See those milk tanks beyond the crossing gates and trees? To my eye it seems as if they could be standing on a siding serving the dairy rather than on the sector plate. I hadn't planned the scene to give that impression, its just one of those things that sometimes fall just right by sheer good luck.
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So I thought to myself what if the proposed diorama featured the end of that siding as seen from the other side of the trees that shield the scenic break, would it work or spoil everything? I was intrigued to see how the idea might look and if there would be enough space available, so out came some lining paper and I drew the plan out full size. Obviously I got the width of the trackbed wrong but that can be corrected easily enough, the curvature of the line has been exaggerated thanks to cropping the photo, its far gentler than what you see below.
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Other than the main scenic features I don't intend modelling an exact replica of the real location, for instance the larger of the two buildings would probably be a public house, as for the smaller one I'm undecided. There is also a question mark about the tunnel, a simple cutting might fit the bill better, so the next stage is to build a half sized card mock up of the entire scene.
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The whole mock up was cobbled together from corrugated card packaging and measures 54cm x 23cm. Its been great fun to build so far and took around four hours work to reach this stage but had I used a hot glue gun rather than PVA then no doubt I could have built it quicker but what's the rush?
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DAS modelling clay was laid over scraps of card to build up the river bank, the water is neat PVA which will be coloured and varnished before the various bridges are installed. But first of all I'll build up the rest of the scenery using whatever comes to hand, then make some rough buildings and finally I'll see if a suggestion of the dairy and its siding works or not.
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Will the actual diorama get built, well I think so because I really enjoy scenic modelling and will need my occasional fix, although it won't be physically connected to Llangunllo it should add another dimension to the layout especially as regards photo opportunities. The final decision will be made next week once I've completed the mock up but for now this is how I see the basic scenery with some trees blocking the scenic exits.
![]()
So I thought to myself what if the proposed diorama featured the end of that siding as seen from the other side of the trees that shield the scenic break, would it work or spoil everything? I was intrigued to see how the idea might look and if there would be enough space available, so out came some lining paper and I drew the plan out full size. Obviously I got the width of the trackbed wrong but that can be corrected easily enough, the curvature of the line has been exaggerated thanks to cropping the photo, its far gentler than what you see below.
Other than the main scenic features I don't intend modelling an exact replica of the real location, for instance the larger of the two buildings would probably be a public house, as for the smaller one I'm undecided. There is also a question mark about the tunnel, a simple cutting might fit the bill better, so the next stage is to build a half sized card mock up of the entire scene.
The whole mock up was cobbled together from corrugated card packaging and measures 54cm x 23cm. Its been great fun to build so far and took around four hours work to reach this stage but had I used a hot glue gun rather than PVA then no doubt I could have built it quicker but what's the rush?
DAS modelling clay was laid over scraps of card to build up the river bank, the water is neat PVA which will be coloured and varnished before the various bridges are installed. But first of all I'll build up the rest of the scenery using whatever comes to hand, then make some rough buildings and finally I'll see if a suggestion of the dairy and its siding works or not.
Will the actual diorama get built, well I think so because I really enjoy scenic modelling and will need my occasional fix, although it won't be physically connected to Llangunllo it should add another dimension to the layout especially as regards photo opportunities. The final decision will be made next week once I've completed the mock up but for now this is how I see the basic scenery with some trees blocking the scenic exits.
