things that can't be seen...

[snowey]

how many of you paint/weather/detail things that aren't seen on your layout? Like, the back and/or side(s) off structures, the sidees of rail(s) that aare facing away from viewers, etc.

[88gta350]

I do, but probably because it's just as easy to detail the whole thing as it is to do half when you're doing it all at once. Plus, for myself, I'd rather have a complete building than one that's half done, even though on the layout you couldn't tell. I would know, that's what would matter to me.

[Anonymous]

I'd do it all the way around, I would know that it's complete, and if I ever change my mind and use the structure elsewhere on the layout or use it later on on a new layout, then I won't have to go back and fini***hat other side. Not to mention that when it's all done, you can proudly hand a mirror to your friends and tell them to check every angle of your structures.

[leighant]

I usually detail and paint on all sides EXCEPT those built deliberately as part of a "trick" front up against the background, or an industry that hides staging tracks that are supposed to be somewhere else, that sort of thing. Who knows when I am going to want to move the structure to a different orientation?

Occasionally, I omit detailing the backside, like these Navy headquarters and barracks buildings I bashed from three Model Powers "Grandma's House/Bella's Farmhouse" kits. I used the kits to get bunches of uniformly spaced windows.


On these, I had a limited number of window sections available, and a layout specifically designed for one-side viewing (It has a perspective painting of the world's largest wooden building on the back of a layout only 2' x 3' total!) I just used plain scribed styrene for the backs of the barracks and HQ building rather than buying 2 more kits.

But often I do minimal INTERIOR detailing, just enough that when you look through windows, you see the shape of stuff inside. But I don't usually do it so detailed that I keep the roof loose to show it off. (With the exception of the Nit Pickers' Union Hall and the 1 1/4" long model of the model railroad barn with the layout in the loft......)