Devoted to the creation of a large Alpine Diorama in N-scale.

The theme is a fictitious town located in the central Alps.

The theme is a fictitious town located in the central Alps.
It focuses on modeling scenery: terrain, water, grass, flowers, trees, buildings, streets, lights, vehicles, people and public transportation.

Monday, April 23, 2012

How to mount scaled-size streetlights on model base


Friday, April 20, 2012

Make it Yourself!

My quest to build a train layout (n-scale) has turned into something different than it began.   I, like many, was hit hard when the economy turned downed a few years back and it happened right at the start of my layout construction. I can hear many say what I originally thought, “ah… how cute… a tiny train layout…  I’d like to build one of those...  It’s just a toy and can’t cost that much.”  WRONG!  Sure… you can get an el’cheapo train set for $40-50, but I wanted not just any engine/train set.  I was dreaming of a Swiss wonderland and needed Swiss style trains and such.   They cost $100’s up to $1000’s.  The industry is controlled by a few companies and they want lots of cold hard cash for those “cute toys.”  So the cost of trains and track and all the accessories was well beyond my initial expectations. And, I could not justify spending 100’s neigh 1000’s on a layout. 
At first I just let the project sit idle.  I began to look for ways to save money other than cutting cost on the trains.  Building an N-scale train from scratch is practically impossible.  Sure you by the parts and then assemble but it would be just as feasible to buy the train already built.
So in the meanwhile I bought a couple of n-scale Swiss houses from Ebay.  Even used they cost about 15 to 20 bucks each (including shipping).   Now these houses where nice but they were really not worth their prices.  They had deformities in their plastic construction and had some small damage.  Overall, when you consider the cost and quality of toys that McDonald’s gives out in a kid’s meal, then these houses where not worth what I paid.  They should have cost a few dollars at best.  But I guess it’s the reality of supply and demand.  So I decided to try and save money by building a scale house for the layout from scratch.  Though not as perfect as a plastic molded and blown manufactured look, my little cardboard house made from household scrap did look good enough to bring me satisfaction.  That led to yet another mini-project and then another. 
Somewhere in my little mini-projects I began videotaping their construction.  I did this because I originally when to YouTube to find some” how-to’s” on topics and the pick’ins were slim.   After many projects and video tapes my little layout has come a long ways.  I’ve spend months building houses, buildings, shops, trees, mountains, bridges, even a working sky-lift.  I’ve enjoyed taping the construction in hopes that it might help someone else venture into same areas. 
Now I find myself putting all these mini-projects on the layout. It looks great but I see so many other tiny details that I’d like to add to give the layout a special look. 
[By the way, I now would rather refer to my layout as a diorama because to me “layout” is a word more likely associated with model railroading.  I now see industries prices as boarder-line absurdity.   The trains bring me so less satisfaction and the hand-build items make me feel so creative and more gratified.  I get the same type of feeling when I eat a tuna sandwich at home I made for a buck and a half and a fancy restaurant would charge 7 bucks for the same thing.  The fancy restaurant calls their sandwich ‘The Gourmet Seafood Club’ while my tuna sandwich is just that, ‘ a tuna sandwich’.   Somehow my homemade sandwich taste goes down better!]
For example, I am now seeing that just making the road or streets has so much complexity to them.  There are so many details like the white stripes, yellow stripes, warning stripes, curbs, gutters, manhole covers, traffic patterns, etc…  And each detail has its own complex problem with construction in n-scale.  Take curbs for example: I like to build curbs and once I began looking at pictures of curbs I see that there are so many types.  What type(s) are used in Switzerland?  Anyone?  Well, probably their curbs are like any other.   And how do you build them in n-scale.  Many others simply have flat dioramas and simply use just another layer of cardboard and its edge to represent the curb.  But how about curbs on a flowing, mountainous city scape?  A flat sheet of cardboard will not conform to contour.  So I was thinking a thin sheet of foam cut into very narrow strips that can be curved to of the curvature of the street and yet flexing up and down with the contour of the mountainside.  Sure you can buy similar prefabbed items from a manufacturer but again the prices are downright outrageous.  Probably you buy a kit with a few feet of supplies for around 30 bucks.  Yet I can accomplish the same thing with a 50 cent sheet of foam and a dollar’s worth of glue to do my entire diorama.  Lines on streets…, a prefab kit will only give you a specific line for traffic patterns.  You can buy tiny rolls of tape for a buck or two, enough to make any and all the different traffic patterns you want.  How about road signs?  Yes, yes… you can buy them prefabbed, but look at the limitations of prefabbed signs verses one you can scratch make yourself.   I dare you to find, buy and ship to your door a cattle crossing sign for less than you could print-out and glue on a tiny post you make yourself.  Homemade just looks better, more veritable, and cost less than prefabbed items.  No… I’m hooked on the gratification of designing and making my own diorama items.