Being a newbie here, I notice some of you detail your loco’s, layouts, and such to the point where nothing is left out. Some of you are rivet counter’s with your loco’s, other’s have buildings that look like the real thing has been shrunk down to scale.
Some of you look like you just take it right out of the box and stick it on the tracks and that’s that.
What do you do and why?
I LOVE detailing and doing detailed work but I’m not necessarily neurotic about it; albeit on my layout or someone else’s. (You can substitute the term “neurotic” for “rivot counter”.) However, I truly do appreciate those who have taken the time, care and pains to superdetail something in order to make it accurate and “believable”.
For me, I’m still a newbie at RRing as well as MRRing so my work is “still in progress”…
Tom
Me? I have something of a furry challenge to contend with. He is called ‘Spring’ so one needs to watch the solvents and the paints and all that other stuff. I do try to superdetail, if for any reason but to say at least it is there![swg]
I enjoy the history and the research that goes into finding out the details, call it industrial archeology if you will. The challenge of finding out what something that “disappeared” 50 or 100 years ago looks like and how it works. Part of it is the “thrill” of the hunt tracking down the info. Sometimes that hunt can take years, if not decades, so patience is a plus.
The next part is the challenge of translating that information into a 3 dimensional object. Figuring out how to make it look like the thing that I researched. Part of that is figuring out the engineering how to fabricate the object and the other part is the craftsmanship to actually build it. I finde craftsmanship is highly under rated in today’s world.
I like to have as close a resemblance as I can. A lot of my layout is oriented so the tracks are in the “proper” relationship, but not exactly the same due to space restrictions. Compromises have to be made. Many of my buildings have been kitbashed to resemble actual buildings. But many of them only have 2 or 3 sides because thats all thats visible. I want enough detail that you can tell its detailed and that its not just a rubber stamp model I pulled off the shelf and dumped on the layout, but if the model is 36 feet long with 10 panels and the real one was 34 ft long with 9 panels, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
I’m trying to bring back my youth. I’m modelling my teen years, the 1960’s, and my goal is to re-create the images in my memory. So, I like to add a lot of detail to the scenery, until it seems like the world I remember. I’ve put a lot of advertising into my layout, because some of those by-gone images tell the viewer that this is from an earlier time.
I’m also making my layout dual-era, with the 1930’s being the second timeframe. Most of my structures could have been in service then, so the idea is to swap out the trains and the automobiles, and maybe a couple of buildings, to complete the time transformation.
Oddly, real trains weren’t much a part of my youth, growing up on Long Island, New York, where the trains hauled people, not freight. I do have a subway, though…
I support the “Believability Factor” as far as detail goes. When the scene looks believable in my eyes, then I’m done. I’m not a rivet counter or detail freak. Some people are, and good if that floats your boat, but I don’t want to be detailing a 2 inch section of my layout for 2 months on end. I’d like to “finish” the layout in my lifetime [:)].
I go at a slow pace, so I figure about 2 or 3 more years, I’ll be done on my 11X8 shelf room layout. I’ve only had it now for 2 1/2 years and am already about 25% done in detailing it. If I want, I can always go back and super duper detail it if I want to.
I enjoy detailing my layout. Every building on my layout is fully furnished or so detailed that it takes a couple minutes to see everything thats in it. I wouldn’t call myself a rivet counter though when it comes to cars or loco’s, as long as its close its good enough for me just as long as its got nice detail on it.
Interesting question.
I tend to detail my locomotives to close enough/good enough.As for scenery I usually build ISLs(Industrial Switching Layouts) and follow the “believability rule”…You can look in vain for shipments on my docks…You won’t find any…Why? I worked 16 years in a warehouse and leaving any shipments on the docks was a automatic write up under lost prevention under security guide lines…You will not find “cutesy pie” names on my industries nor will you find silly scenes…A cop and a drunk for instance…Look close and you will see a workers going about their work.
I like modeling using the “real” world as a guide.
Like you, I am also a newbie. Although i have been into MRRing since I was four, I am only now working on my first serious layout. Since I dont have a lot of time on my hands- school and hockey are time consuming- so its detailed enough when its enough to look reasonable. To me, reasonable means being plausible without making it too “real” and over doing it. That and the fact that my budget is small. I dont particularly just throw it on the layout, but I dont have an airbrush either. I “detail” stuff in “unorthodox” ways. For example, for an unpainted structure that i bought, i “colored” it with sharpies. To create dirt and grime on one of my locomotives, i used the stuff that you use to put the asphalt on the Woodland Scenics roads. Maybe it doesnt look professional, but its good enough to satisfy me.
I’m in agreement with Dehusman on this issue. Since I model a specific prototype in HO, I feel the need to represent that prototype in the best way possible. My modules are small enough that I can easily duplicate in great detail the prototype scene without driving myself nuts, but the minor issues I don’t worry about. For example, my prototype has GP-10’s, but none are comercialy available. A GP-8 is clearly not right, the airbox and pilots are not even in the ball park to represent a GP-10. So I either have to modify the GP-8 with scratch parts, or use the Keslo kit. On the other hand, the prototype uses a number of 40 and 50 ft boxcars that have some extra brackets and things welded on that I don’t worry about because in HO scale you will never notice anyway.
What I want in detailing is for a visitor to look at the railroad and instantly recognize it as a place they have been or seen. If the real world has 10 telephone poles in the gravel loader area, and I only have 4 or none at all, I don’t care as long as the composite scene is recognizable.
To the point it looks good to me. I’m not trying to win any contests.
I am the same with some of the replies. I do as much as I think looks good. I am not going to spend all of my time detailing a small section, while I rather run/switch trains.
Plus my layout will NEVER make a mag, and thats another reason I don’t spend alot of time on the detailing side.
I’m one of those guys who gets the ‘overall concept’ done at first, and then I tend to go back and detail sections as I have the time or the inclination. For instance, right now I’m re-facing a section of the layout called “The Buttes” because I realize that the initial try wasn’t to my satisfaction. I’ll kind of bounce from one section of the layout to the other, adding (or subtracting) things that I think will improve that particular section.
As to my lokies, they’re all brass, so the detail is pretty much there to begin with. However, sometimes I’ll take one of my older brass lokies and order a bunch of newer Cal-Scale or PSC detail parts to bring them up to the specs I feel they should have.
I’m not a ‘rivet counter’ by any means, I’m more of an overall concept kind of guy. But I do like to put in little details here and there just to give the layout some ‘personality.’
Tom [:)]
The Devil is in the details![}:)]
I’m shooting for midway between bare plywood and George Selios.
I share your attitude,I do this work to satisfy myself.My layout is loosly S.P. but that doesn’t mean I will not own a BL2 or another NON-PROTOTYPE piece if it suits me. I get great satisfation from the hobby and I would not if I had to seek prototypical perfection or worry about rivet counters.
I guess I’m with the majority so far. Though I respect and admire, sometimes for hours, the rivet counters and super detailers work. [bow] I for one do not have the patience for that kind of attention to detail. Yet. I tend to want to see change happen. So I do a part of the layout here part there, work on a car work on a structure, and when it gets to a point I’m satisfied I’ll quit. As I get better, I also am fairly new to the hobby in that this is my second start after, what30 yrs?, I will probably return to the item or area and do more. I hope. That’s why no structures are attached to the “ground”. Right now when I think it looks OK and I try to get it better I usually over do it so I just quit.[banghead] Maybe someday. I’d rather enjoy the hobby now than loose interest because it’s not coming out right. Besides like they say, is it ever REALLY done?
I like to buy a simple building kit and rework it “dress it up” otherwise known as “build up” and this allows me too use my creativity and have a “cookie cutter” kit stand out from all the rest.
My kits may sit on my layout for a little while until I can get the time to add things too them like window signs, roof additions and so on.
I love to detail any of the layouts componants to suit my taste or the surrounding look of my town too make them blend or fit in with the rest of my layout.
For the last 3 days I’ve done no work on the layout due to a massive ice storm that had our power out for 3 days.
Good question you posted here and some great answers.
Me, I don’t mind adding a little weathering, maybe some mu cables, airhoses, that’s all I want to do. Definatly no rivet counter, only if I have the time. [:P]
I have several thoughts on this subject.
First of all, details can always be added to a scene at a later date so it isn’t necessary to do everything right away. A scene can look fairly believable with a good deal of detail missing. For example, I have “completed” one of the two major towns on my layout. By that I mean the backdrop has been installed, all the structures are in place, the roads and sidewalks laid out and there is no bare plywood or foam. I have placed a number of vehicles in place as well and added a few mail boxes and fire hydrants. Still needed are traffic signs, parking meters, utility poles, and most of all people. I also could use some rooftop detailing. Even without these important details, the scene looks fairly complete. I hope to post a few pictures withing a couple weeks.
It is my belief that detail that is missing is not nearly as noticeable as detail that is wrong or out of place. For that reason, I don’t put lighting or passengers in my passenger cars. Why? Most of my passenger trains do not simply run through the layout. They depart and terminate at my main city and are then transfered to the coach yard. Nothing would look more stupid than having lighted passenger cars with passengers sitting in the seats while the cars are parked in the coach yard. On the other hand, the eye will tend to overlook the empty windows of a moving train and focus on what is there. Also, while a fully lighted passenger car going by in the dark can look very dramatic, in reality, the lights are turned on in a real passenger train for only a few hours a night. The train is not fully lit during the day or overnight when everyone is sleeping.
I use this same philosophy for my structures. Most of them are not and will not be illuminated. I model the summertime period and many of the businesses would be closed when it is dark. Lighting a structure will sometimes require you to detail the interiors as well so the structur
I am one of the lucky ones who has an inside stairway to my 24’x24’ around the room garage loft, dedicated strictly to my HO layout, (with no obstuctions to distract one’s view) My first job was to install 10 double tube shop lights in my suspended acoustic tile ceiling. With my final plan in mind and scale drawings, I proceded to build the 2"x4"x 38"-42" legs under 1/2" plywood layout top,( with access holes under the four corners and peninsulas-. I cut 3 ravines and 2 harbors through the plywood top, and installed screen covered plywood-arc mountains against the backdrop, which was painted a sky blue to match the uniform top sky blue of the ScenicKing sectional sequential 7"x11" panorama, which blends. with the edges of the 3-D mountains,(covered with some 300 homemade trees), placed against the corners of the four walls…My next job was to mark the footprints of the desired layout placement of the industries, towns, and track level and overpass highway, (constructed fom old slotcar 3" wide sectional roadways, to connect two towns), from previous layouts, Power district by power district, I then added my 240yds.of track and 96 electric turnouts to my "preplanned switching intensive,four power district), DCC HO layout. My point is that with such a large layout, I placed my collection of,structures on the layout at their intended positions,and am still in the process of detailling them. As I progress, I add the figures, trash,vehicles, grass and weeds, around the, now, glued down structures. Start small, and pre-plan any possible future expansion to your “dream layout”! Bob Hahn. …