I thought I had it bad in the winter, but this summer I have had a HECK of a time getting myself into the train room. Maybe it's the nice weather, which brings plenty of opportunities to enjoy life outside of the apartment. Maybe it's the 4x8 layout which provides only minimal operational interest. Or maybe it's because I plan on moving soon, and I am unsure if I will have room for a layout. In any case, this week I mustered up enough will power to get some things done on my layout. The only one I have pictures of now is a model of the house I grew up in - the only residence on my layout. This is the model (HO scale), and below is the real house: The entire thing is scratchbuilt from styrene parts. For correct dimensions, I took many shots of the real house with my digital camera. Straight on shots worked best for this purpose. In each shot, I used the siding as a measuring guide, and scaled all the pictures to the same size. I traced around the important shapes, and printed out outlines in HO scale. I traced these outlines onto the styrene- and presto! Near-perfect measurements without ever picking up a ruler. Here's a couple more pics: I wanted to make a garage, but I just didn't have the room on my layout. Also, some details remain to be created- such as the garbage cans on the driveway side of the house (not pictured), the air conditioner on the other side (not pictured), and the trees. Hopefully soon I'll have some pictures to post of the lazy river on my layout that I am finishing up. -Dave
Should you ever get space to build a larger layout, and put buildings of that caliber on it, you will have something, my friend. THAT is one awesome model! As always, I'm impressed! Ever thought of sending photos in to the model RR mags? Your quality work would reach out & get their attention. Got mine, for sure!
Thanks for the feedback guys! Boxcab- the addition on the back of the house is 'complete', at least it's as complete as I could make it. The lower portion is a screened-in porch. But I could not find a suitable material for scale screen! I tried everything from clear styerere with a clear black wash, to nylon pantyhose. Nothing looked right. Even the tiniest real screen I could find still looks to 'screeny' when cut down to very small pieces. So I decided rather than having it look horrible, I'd leave it open. At least that way people can see into the porch, which was one of my biggest problems with all of the methods I tried. Here's a picture from my parents' back yard: I've always wanted to have some pictures published in some sort of magazine. I still need to work on some details, and get some people into my pictures. Then maybe I'll take a weekend and shoot some pictures with that goal in mind. I wish I could put that kind of detail into a larger layout. Someday that'll happen, but for now, I have to stick with the small 4x8 plan. Even that takes up more room than it should, in my small apartment. Well, maybe that's just my fiance talking later- Dave
Dave, that is some skill you got there!!!! NICE work.. I been wanting to model my own home an all. an haven't got around to it yet.... And even the local railroad stations, there's 2 of them so.... BUT WOW thats some skill you put into that model.. Keep up the GREAT work!
Great work im really impressed by your modelling, i agree that you should try to get your models published in a magazine excellent
