Modellings tips and answers - Modelling things that involve money - Videos

This week in history

On the 11th of November 1918, the final Armistice with Germany was signed in a railway carriage commandeered by Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch for use as his personal office. The carriage, known as the Compiegne Wagon, was built in 1914 and served as a dining car before becoming an iconic piece of wartime history. The coach went on to become a museum piece before being destroyed by the SS in WWII.

This week's tool of the week is a set of stencils for adding graffiti to derelict or unloved walls, buildings or rolling stock. This set from Vallejo includes three stencils on one sheet and is categorised as 1:35 scale. However, as graffiti has no definitive size, the set can also be convincingly used for OO gauge with each motif having an average character height of 15mm. Click on the picture for more details.

Spending money is something the British like doing very much, they are very good at it too, and when they run out of ideas for what to spend their money on, along come some business people to dream up new ideas for things they can buy. That may sound a little cynical, but the truth is, people spending money, and other people trying to get people to spend money, is an activity that happens every day out there in the real world and therefore should be modelled.

If you live in a large town or city, ask yourself how many opportunities there are to spend money on your journey to the local station. Many small businesses and vendors offering goods, treats or services are an almost unnoticed feature of our streets these days, but such industries, no matter how small, have been successfully modelled and Noch's HO/OO gauge coffee stall is a prime example along with their flower vendor and Woodland Scenics' shoe shine set.

Shops selling big-ticket items have not been left without a model equivalent either, Gaugemaster's Fordhampton range of kits now includes furniture and car showrooms for high streets with big ideas. But let us not forget where all of this money comes from in the first place, a good old traditional bank, and to model that, you will need a good old traditional model such as Metcalfe's low-relief card kit!

Of course, places to spend money only tells half the story and the money spenders themselves are often needed to complete the scene. This is one area where you'll have absolutely no trouble sourcing appropriate models because as figure sets have become more sophisticated, the range of poses featured and the number of intended situations for them to be placed has increased also. People queuing as though waiting to be served is a category that seems to be flourishing, as are specific cameo-scene figure-sets portraying money spenders in many situations from a market to a bargain hunt.

When searching for customer figures, don't think you are limited to specific shopping themed sets either. Noch's waiting passengers set is intended to portray passengers waiting for a train, however, take a closer look because the figures in such sets exhibit the exact same body language as somebody waiting in a queue and are ideal for representing customers at a kiosk or stall in or around a station environment.

Lastly, the subject of money doesn't always involve a purchase. Few larger railway stations (and virtually no tube stations) in the UK would be the same without a busker or two entertaining the travelling public in exchange for some cash, and fortunately, these hardy street entertainers have not been forgotten in model-form either, giving you one more great opportunity to model the subject of money!

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