Wednesday 23 September 2009

Buildings for OO layout

I spotted the Knightwing Mine Top Buildings whilst browsing their website the other day, and started thinking about buildings for the small OO layout I was planning. I'm not sure the Knightwing buildings (which were originally produced by Heljan as "Tucson Silver Mine" are quite what I want, they feel a bit too old (and American) for my purposes. I'll keep a look out for other kits but I might just scratch build something, maybe a bit like this sand loader or this silica sand loader, thought neither is quite like what I'm after.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Riverside

Riverside
Riverside by Fairlight Works, CC

Yesterday I spotted this photo which Steve Fulljames took at the Welshpool & Llanfair Gala. It stuck me that it'd make a good section on a shelf layout. The front edge of the baseboard could be cut to match the curve of the river with a few feet of the river modelled. The trees would disguise the fact that the layout was narrow. The trees in the middle distance provide a good exit point form the scene. Since I don't know what is behind the camera I can assume that the something similar happens there and make the module a couple of feet long in 009. Ian Holmes reminded me of this photo today when I read his post about a mystery baseboard which would be ideal for a scene like this. I also found Neil Rushby's other blog today and I've been reading some of his ideas about presentation which are similar to the ideas I'd had about this mini layout.

Of course it has the disadvantage that it'd be operationally rather dull, but it would work as somewhere to photograph stock, or part of a larger layout. I probably won't build it of course, but if I blog about it then it'll be here if I want to come back to it later.