Project 16 - East Field Pt. 4 Fin.

And so to East Field itself. The field is populated with horses, which is inspired from the area where I live as there are half a dozen fields round about occupied by horses from the local livery stable and riding school.

Unfortunately all but one of the model horses (made in Hong Kong) have the same pose. I tried to differentiate through colour and position so that it is not obvious. There are dark bays, chestnut, grey/white and a palomino in there.

This end of the field is open and the far end has a clump of trees midway between the hedges.

The hedge in the right foreground is somewhat lower than that alongside Clark's lane and is kept nicely trimmed by the railway because it is alongside the crane yard. Further along, where the yard peters out, the hedge has been allowed to go wild with distinctive shrubs commanding the ground.

The field is made from two shades of static grass.

The hedge construction is described here.

The large trees are sprigs of Yarrow glued together.

Small trees/shrubs are mainly Woodland Scenics armatures and matting spread over. When I ran out I made some myself surprising quickly from 7 pieces of twisted wire in two tiers with Woodland Scenics matting spread over.

Since these photos were snapped a back scene has been installed - more on that later.


To Part 38.

To Series Part 1.

Andover Modelex 2016

16 layouts on show from N to 0 gauge.

I find myself being drawn to model railroads of the USA, as modelled by residents of that land. Many of them have the knack of creating vast, very realistic looking railroads, judging by YouTube videos I have watched.

There was a USA model railroad (called Sutton Summit) on show at Andover Modelex created by Brits. of the Gosport Railroad Group. It held my attention due to its enormous size. It is the longest N gauge layout I have ever seen at 100 ft  (3 scale miles of scenery) and growing, although some sections had to be left out for this exhibition.

It is a modular dumb bell scheme with some modules owned by their club and others by individual members, all built to a common standard for interconnection.

The baseboards are very narrow at 30cm or so, which can make viewing and photography disrupted by all the real world objects of the room and people that are in eye shot too.

These two photos show some of the more dramatic Sutton Summit landscapes. Other scenes included various industrial sites, town, farm and station. Quite a variety are accommodated without looking cluttered and that is made possible by its great length.

The range of Traders was very good and welcome allowing me to obtain all I wanted. One characteristic of many small traders is the boxes of untidy, mixed up small parts. Great rewards can be had by spending time rummaging through these. Often you'll find rare, specialist or inexpensive bits and bobs for your models or layout.

One case in point was an item I bought from a very tidy Trader's stand with all their products neatly displayed and visible. Later on, whilst rummaging through another trader's untidy box, I came across similar items that I could have purchased for half the price!

Project 16 - East Field Part 3

In front of Station Cottage is Clark's Lane. In reality, and on this side of the railway, it is a green lane between two fields with high hedges but no buildings alongside. I have upgraded it to a tarmacadam lane to serve the cottage and field. But it gets little use, indicated by the spoil of gravel and dirt washed from the verge by rain. Vehicle movement to the cottage and field have driven a path through this.

The width of the tarmacadam was determined from me pacing a real lane and when I got home measured my boot multiplied by the number of steps. It calculated to nine and a half feet.

Beyond the cottage, with even less vehicle use of the road, grass has started to invade the road surface.

With high hedges little of the cottage environs are visible. The field gate serves as a portal to catch a glimpse of it.

The field is to be used by grazing horses and their hooves have churned up the ground at the gate leaving it peppered with hoof impressions. Some of the soil has spilled onto the road surface.

To photograph the views down either end of the road proved very difficult due to limited access on the layout here. My compact camera could not cope with the close proximity to the model and the long depth of field required. I borrowed a Go-Pro Hero 4 miniature camera for the shots, which did the job admirably.


To Part 37.

To Series Part 1.