Details Make the Difference

[simon1966]

In my opinion, detials make a good model great. I thought it might be helpful to pool ideas on what detials enhance a rural scene.

Imagine if you will, that you have a single track main with a spur off to a rural business like a grain elevator. Track is laid and ballasted. The ground is painted earth tone and covered in fine grass colored ground foam. There are a few spectacular "Super trees" but not much else. In other words a blank canvas upon which to let your imagination roam. What details would you consider adding to make this great?

Needless to say the above describes a section of my layout! I have my own ideas as to what I will do with this canvas, but felt that this might be a good way to start a discussion about the specifics of detailing.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, crop fields, farm animals, a tractor in the field working, or even cooler: the sprinklers in the crop field being turned on and watering the crops, using woodland scenics water effects it could be possible to do.

[BRAKIE]

I would make a road and a parking lot for grain hauling trucks and farm equipment.Then add a few cars/pickups for the workers and add a mini scene.I then would add some happy happy trees in the back ground as well as perhaps(space permitting) a house.I would use a N scale house to give the scene depth.I would also add some spilled grain between the rails and on the ground by the loading and unloading areas.I would add some birds waiting for a Chance to get at the spilled grain..I would also add a scale and scale house to weigh the loaded grain trucks and farm wagons..This is a must for grain elevators so they know how much grain is being brought in.

[simon1966]

Thanks guys, what about Track side things like control boxes and the electrical boxes you see close to the track? Would anything like this be out in a rural area?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't know about fancy electric boxes, but a switch stand is a must (if there's a switch that is). Now, trackside you might want to add piles of ties, old abandoned tools, parts from old wrecks, an old abandoned model T, some hick meandering about, a few hobos (maybe even a hobo jungle), piles of rusting junk, a culvert, puddles, oil leaks, a fence for the grain elevator, some tall grass, a dog or some other animal, etc.

[Anonymous]

For as much as people model rural areas in teh summer, I don't think I've ever seen a field of cut hay ever done. It would be extremely easy, cheap, and not at all time consuming either. Of course, that wouldn't really work in a grain elevator scene because hay and grain are grown on different kinds of farms.