO gauge DMU kit I was building were etched metal. The result wasn't great. Ok, it was dire and I'd sort of put etched kits in a list of things to avoid. Along with tax inspectors and morticians. I'd mainly used card and plastic sheet for buildings ever since.

 

Scroll forward to the current layout and I was looking round for a signal box to go on the Nantford Quay area of the layout. I looked at a number of options. I'd used Metcalfe kits liberally on previous layouts and had a lot of fun with them. But their popularity is, I think, their downfall with many layouts starting to look like facsimilies of each other.

 

I took a look at a laser cut kit of the Wallingford signal box but felt it was too diminutive to make the kind of visual impression I was after. Hands up I tend to make decisions based less on what would be prototypical and more on what the overall scene will look like. 

 

It was around then that I came across a kit by Severn Models.

 

Agh. Slight problem it was an etched brass kit and a lot more detailed than my previous failure. But it looked great and I thought "why not". 

 

The Severn Model kit comes on a single fret of etched metal protected in the post by a backing layer of ply which I used as a mini workbench. Instructions are both generic to all their kits and a specific set of assembly diagrams. 

 

There's lots of tiny parts and to help me identify them later once cut out I took a number of photos of the original fret. 

 

Luckily for me the first bits to assemble were the larger components; a laminate of window frame parts that fix onto the main walls of the building.

 

 

They look a bit wonky in this shot but (honest guv) that's a reflection of the window frames being 3 layers deep to suggest windows that slide open. Nice level of detail!

 

I used a small 1g tube of Loctite Superglue to fix the components together, small enough to put tiny drops on one at a time. Also when inevitably the nozzle gets clogged up you don't end up throwing away 90%of a large tube.

 

So far so good.

 

The next step was to bend the walls round to form the main box of the building.

You'll notice I initially put the roof on back to front. That was easily corrected but probably avoided if you take more frequent breaks than I did. 

 

Now for the fiddly bit - the staircase.

All I will say is that this took the best part of a day to get right. I've carefully taken a photo to disguise how wonky the steps are. At this stage the staircase was very fragile, stabilised a bit by attaching it to the building.

 

Time to quit for the evening and come back to it fresh.

 

Next day I gave it 2 light coats of Halfords primer, doing my best not to make them too heavy and fill in the detail. The primer  did help strengthen those steps though. 

 

 

Next step will be to paint the model in its final colours. There are hints and tips on the Severn Models website about painting. I'd recommend reading all those before assembling the model as they do recommend painting the model before attaching the staircase. 

 

I'll come back to this in a day or so when I tackle the painting. 

 

[AndyB]

Hello again.

So I'd imagined that painting the signalbox would be straightforward; but a week has elapsed and I'm not quite there yet.

 

One problem has been that when I primed the model I was mindful not to overdo and infill the detail. The actuality is that I was probably a bit too sparing and I've had issues getting the various acrylic and enamel paints to adhere. Simply handling the model has caused areas of paint to fall off and expose the underlying metal; you can see this in one of the images below.

 

My next step is to find some matt varnish to help protect the paint and ensure the model. Thereafter I'll put the glazing in and then the floor and pip it on a piece of card to avoid having to handle it. 

 

One detail I added over and above the kit's ingredients were a couple of rainwater down pipes. The roof isn't quite big enough to put guttering in without it protruding too far and detracting from the look of the model. 

 

Whilst researching colours for the model I noticed that the prototypes had nameboards on the front of the box; black background with white lettering.

So at some point I'll need to produce a custom one: "Nantford Quay". Whether that'll be a customer transfer or homemade just yet I don't know. 

 

I've also seen photos of fire buckets hanging from the staircase. 

 

 

 

So, that sort of wraps up my first etched kit. I loved the detail that can be achieved, the challenge of thinking through each fold and the satisfaction of creating this model from a flat sheet of metal. I also learnt a lot about needing to plan the build from start to finish to get the best results. 

 

So. Will it be my last? Certainly not.

But I'll need to do a lot more simple kits before I ever contemplate an item of rolling stock, I think; much as I'd like to have a go one day.

 

What's next? Well at present I've a Metcalfe station building which might be a candidate for an upgrade.

 

But for now there's a whole backlog of more mundane jobs to do. I won't list them as it'd be a wee bit daunting to see how long that list actually is.

 

As ever, thanks for reading.  

[AndyB]

Hello and thanks for taking a look at my thread.

 

Work has been busy this last week so I've not done too much on the layout. 

 

That said I've now got the signal box onto a piece of a small piece of foamboard which I added texture to with a covering of tea leaves and some weeds. 

 

 

 

A while back I asked for some thoughts on how best to signal a line like this and received some really helpful advice.

 

One part of that was that the level crossing would be operated from the signal cabin, not from a separate crossing keeper's hut. I did have a small kit (Wallingford cabin) in my "to do" box which would have done that job, but decided that if you ask for advice from those in the know it makes sense to follow it?

 

So, with some time to kill over the weekend I decided to make it up, re-purpose it as a coalyard office, and build some coal staithes  (aka cells). 

 

 

Again I used a foamboard base with the paper removed to give texture, a layer of concrete-coloured paint and sleeper grime. 

The staithes were made up from a bit of gash grey card. I did try crushing up some bbq charcoal to represent the coal but tbh it was still way overscale, so I reverted to chinchilla dust fixed in place with PVA and painted matt black. The whole then given a liberal dusting with weathering powders. 

 

I guess somewhere in my modelling box there's the set of steps that came with the kit. 

 

This little model will sit at the end of Nantford Quay's only goods siding and provide domestic fuel for the townsfolk.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all.

 

I've always got frustrated when trying to position and line up solenoid point motors.

So a few years ago I worked up an easy and robust way to control points manually with a few rods and choc blocks; the kind of stuff we all have lying around, and somewhat cheaper and less fiddly than the tiny levers that come with commercial wire-in-tube solutions.

 

So when it came to putting together some manual point controllers for the current layout I decided to reprise the old idea, combined with wire-in-tube.

 

Here's how it works.

The 3xblock in the middle row slides freely on a pair of rails. Eventually the wire that controls the point gets crimped in place by the middle connector of this block.

 

The top and bottom rows are spaced apart such that the middle row can only travel about the same distance as the point tiebar needs to move.

 

For each point you need 1 of these units. I have 4 points, so this is what it looks like...

 

 

To actuate the point you simply move the middle block backwards or forwards. 

 

It's not fiddle free as you still have to run a wire and tube from the tie bar to these controllers, and it does have a tendency to whip round a bit. I used a glue gun to quickly fix the tube in place, starting at the point and working to towards the connector blocks. 

 

To finish it off I'm going to fix an ice lolly stick to each block which will protrude a bit proud of the baseboard front fascia and make it easy and convenient to operate the points.

 

The connector blocks will be covered with a low-lying bit of scenery. In larger scales you could do this with a building.

 

Anyway. As ever. Thanks for taking a look at my thread. Andy

 

[Andrew D]

Hi Andy, that is a genius method of switching points. A couple of points (boom boom) I was wondering you could clarify please? 

 

(Treat me as knowing little more than knowing what a screwdriver is. Speak slowly and demonstrate using vegetables if necessary.) 

 

I don’t understand why you have a set of 3 blocks for each set of points. Do the flanking blocks simply add strength and rigidity, or are they there for switching polarity of live frogs or some other mystical magic I’ve yet to get my head around? 

 

Also, could you specify what wire and tubes you have used and where you can get them from? 

 

Many thanks in advance. 

[AndyB]

19 hours ago, Andrew D said:

Hi Andy, that is a genius method of switching points. A couple of points (boom boom) I was wondering you could clarify please? 

 

(Treat me as knowing little more than knowing what a screwdriver is. Speak slowly and demonstrate using vegetables if necessary.) 

 

I don’t understand why you have a set of 3 blocks for each set of points. Do the flanking blocks simply add strength and rigidity, or are they there for switching polarity of live frogs or some other mystical magic I’ve yet to get my head around? 

 

Also, could you specify what wire and tubes you have used and where you can get them from? 

 

Many thanks in advance. 

Hi Andrew,

 

Thanks and happy to give more details.

Yes, I used 3 blocks for rigidity; the wire is really springy so to stop it putting strain on the device I went "belt & braces". In each "unit" I used the outer connectors to channel the sliding rails and give rigidity and the middle one for the wire. 

 

The original version (2012) was described here (a few posts down the page).

 

I'd not thought of using it to switch polarity. Could be interesting. Nice idea. Or maybe it could be used to control a signal.

 

The rails I use as sliders are....rails. Some spare Code 55 cut to length. I think originally I used brass rod but lockdown makes us that bit more inventive when model shops are closed.

 

There's a number of wire in tube suppliers. I did a bit of shopping around and was very pleased with the product, price and service from Wizard Models (I've no connection to the business).

 

 

The tools you need for this are:

Craft knife

Cutting mat

Pliers

Wire cutter

Glue gun

Screw driver

Safety specs (the wire is sharp)

Drop or two of oil to make the wire slide easily in the tube.

 

Hope this helps and if there's any other info you need, just shout.

Cheers. Andy

 

EDIT:

Just as a footnote on this.

1. I also included a short length of rail (marked in black), clamped on the sliding connector but free on the bottom row. I figured for the effort involved a bit extra stiffening wouldn't come amiss. The teal-coloured line shows where the wire goes. Cut the plastic tube back to where the upper row meets the sliding choc block.

 

2. The choc blocks had two plastic ribs on their base. I sliced these off the middle connector that was destined to slide so it didn't snag. Alternatively you could raise the top and bottom rows with a layer of card.

 

3. I secured the whole mechanism to the baseboard with a dob of glue at each corner. Make sure to keep the glue away from the moving parts!

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by AndyB
Added info as footnote

[Andrew D]

That's brilliant thanks Andy, thanks very much! 

[AndyB]

Afternoon all.

I took the day off today and had the intention of putting in the terrain on which the townscape will sit behind the station. 

 

Well, that was the plan, but around 02:00 I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. So progress today was slow and unproductive. 

 

I'm trying at all costs to avoid a jelly-mould hill sat on an otherwise flat baseboard. So far I don't think I'm there yet so I only fixed some carved polystyrene blocks down with a small dab of glue, knowing they may well need to come up again if it doesnt look right.

 

 

 

One decision I took (a while back) was to not use the Scalescene's folly that I built last year. 

 

It was really too large and even on a modest bit of raised ground the turrets were in line with the top of the backscene. Another reason was that the surface texture was really quite flat.

 

I still want to incorporate some kind of folly into the townscape mix so I've splashed out on the Lyddle End Normoyle folly. Judging by the photos it seems to be about the right size and there's texture to the stonework. 

 

At the moment I'm not quite sure how to progress in developing the town scene. But I think putting in the terrain first may have been a mistake. 

Good job it's not a race!

[stivesnick]

3 hours ago, AndyB said:

At the moment I'm not quite sure how to progress in developing the town scene. But I think putting in the terrain first may have been a mistake. 

Hi Andy 

 

If you are not sure how to do the town, I would spend some time on internet mapping sites looking for a suitable town on the south coast where the railway (if actually provided or not) would enter the town across the river. Having found somthing that might be suitable. Then look at how the town was many years ago, using the maps on the National Library of Scotland web -site an old photos. 

 

It may take a few attempts, but I am sure you will find some inspriation somewhere.

 

Nick 

Edited February 3, 2021 by stivesnick
spelling mistake spotted

[AndyB]

On 03/02/2021 at 18:49, stivesnick said:

Hi Andy 

 

If you are not sure how to do the town, I would spend some time on internet mapping sites looking for a suitable town on the south coast where the railway (if actually provided or not) would enter the town across the river. Having found somthing that might be suitable. Then look at how the town was many years ago, using the maps on the National Library of Scotland web -site an old photos. 

 

It may take a few attempts, but I am sure you will find some inspriation somewhere.

 

Nick 

 

Wise words, Nick.

 

Following Nick's methodology I took a look at candidates along the south coast, starting off at Rye and moving west. At the risk of generalising, many examples were flat and not really what I had in mind. 

 

I actually found a good example of what I was looking for adjacent to Waterhead Creek, behind Kingswear station. Google street view and the online panorama generating tool were both useful in understanding how to bring the landscape and townscape together.

 

There are a number of excellent models of this location already. So I've no intention of producing a poor quality facsimile of those. But as a guide it's a really helpful prototype. 

 

Using Kingswear as a sort of template my next job is to sketch a plan out and then try to figure out how to build it.

 

The decision will be whether to stick with the expanded foam base shown in the previous photos and sit buildings on it. Or start from first principles and put in a mini foamboard base and build up from that using card risers. TBH I'm drawn to the latter; I think getting the buildings and roads to look right perched on top of random bits of foam is going to be problematic. 

 

[AndyB]

Evening all.

So in my last post I'd pondered whether to stick with a polystyrene-base for my townscape or try building up on card risers from a foam or card base. 

 

I really couldn't see how I'd get the polystyrene version to work so I fashioned a base out of upcycled corrugated card which stretched from the level crossing gates up to the river; not dissimilar to a teardrop in outline. I gave the base some strength by hot glueing a long baton at the back. Once that was done it was easier to handle and I next started to add further parallel-ish risers where I wanted roads to wind around the town. 

 

Not the best of photos, but hopefully you can see where I'm headed with this. 

 

 

 

Since taking this photo I've made a start putting the road surfaces in place. 

 

This whole section is going to take time as, eventually, it'll have quite a lot of buildings and I want to make sure of doing a decent job on those. 

 

One advantage of this removable section is that I can work on it indoors; it's a tad chilly in the garage at the moment!

[AndyB]

Hello again.

I just wanted to give an update on my attempt to create the townscape scene. 

In my last post I'd abandoned my attempt to create the terrain with polystyrene and showed a template made from corrugated card. To be honest the photo probably didn't really show where I was going with this idea.

 

Hopefully the more recent photos below will give you a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve.

 

Over the last few days I've been making liberal use of Google Streetview and a property website to get ideas for the look and feel of a couple of well known seaside towns; Kingswear and Dartmouth. Narrow streets and houses cheek by jowl seems to be the order of the day!

 

The building card templates are just to get a feel for the right size at the moment and can be cut down to the right height as needed. I've some mountboard on order to make more solid versions which will form the basis for the actual buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for taking a look and any feedback would be most welcome. 

Andy

[stivesnick]

Hi Andy 

 

The town mock up looks fantastic! My only concern would be regarding the width of the buildings. Not clear how deep they actually are. Narrow buildings will distort the roof profile. 

 

I had a problem on my layout when I tried to put two Petite Properties low relief buildings back to back to create a full depth building. It just didn't look right, so I had to build a new end section to form a realistic building. 

 

Unless you have actual buildings to copy, it would be worth thinking about how these buldings would be set out with stairs, landings and various rooms.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Nick 

[AndyB]

10 hours ago, stivesnick said:

Hi Andy 

 

The town mock up looks fantastic! My only concern would be regarding the width of the buildings. Not clear how deep they actually are. Narrow buildings will distort the roof profile. 

 

I had a problem on my layout when I tried to put two Petite Properties low relief buildings back to back to create a full depth building. It just didn't look right, so I had to build a new end section to form a realistic building. 

 

Unless you have actual buildings to copy, it would be worth thinking about how these buldings would be set out with stairs, landings and various rooms.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Nick 

 

Hi Nick. Thanks for the advice.

 

TBH the potential roof profile problem had passed me by. I'll need to think carefully about that. Maybe test out a couple and see how they look.

 

The buildings are indeed quite narrow ranging from 15mm to around 40mm. There's a couple of reasons for this, apart from space limitation. The ones directly behind the station will be either close to 2d or at most half relief. Others are narrow because I'm trying to play around with forced perspective. Work in progress!

 

There's a tappering one in the middle of the scene which is going to cause an issue; I drew on this from a bed shop at the bottom of Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury.

 

Good advice about thinking of form and function which I'll explore as I make up each set of buildings.

 

BTW I couldn't spot which building on your layout where you'd sandwiched two half relief properties together but understand your point; the half relief kits do seem to have quite steep roof profile.

 

Andy

[stivesnick]

12 hours ago, AndyB said:

The buildings are indeed quite narrow ranging from 15mm to around 40mm. There's a couple of reasons for this, apart from space limitation. The ones directly behind the station will be either close to 2d or at most half relief. Others are narrow because I'm trying to play around with forced perspective. Work in progress!

Hi Andy 

 

Half releif buildings will help solve the problem as long as people are not able to view the backs of the buildings. 

 

Some photos enclosed of the petite properties building and the new sides and back that I built. If you are a member of the N Gauge Society, there was an article about the construction in the N Gauge Journal 5/20.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

[AndyB]

Thanks Nick. That's very helpful.

 

Yes, I'm a NGS member and coincidentally edition 5/20 was at the top of a pile of books just underneath a receipe book I'd just picked up! 

 

Yes, I'm certainly going to get the narrowest (low relief) buildings up against the backscene. Very few people will ever see the layout - apart from via photos on here. So I can be judicious about which angles to show the buildings. 

 

Meanwhile the mountboard that I ordered has turned up a few days earlier than expected. So I can make a start transferring the mockups into the final build.

 

Best. Andy

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

15 hours ago, AndyB said:

 

Hi Nick. Thanks for the advice.

 

TBH the potential roof profile problem had passed me by. I'll need to think carefully about that. Maybe test out a couple and see how they look.

 

The buildings are indeed quite narrow ranging from 15mm to around 40mm. There's a couple of reasons for this, apart from space limitation. The ones directly behind the station will be either close to 2d or at most half relief. Others are narrow because I'm trying to play around with forced perspective. Work in progress!

 

There's a tappering one in the middle of the scene which is going to cause an issue; I drew on this from a bed shop at the bottom of Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury.

 

Good advice about thinking of form and function which I'll explore as I make up each set of buildings.

 

BTW I couldn't spot which building on your layout where you'd sandwiched two half relief properties together but understand your point; the half relief kits do seem to have quite steep roof profile.

 

Andy

Hi Andy, I wonder if you might play around with some card mock-ups to test the roof angles ( @stivesnick makes a very good point here).  I wonder if artificially lowering the some roofs might help where buildings have been narrowed?