G`day Folks, Well I have posted some of this stuff on the competition topic, however I thought it may be better to have a separate topic for the detail. So to re-iterate. This is my entry for the Christmas competition. It is formally known as St. Nicholas Christmas Village. I built this a few years back and I think I may have displayed it on YMRC.???....not sure now, but anyway, technically it`s an older project , but it complies with the criteria here set down by our illustrious flounder....Toto Sounds a bit fishy I know....but there you are.!!! The basic components in this are a block of polystyrene sheet which is covered with corrugated cardboard and building papers. Some of the green stuff is kitchen scourers. Downloaded buildings from Worsdworth Model Railway online site and printed onto light card. Baking soda snow. Chinese Christmas trees from a pack of assorted. A little battery operated LED coloured light set. A donated Tyco train set and also some recently donated Super 4 track. Second hand figures and some scratch built bits and pieces......total cost....sod all. This project is missing a considerable amount of it`s trees in this pic. They have been removed so that they can be re-painted. Somehow they have faded considerably and it escapes me how, because the village is stored really well in a cupboard for about 11 months of the year. Go figure that one.????...... Here are the trees after re-painting, although I have made some changes to the type of tree. The village houses / buildings were downloaded from Wordsworth Model Railway online site. They are very basic and can be knocked up in no time by anyone..... The figures are HO scale left over from my son`s railway he had as a little boy. A few of my own touches have been added in. Santa and his sleigh are a recent addition acquired from a second hand stall at a local fete. Most of the snow is made from baking soda, however recent refurbishment of the snow has been done with plaster. Some coloured LED lights are set under the snow in various places around the village so that it can be lit up when under the Christmas tree. This is the road bed for the track for the Christmas train. Some changes will be made here. The track will be fixed down permanently and ballasted and snow added. Here is the train. It still needs some work. Some of the signage is coming away. It`s only stuck on with BluTac so I will renew the BluTac and all should be good.... The Christmas tree is HO scale and was given to me with the train and rolling stock by a family friend some years ago. He knew I was into trains and gifted the lot to me. He didn`t know that I was into British trains exclusively, and I didn`t have the heart to tell him when he went to so much trouble to bring the lot over to me. So it has been put to good use in the end and everybody has kicked a goal. I added the coloured balls to the tree for that Christmassy effect. All the gifts on the wagons were downloaded off the net, cut out and formed into shape after being printed onto light card. In the last couple of days the track has been glued down and ballasted and snow added. The refurbed trees have also been replanted. After the ballasting and snow job was done, I tested the short length of track to make sure I hadn`t bunged up the works with plaster. All was good fortunately.... Now folks, my wife is an artist as well as my No.1 little buddy, and she has produced some little gems of pictures over the years. So I asked her if she would paint me a background of a Christmas night sky, like the typical thing you would see on a Christmas card. She agreed to do it.....after all she loves me.............so here is the first layer painted over a sheet of 3mm MDF. She had to lay that first basic layer down to establish the foundation for what she wanted to do...????? Then she went over that and made this. I basically said .." Do what you like " because I want it to have an arty feel rather than go for an absolutely perfect representation of a landscape. I think she has nailed the Christmas feel here.... So we wait for this to dry and then that will be glued to the rear of the village. That will happen tomorrow. Well folks....it`s nearly there......I`ve also added a little red LED to the top of the loco just to jazz it up a bit.....so when it`s complete.....official photographs will be taken and submitted for judging. Not long now. http://www.clickGormo
Thanks Toto & Pete, Today saw the completion of the project. The back scene, painted by Mrs. G, was fitted using building adhesive and on top of the back scene was added a plastic strip / pelmet which houses two blue LED`s. These LED`s light up the back scene slightly to give that moonlit night effect. I found the plastic strip while out walking this morning. Honestly, the stuff people throw out in the street is disgusting. Luckily some folks like me can make use of it and thereby remove it from the footpath. People just don`t seem to care anymore, they are turning the streets into a tip. The moonlit night effect in a completely dark room. My camera didn`t like it though....it`s a bit fuzzy. The moon light LED`s are powered by battery .....the clear pack on the left and the battery pack on the right powers the coloured LED`s under the snow. I have soldered permanent wire connections under the Super 4 track to bring power to the rails. The train is powered by this old Hobby Transformer. Little kids will be playing with this so we try and keep it simple. Now back to the moonlight........this is again in complete darkness, now with the coloured LED`s....camera still doesn`t liike it. So I introduced some natural light into the room Then took the whole shebang inside the house to do some photos for the competition and also set it up for a video. My pool table is just the right size to take it......just... So there you are folks........end of story except for a video showing it running. Now I have to sort out some pics to put on the competition thread as my official photographs so I`ll see you over there and in the meantime, here`s the video. Christmas Train & Village Restoration Complete http://www.clickGormo
Thanks Toto & Pete, Well it`s all just a bit of fun Pete. I rather like the freedom of a diorama that is not to scale or period, so basically anything goes. http://www.clickGormo
