Hello,
As this time of the year is a bit quieter in Sandown, we are closed on Sundays in January. Meaning are opening times are Tuesday to Saturday 10am till 4.30pm.
Also, please note the shop will be closed from Tuesday 19th of January till 22nd of January, reopening on Saturday the 23rd. If you order from our website, we will not post anything the week of the 18th. Make sure you visit us or order this week if you need to complete a project by a deadline.
Creating realistic scenery is one of the most exciting and fascinating part of building a model. In this newsletter, we are going to cover a few features you can easily add to your layout with minimum difficulty. As usual, the best trick to remember is to use the right tool for the job. Obviously, everything is this newsletter applies to most scales. The principles are the same and what is a big boulder in N gauge is a small rock in 1/35 scale.
Please note that all the pictures below will lead you to further details including well made videos. Simply click on the pictures.
Usually, you start by creating the ground. Avoid flat surfaces as they are unrealistic to represent the countryside and even a town setting is going to show some roads going up and down. Also, flat surfaces look monotonous and are less pleasing to the eye.
Traditionnally, you build hills by using crunched newsletters covered in plaster. This works but takes
time and can be messy. Woodland Scenics introduced last year Shaper Sheet. This material can be shaped into any form simply by bending it with your hands. It then holds itself and simply
needs covered with a layer of specialised designed light plaster to stay
permanently in shape. This is a great time saver and the perfect way to
create hills, mountains, valleys and other countryside scenes. Click on the picture to access more details including a video showing the product in action.
A few rocks are likely to be seen either on the ground or on the sides of mountains. Even fields can have the odd boulder right in the middle of it. Once again, they add to the effect and avoid the scene to look too neat and boring. You can now get rock moulds of various shapes, make your rocks with Hydrocal (a lightweight replacement to plaster) and paint them quite easily to give a realistic result. If you have time for only one video, go for the one on terrain painting. It will give you great tips on painting to great effect, even if you are not an artist!
Water is one of the most striking feature you can have on a layout or diorama. However, you need to remember there are several types of water: flat expanses like lakes or the sea and moving water like rapids, waterfalls, etc. The product to use will depend on the type of water and what you want to portray.
Finally, all these - and a lot more - are clearly detailed in a very nice manual that you can keep handy on your workbench. It is full of ideas and a great source of inspiration.
Send us an email or give us a call to check availability or to reserve anything, whatever scale you model in. As usual, if we do not have in stock what you are looking for, we will order it for you and you will get it fast (usually within a week if the manufacturer has it in stock). We place weekly orders with most suppliers.
Remember, you can park for free for one hour on the High Street. So no excuse not to come and visit us!
Upstairs Downstairs is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am till 4.30pm. We are closed on Monday and Sunday during January.
Carole & Max
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Upstairs Downstairs
3 Pier Street
Sandown, PO36 8JR
Isle of Wight
Tel: 01983 406 616
http://www.trainshop.co.uk or find us on Facebook
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