What are some things done in modeling in scenery that you would never see in real World? I see some layouts and it’s amazing but can’t imagine in real World situations. For example, a clump of bushes that looks neat on a layout but in real life, it just would not happen.
Water with dust on it?
One of my pet gripes are the over used Sedum "trees". I'm never quite sure whether they look Art Deco-ish, or just surrealistic. Either way, they don't look anything like real-world trees to me.
CNJ831
Some guys will make Messy train yards and engine service facilities on model railroads.
In real life, due to hazzards and safety concerns they are not messy, but neatly organized.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
CNJ831 One of my pet gripes are the over used Sedum "trees". I'm never quite sure whether they look Art Deco-ish, or just surrealistic. Either way, they don't look anything like real-world trees to me. CNJ831
CNJ:
They do look like elm trees, which are unfortunately not as common as they once were. Elms have that vase-like shape.
Autobus Prime CNJ831 One of my pet gripes are the over used Sedum "trees". I'm never quite sure whether they look Art Deco-ish, or just surrealistic. Either way, they don't look anything like real-world trees to me. CNJ831 CNJ: They do look like elm trees, which are unfortunately not as common as they once were. Elms have that vase-like shape.
They also resemble a type of oak that grows at certain elevations here in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. And believe it or not, they resemble some of the maple trees out here that were brought out by New Englanders during the Gold Rush and have adapted to the mountain weather and elevations at about 3,000 feet above sea level. They also tend to turn 'color' all at once for a peak of about a week during the Fall. In fact, my home town of Nevada City, CA, which was settled largely by New Englanders in 1850 has an annual 'Fall Tour' during 'peak' color season that has become extremely popular out here thanks largely in part to those 'adapted' New England maples.
Sure wish they were 'Sugar Maples,' though. Yum!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Sedum does look like the American Elm, the problem with using this plant is people tend to leave the trunk far too long, shorten the trunk and position them closer together for a more realistic look.
I personally think figures (as in people) don't look right.
collectthem What are some things done in modeling in scenery that you would never see in real World? I see some layouts and it’s amazing but can’t imagine in real World situations.
2. Wild life. In the past three months I've probably driving close to 10,000 miles. I've seen a lot of hawks, a flock of turkey's, two herd of deer, several single deer, three skunk, and several pheasant. If I had been driving on the layouts that I am familiar with I would have seen thousands of deer, more moose & bear than currently live in Yellowstone, enough skunk and raccoon to be considered a plague, but the only birds would be pigeons.
3. Then don't even get into the extraordinarily high percentage of cutesy stuff one finds on layouts. My daughters 2x4 HO modular has no less than 10 cutesy mini-scenes on it. Groan.
I think people in the correct places look good but overdoing it is not good. I have a UNION STATION so there will be people there and a fewat the truck station. Everywhere else, I dont know. Mine is in the City so I guess I could use a little more people.
The one thing that is missing is garbage. I only ever saw one layout with garbage done to a reallistic degree. A final touch needs overflowing garbage cans in lanes and bits of trash blowing down the street. Trash left by picnickers in a park or at a highway viewpoint. Grungy areas behind a gas station with old batteries and mufflers and tires piled up. How many farms have their own garbage dump out behind the barn. A lot of us get the railyards right only to have a too prestine town. As unappealing as it sounds putting garbage on the layout adds as much as a good weathering job.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Too much traffic on small country road. Road looks more like moonscape.
And the sphagnum moss pretending to be a tree---without a trunk
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Autobus Prime Water with dust on it?
Then you've never seen a farmers pond after the wheat harvest!
collectthem What are some things done in modeling in scenery that you would never see in real World? I see some layouts and it’s amazing but can’t imagine in real World situations. For example, a clump of bushes that looks neat on a layout but in real life, it just would not happen.
1. Suburban stations without any advertising posters. Usually the platform is lined with them.
2. A station that's too small for the traffic level. For example, the Atlas suburban station represents a structure that's too small for a line significant commuter traffic.
3. A town with only one church. A typical small town has a lot of churches grouped near each other.
4. The vehicle population isn't representative of the real world. For a modern era layout, there are too many BMWs and not enough Toyotas.
5. The railroad goes out of a tunnel and onto a bridge.
6. Too few flags.
7. Lack of specific references to place. For example, if your layout is set in Chicago, there are no "City of Chicago - Richard M. Daley, Mayor" signs.
HO truck wheels on engines that are about 40% too wide. Can't they thin them to be closer to many of the better drivers out there?
"Lichen" in place of trees....puhleese!
Shiny spandex clothing on every human figurine.
BTW, #5 listed just above my post, I have a photo on the CPR line in the Fraser Valley of just such an arrangement. Not only that, but the famous Kettle Valley Rwy just 40 miles SW of that location had no fewer than three tunnels with two bridges between 'em!
-Crandell
Selector, I immediatly thought of that tunnel bridge on the CPR, Plus we have the old Camas Prairie raikroada here with several situations like that ,including a tunnel making a 90 deg. turn inside the hill.
Way Off? Well, too red rusty rails,rows of bunch grass instead of random patches,Dust is not weathering to quote something I saw recentlyand Oh Yeah sprinkles of brightly colored little dots to represent flowers etc. Unless its a field of rape or mustard your hardly gonna notice flowers from the air. BILL
cbq9911a5. The railroad goes out of a tunnel and onto a bridge
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
galaxySome guys will make Messy train yards and engine service facilities on model railroads. In real life, due to hazzards and safety concerns they are not messy, but neatly organized.
http://www.sd45.com/schmollinger/pages/ss13.htm
Rivers in the desert Southwest with waterflows that look like the Mississippi in full flood! We'd cut off our left . . . . . . . . . . arm for that much water! Instead we build dams to insure that everyone down here has enough water to take a bath every Saturday night!
Someone once described the Platte River as "Too thick to drink and too thin to plow" while another description was "A mile wide and an inch deep."
loathar Autobus Prime Water with dust on it? Then you've never seen a farmers pond after the wheat harvest!
That ain't dust!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEETSomeone once described the Platte River as "Too thick to drink and too thin to plow" while another description was "A mile wide and an inch deep."
Was that the N. Platte or the other one?----and was that in full flood mode?
Bright green grass for a late fall day---no golf course nearby----
A 1960's style burger joint on a purportedly 1920's layout---
Too much Lichen---not enough trees---
Geared Steam galaxy Some guys will make Messy train yards and engine service facilities on model railroads. In real life, due to hazzards and safety concerns they are not messy, but neatly organized. (snip cool MILW pictures)
galaxy Some guys will make Messy train yards and engine service facilities on model railroads. In real life, due to hazzards and safety concerns they are not messy, but neatly organized.
(snip cool MILW pictures)
Folks:
One thing about clutter is that it often has a certain order to it...sometimes it's stuff that's being stored, sometimes it's stuff that was once supposed to be used, like an old machine taken outside as a parts source, then left there while weeds grew up and other stuff was put in front of it.
There's an old compressor dealer around here that would be a clutterbug's dream, but it's not pure disorder - you've got a few similar rusty machines here, a row of pipes on some skids there, etc.
twhite Autobus Prime CNJ831 One of my pet gripes are the over used Sedum "trees". I'm never quite sure whether they look Art Deco-ish, or just surrealistic. Either way, they don't look anything like real-world trees to me. CNJ831 CNJ: They do look like elm trees, which are unfortunately not as common as they once were. Elms have that vase-like shape. They also resemble a type of oak that grows at certain elevations here in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. And believe it or not, they resemble some of the maple trees out here that were brought out by New Englanders during the Gold Rush and have adapted to the mountain weather and elevations at about 3,000 feet above sea level. They also tend to turn 'color' all at once for a peak of about a week during the Fall. In fact, my home town of Nevada City, CA, which was settled largely by New Englanders in 1850 has an annual 'Fall Tour' during 'peak' color season that has become extremely popular out here thanks largely in part to those 'adapted' New England maples. Tom
I'm sorry guys, but Sedum doesn't even vaguely resemble any elm tree I've ever encountered in the eastern U.S. and there were plenty around when I was growing up. Below is an image of a typical American Elm. It bears no resemblance to Sedum's opened umbrella, essentially broad, flat-topped profile/appearance. The same goes for any of the various New England species of maples.
I can't speak to westcoast tree species but I can't ever recall seeing any common North American tree that closely resembles Sedum. If you are familiar with any, please post an image.
CNJ831I can't speak to westcoast tree species but I can't ever recall seeing any common North American tree that closely resembles Sedum. If you are familiar with any, please post an image.
Sedum to this little one can sort of be seen as a 'Tree Foobie'---but not even a close approximation there of----
Vertical rock faces next to the track with not a sign of a borehole...
Bridges (usually, but not always, modified kits) that would collapse like cardboard if a train ever rolled over them in 1:1 scale.
Tall, spindly wood trestles under later generation diesels.
Towns without clearly-identifiable post offices, municipal offices and cop shops. And, even more so, no fire halls...
NO vehicles marked for the local utility companies, plumbers, electricians or tree services...
'Eclectic' architecture - New England saltbox next to an adobe, with a southern plantation house right across the alley...
And everybody's favorite, the little people, each standing in a personal mud puddle - even on concrete sidewalks.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with scenery when i get a round tuit)
tomikawaTTTowns without clearly-identifiable post offices, municipal offices and cop shops. And, even more so, no fire halls...
Anyway, I'm not that big a fan of outmoded and obsolete practices on layouts representing a modern era - such as shipping non-alcoholic items in wooden barrels, small freight stations (not team tracks or the like), funky wooden crates on said freight stations, (US) freight cars w/ roofwalks after, say, 1990, icing platforms and so on. Also, it's true businesses here and there have cutsey or punny names, but too many and too obvious ones are just cringe-inducing (for some reason the poster child in my mind is the old 'W.E. Snatchem' funeral home).
Garages plopped in middle of field---with NO way to get to it
3 choked yards on a layout only needing 2 lokes---having 19 lokes on 19 trains
Come now---do you need a full fledged town every 5 inches?
Trying to cover ALL seasons on a single 4X8
Getting a SD90Mac and thinking that a couple of them should go around an 12" radius curve and NOT look funny
SD90MAC's painted purple with green polka dots--hey--some guy thought this was a neato idea---if you just pictured that in your own mind you will appreciate the horrified look the guy's wife gave him--
selector...BTW, #5 listed just above my post, I have a photo on the CPR line in the Fraser Valley of just such an arrangement. Not only that, but the famous Kettle Valley Rwy just 40 miles SW of that location had no fewer than three tunnels with two bridges between 'em! -Crandell
Crandell, I think you are referring to the Cisco site in the Fraser Canyon. Another neat aspect of that is the CN mainline goes over the CP on a bridge as they both swap sides at this point.
Pathfinder, no, I'm actually thinking of Ainslie Creek Gorge. Here is the image I took just 10 days ago.
Hand painted backdrops that include anything more than sky and clouds. Very few people have the talent to paint anything else which looks as realistic as their models and scenery.
- Harry
blownout cylinderSD90MAC's painted purple with green polka dots--hey--some guy thought this was a neato idea---if you just pictured that in your own mind you will appreciate the horrified look the guy's wife gave him--
What about having a scenery item that's the flat out wrong scale! There's a layout I saw in town here that had O scale trees on an N scale layout. Redwoods them was, as I recall the description from its owner.
Dan