It's a Small World

 I stayed home and worked hard on a lot of projects today. It doesn't feel as if I made a lot of progress, but if one keeps doing small bits, they do add up.

I'm still working on processing photos from the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show. I found one of the miniature displays that didn't win any award, but it was by far the best job of modeling on any of the entries. I suspect the judges expected a better balance of the plants and other elements. Here's the long shot- an abandoned car with a tree growing through it beside a garage. You know it's a miniature because you can see my reflection on the plexiglas in front of the garage.



That looks very good, but take a look at the interior of the garage. This is modeling to perfection. Still some reflections, but not bad.

Some of you may remember that I love modeling. However, all my own stuff is packed away until such time as I either: 1) can't hike 2) have more money 3) have more space. Maybe I'll need all three of those. (ho hum, OK, probably time too)

Meanwhile, here are a few pics of my own modeling attempts. The first one I've shared before. Front of a gas station, year depicted about 1948. The building is scratchbuilt. That means it did not start as a kit.



This is a layout edge scene. I never got a backdrop behind it, but the "town barn" is made from cardboard and corrugated cookie boxes. The grader and bulldozer are kits, and the pipes and stuff are a combination of purchased modeling details and junk.

This is a night scene. All these buildings are from kits. Some of them aren't quite finished, but you can make kits look great if you are careful with paint and details. And "kit-bashing" is a good technique too. For that, you start with a kit and then change things around a bit. The tanker truck on the street is kitbashed. I took one truck chassis and added the tank to the back.

This is sort of kitbashed. It's really a bit too late for my chosen model time period, from the mid-1950s, but I hate to give it up because I think it came out really good. Keep in mind this truck is, in reality, just over 2 inches long.

This was a piece of my tiny layout that I was pretty happy with. Except the field is too small, of course. But I was experimenting with techniques. The plowed field looks pretty good, but it should be more level. The trees are all natural material. I sort of prided myself on realistic looking trees.

If you look in the upper right of the above picture, you will see a tiny house on a hillside. That is scratch built. My first such attempt. A lot of the structures I did I built as "modules" which means when I do a different layout, they can be dropped in (with making good transitions at the module edges, of course) and they don't have to be completely re-placed in the landscape.

For sure, if and when I get to take this out and play with it again, I will figure out some way to rig a dust cover over it all. HO scale, for those who care.

Meanwhile, I edited, I wrote a chapter in Vacation from DMS- 565 words that I'm not crazy about, but I can figure out what they need another day, I worked on pictures, I did some other stuff.

See Model Train Layout 2001-2018 See more pix of my small layout