J
Jonr1234
Guest
I may only be 16 and I haven't got much experience with modeling of any kind, but I've been playing around with small layouts and Hornby sets since I was 6 so I've gained a certain amount of experience!
Since I started my large loft layout, there has been many a bad word and quite a few regrets! So from my small but interesting experience is a few do's and don'ts of building a layout, which should spare you the agony of wishing you'd done it another way!
1) Always draw lots of drawings of parts of your layout. A general design, detailed drawings or certain areas etc... You can never do enough planning. I found this and I decided to change the design 5 times before I finally made one I liked!
2) Remember, the landscape was there first! Do not build the landscape round the railway! make sure the landscape looks natural. A hill is not made purposely for the track to go into!
3) ALWAYS paint a base colour before putting any scatter on. A coat of brown paint makes all the difference.
4) If at all possible make sure that any point motors are put on before the boards are fixed down, there is nothing harder than trying to atatch a point motor upside down while laying under the board!
5) Before laying any track, add a thin layer of rust colour paint along the sides of the rails. Don't get any on top of the rails though! This will make the track look a whole lot less shiny and much more realistic.
6) Spread ballast carefully and evenly. Do not let the ballast level exceed the sleeper level and keep it away from the rails.
7) Try to put any cars or people in static possitions, this stops the feeling of time being frozen as the layout then looks a bit more believeable. Put cars in parked possitions and people talking in groups or looking through windows.
8) Try to make sure that everything you put on your layout matches your time period and location.
9) Make sure that the places you put certain objects are accessable when the boards are fixed, it's hard to glue things down when they're stuck next to a sloping roof!
10) Don't rush to get something completed, if you get fed up with making one thing, move onto another and come back later. This will reduce the amount of accidents and will allow you to have more patience for adding finer detail, which can get a bit tedious on a large layout.
This is all I can think of for now, but if anyone else has some tips, feel free to add to this thread!
Since I started my large loft layout, there has been many a bad word and quite a few regrets! So from my small but interesting experience is a few do's and don'ts of building a layout, which should spare you the agony of wishing you'd done it another way!
1) Always draw lots of drawings of parts of your layout. A general design, detailed drawings or certain areas etc... You can never do enough planning. I found this and I decided to change the design 5 times before I finally made one I liked!
2) Remember, the landscape was there first! Do not build the landscape round the railway! make sure the landscape looks natural. A hill is not made purposely for the track to go into!
3) ALWAYS paint a base colour before putting any scatter on. A coat of brown paint makes all the difference.
4) If at all possible make sure that any point motors are put on before the boards are fixed down, there is nothing harder than trying to atatch a point motor upside down while laying under the board!
5) Before laying any track, add a thin layer of rust colour paint along the sides of the rails. Don't get any on top of the rails though! This will make the track look a whole lot less shiny and much more realistic.
6) Spread ballast carefully and evenly. Do not let the ballast level exceed the sleeper level and keep it away from the rails.
7) Try to put any cars or people in static possitions, this stops the feeling of time being frozen as the layout then looks a bit more believeable. Put cars in parked possitions and people talking in groups or looking through windows.
8) Try to make sure that everything you put on your layout matches your time period and location.
9) Make sure that the places you put certain objects are accessable when the boards are fixed, it's hard to glue things down when they're stuck next to a sloping roof!
10) Don't rush to get something completed, if you get fed up with making one thing, move onto another and come back later. This will reduce the amount of accidents and will allow you to have more patience for adding finer detail, which can get a bit tedious on a large layout.
This is all I can think of for now, but if anyone else has some tips, feel free to add to this thread!
