PJBambrick

It's just right, with the same feel and colour palette as the rest of the layout.  A sense of distance is now present, especially in the view of the receding fields behind the weighbridge hut.  Just a few quiet still clouds now to balance the sky to the landscape.... Looking forward to the Sherton Abbey tower blog entry!

It's looking good, try the 'Generate a Panorama' web resource to get the contours, and combine it with an equivalent scale height view from a period OS map.  A set of overlapping photos from the same viewpoint & direction can also help to reduce the dreaded guesswork.  It's not about art, just copy from reference on trial sections till you are happy with the realism of the landscape.  Same for the sky, choose the look you want, and copy the colours and clouds from ref.

Great job, love the wooded hillside detail at centre skyline, and variety in middle distance hedgerows. A perfect shadowless scene.

This makes show demos worth the trip.  Detail is just a question of time, mixing colours on a palette from reference, stippling the paint quite dry onto natural ground and foliage.  Finer brushes for distance and coarser ones for foreground.  Separate card layers are much more comfortable to paint at the bench before they are fitted, taking the arm ache problem out!

The fenceposts in the bottom left show the layout lighting coming from top right, so does the relief foliage above, and this can also be included in the backscene, with trees, hills and clouds all responding to the same lightfall. 

Thanks for putting the pics up, they are a pleasure to look at.......Paul

Hi Steffan

Sorry for delayed reply.  It's the free thinking here and the wish to recreate the complete experience that is interesting. There is always a trade off with a restricted view type show, because you can't run around taking pictures of the scene from all angles .... there's only one view, but it's a good one!  

With that, the 'raindrops on window' idea sounds great, and so do the other atmospheric effects and props, but bear the natural viewpoint in mind.  From a carriage window it's normally quite an oblique one from a seated position.  That foreshortening is going to make any diorama perspective difficult to control, so it might be easier to simulate the corridor side where folks could walk past it naturally.  A view from a narrower building type window perhaps, with other view blockers to help manage the more difficult angles?

Either way, control the viewpoint, then set the far horizon line at eye level like a flat desert as the most important datum for consistency.  It controls the surface grid, which then approaches the viewpoint progressively from skyline to full size.  Paint or project a sky onto the inside of a horsebox size hemisphere, it's dioramic that way, and closer to how our eyes 'see' the surroundings outdoors.  Maybe mock it up half size to to see what works, and just make everything fit the scene where it looks best.  There's no modelling scale with this lark, leave it behind and just place the 'trains' into the illusion relative to everything else.

Keep the faith, and good luck with the starlings!.....Paul

Hi Steffan

This post is full of really creative new effects.  I couldn't agree more, and from this outpouring of ideas, I also suspect that from time to time you experience a wish to capture other views and conditions, quite possibly without any railway being present at all.  Relatively few see the surroundings before the trains but your instinct on this seems to be more like a landscape artist or a movie set designer, who seek to create a complete illusion.  Well made models might well be included in your plan, but again, I'm guessing as only one aspect of a bigger picture.

To help in achieving your aim of combining all those sensations into a complete viewing experience, there is no need to separate any model railway from good landscape study and effects. The natural location existed long before the railway traversed it, so why not seek your reference far away from the conventional railway influenced sources.

Landscape galleries. historic panoramas and nature photography can all help to inspire you to gather your own specific reference, and these creatives choose their viewpoints freely, rather than having to position themselves with a view over a railway.  For interesting skies try searching for galleries featuring 'Victorian romantic landscapes' with De-Breanski, Koekkoek, and George Cole among many other masters.

Consider leaving the old fashioned adherence to scale behind you as well, because painters and photographers have no concept of it in their work.  They are aware that nobody 'sees' anything as a measured dimension, all things are merely perceived relative to others and distance.  As modellers we can also project out from a 2D sky panel, generating progressive layers of 3D landscaping.  Sounds are quite easy to add to backscenes using edited mp3 loops with bluetooth triggering.

Keep us posted. 

Hi Dave, 

Thanks for the post, great to see it progressing.  The proportions look fine and it's good to see the parapet behind, now all you have to do is resist the temptation to put a bus on it!

Keep 'em coming.........Paul

Excellent to see this taking shape, lovely flow to it.  Just goes to show what a bit of nicer weather can do for a project.

Paul

Yes indeed, a fine result judging from the photos, crisp, accurate and identical !

Do please show the next steps 

Agreed, this is going to be spectacular.

Really coming together now, what a visual treat!

I'll do some more later.........Paul

Beautifully done, as usual.  Have you decided on the layout name yet? 

Certainly looking forward to the Basilica update, & it's good to see you back posting again.

Paul

Hi Jobs

For me, the L shape works well because it leads the eye into the scene from both sides

My eye is then drawn to the gap between the 2nd & 3rd frontages & I want to see through to whatever is behind them!

More wharves & warehouses? Ships, masts and cranes? 

As I see it, Jobs, there is a depth layer you haven't used yet, at the back.

So you could still add to it by representing other activity, just visible through gaps between the buildings. 

With the age of the buildings, in my minds eye, I see the masts and rigging of the merchant ships in a neighbouring wharf above the rooflines.

Looking forward to the next instalment, excellent atmosphere.

Cheers Paul

Fantastic , A wild & windy looking sky!  Now that really is how to set a mood. 

Can't wait to see more of this one! .......Paul

Hi Dave

Personally, I do think it might suit the layout, it's more like modelling a receding landscape than painting one.

Bucks Hill was all done in layers, and it worked OK.

I can't seem to find out how to post images into blog comments so I've done a sketch of how Bucks Hill was basically arranged .

Give me a day or two to get the sketch scanned, & I"ll do a blog entry to show one way of constructing it, along with some finished work. 

You could enter the 2014 challenge with it!

Paul  

Great stuff Dave

Modelling as you are, within a diorama, and against a fixed backscene allows you to blend the far distance & horizon into the 3D modelling by using progressively smaller scaled layers, so rather than painting a backscene, and then trying to disguise a 2D to 3D join, instead you can model a semi relief layer at say 5 or 6mm 'scale' as part of the scenic background, then another layer behind at 3 to 4mm 'scale', then another at 2mm & so on using finer textures, muted colours & smaller gaps between until you reach the horizon.  It doesn't have to dominate, it can be as understated as necessary by de saturating the colours (airbrushing the separate layers in grey before positioning.  The big advantage is that you replicate the look of a landscape as you see it naturally (without a join in it !)  Adding appropriately scaled elements into this type of semi relief works quite well, all manner of features can be included into the background as they would appear.  Give it a go as a mockup & my bet is you'll take to it no problem, why not, after all you can do everything else alright!....Paul

Hi Dave

This is all going to work very nicely, because you do have the knack of planning the overall picture as well as the details.  So now having studied the plan & mockup, I'm naturally curious about what you intend to do with the backscene, which is perfectly configured into the design of this diorama style layout.  

Have you decided what approaches to take yet, for instance, will it be removable or integral to the boards? do you see it as a photoshop image, or are you considering painting a panoramic landscape yourself?

With the way this is designed, there are no obstacles to using a few progressive layers to help suggest the background distance.

I see a couple of things that might be useful in the planning stage which you have probably also considered. 

The lane leading into the station approach could be easily persuaded to visually 'disappear' behind the raised wooded area to the right, thus making a T junction. A continuation here helps in justifying the position of the road bridge as well.

It would be good to maximise any clearance between the rear parapets of the bridge and embankment fencing and the backscene.  Even a small extra gap here will help to create an effective distance layer ( I can see it might be a bit tight at this point, but it is an effective trick )

Allowing as much room as space will permit behind any of the structures & features at the planning stage really will pay big dividends later, because it permits a few visual layers to be included, particularly those elements seen along the gentle curve along the back. like the lane, cattle pens & siding etc.

PM me if you think I can help anywhere with this one, It's a cracker!........Paul