A replacement for the lost E.L.Moore truck

Awhile back I did a kitbash of a VW microbus in order to build a truck similar to the one frequently seen in E. L. Moore building construction articles in the '70s. And later that same year I lost it while taking some photos outside. I've been getting ready to build a replacement, but last weekend I stumbled across this one at George's. It's a VW T2 Pick-up from Brekina Automodelle in Germany, and it's a great little model. It needs a little weathering here-and-there, but it's just the replacement I've been looking for.

Where It's At

I realized I haven't posted in a while. It's been a crazy few weeks. I haven't gotten as much done as I'd hoped, but I have started on modelling the beachfront scene - I plan to have a detailed post on that later. I don't think the layout will be completed by Christmas, but trains will be running, the beachfront should be done, and maybe the major parts of the urban portion, as well as the rural, Moorian area, should at least be sketched out by then.

Card stock scribing techniques

I came across this video awhile back when I found some videos about the Madder Valley Railway and the Pendon Museum. This video describes how Pendon model builders simulate brick using a scribed card technique. It strikes me as quite labourious, but the results appear to be well worth the effort. When I first saw this video it reminded me of the scribed siding on card technique John Allen used to construct his famous engine house back in 1948. I've been studying his article and I've got this feeling that I'd like to try and build that engine house using the same techniques he used. Sounds like a good project for the deep winter months ahead.

Last train to Stoufville

This was inspired by last summer's Matchbox Jaguar Mk 10 photo, but with apologizes to the Monkees.

Skyline

That painting teacher who was concerned about ‘two-ness’ also taught us that interesting paintings should incorporate different sorts of contrasts: colour, shape, shadowing, texture and so on. One way to make these things more visible while the painting is being painted is to look at it turned upside-down or sideways. This can make bland passages stand out because the eye isn’t as fixated on decoding what it thinks is the content. Well, I can’t really turn the layout upside-down - other than in a picture - but it’s pretty clear that its skyline is more-or-less dead level; hence, without much height contrast it’s a bit boring. I’ve got a small 6-storey high-rise under construction on my workbench, but I’m embarrassed to say it’s been there in a semi-built state for quite a long time. Regardless, I think I need to consider height contrasts a bit more to liven things up. Also, I want to make sure that some scenes partially obscure or hide the trains at times while they’re in motion for a little “now-you-see-‘em-now-you-don’t” contrast. I think many layouts achieve contrasts in height and visibility through mountains, bridges and tunnels. Since my layout is flat, I need to use some other means.