I was just wondering if I’m the only one out there that obsesses over the small details ?. Things like small signs, trash cans, junk piles, an old rusting car on a vacant lot and things like that. I also have birds sitting on some of my power lines if that’ll give you any idea of how bad I am with it…
Tracklayer
The details you talk about are things I’ve often wondered about putting on my layout. I’ve often seen them on portable layouts at exhibitions where large crowds will notice them in-between watching for trains to pass, but whether I put them on my “stay at home” layout is another thing. Presently I’d be the only one to see them, but the interest is certainly there once the main structures are in place - and it’ll give me an excuse to keep working on the layout!
Ian
Hi Tracklayer
AKA the fun part of the hobby
Bunnies in the woods, herons fishing with a tiny flash of silver paint for the fish in the water, the dog and the fire hydrant, cat on the bin, garden gnomes, flower beds using smaller scale N&Z plants, beads and tooth brush bristles for planters, badger leaving his set, a hedgehog, a weasel
Crows on the watch tower battlements an owl on a cannon ball hole yet to find a suitable nasty terrible beasty to hide in the tower “and no a giant rabbit will not do!!”
OK so where do I get pink flamingos for a garden
This is the fun part to me finding the little details to add knowing that a lot of people will not notice them doesn’t bother me
The BIG trick is not to go into total detail overload and ease off as you move further back from the layout edge if done right it will fool people into thinking the whole layout is like that.
I don’t string the wires to much risk of getting tangled in them
regards John
[#ditto] My response parallels challenger’s. I will add though, that my “modeling” differs between what I do at home compared to my club’s layouts which the public sees. I’m a “train runner” at home and less of an artist. Also, that extra “fine” detailing does make an excellent layout but keeping it all clean makes for big head aches. For birds on wires, I guess you could put in a scale bird-bath. Now there a thought!!![(-D]
I draw the line at stringing overhead wire for utilities. Ive seen it done and they get in my way.
If it is “Good enough” for you and it’s good enough for me. Regarding the layouts at shows, there are a few that will take the time to hide details all over for everyone to find.
Details are good. They make the scene, but, as stated, they need to be in the forground. They don’t have to be obvious, either.
Gene
Details is what makes a so-so layout into a realistic layout like you see in the pages of MR and other model magazines.However,we must look at the real world so we can divide fact from fantasy…A fantasy detailed layout is one step above a train set layout in believability…Like all good modeling there are disciplines we must follow while detailing our layout.
I guess you could put in a scale bird-bath. Now there a thought!!![(-D]
Hi Eriediamond
A cut down small golf “T” should do a bird bath I think[:D]
regards John
I’m the type who will notice that the illegally parked car on your layouts main street doesn’t have a parking ticket on it or that the car broken down on the roadside doesn’t have a flat tire or the hood up. It’s the little details that make a big difference.
Details? What are details? [%-)]
I’m the kind of guy that looks for details. I’ve got a couple shoe boxes full that I can’t wait to put down. I have seen people that really go over board though. Too much of a good thing can ruin the look of a nice layout.
I like to see my trains run through a series of dioramas, each of which represent a memory or fantacy in my head. Thus the details are very important. As I build and look at other people’s pictures, I am constantly reminded of how many details are needed to make a closeup look “real”.
For those into operations, it may be less important, though John Allen was an early proponent of both. It is the variety that makes this a great hobby, but I am moving continuously toward more and more details. Thus I hear Mike’s words in my head, that there is no trash on the seats of the sports cars, which the club members surely would have had for their trip to Betty’s, at least a purse and a coffee cup or two,
Gotta have details. It makes it more fun to look at the layout, and provides lots of fun things to photograph.
… you get the idea…
Lee
Seriously (can’t resist being serious [8)]) the small elements that detail a loco, car or scene are what move it from being a toy or a showcase model to being… what? a dioramma? Lifelike? Realistic? … just “more enjoyable”?
I think that there are places for “toys”, showcase models and the dirty “realistic” stuff. It’s a very diverse hobby. Heck, there’s even room for the fantasy and joke stuff [:D]
The best details are the ones that barely show up when you look at a layout. These are the ones that make you wonder if the scene is real or a model in a photo.
I am really wondering how anyone gets birds to sit upright on telephone wires? [:O]
I think the small details take you from plain to artwork. I think that some people enjoy the operational side and subscribe to the good enough rule and enjoy there railroad. THen you have the other side of the spectrum where you have the individual that has the dog urinating on the fire hydrant or the newspaper blowing down the street or the curtains blowing out the open window. I personal enjoy the later taking the scene to that of artwork which then some people term cartoonish. It comes down to individual preference and what each of us enjoys. But the final critic is yourself what are you happy with.
[2c] Kevin
I’m sort of a stickler for small (and large) details. I feel those tiny, inconsequential details determine whether a scene is so-so or fantastic. I always look for those minute details on layouts, scenes, trestles, structures, rolling stock and to a lesser extent on motive power. Weathering also has an lot to do with how convincing a scene is. Tiny details are seldom noticed unless they’re not there.
I don’t have a lot of time in the hobby, but I have realized, perhaps erroneously, that there are levels of appreciation and observation.
I can see things that could be improved, added, moved, altered in some way for appearance. I am often thinking ahead about what to place in a location that would add to its eye candy value. I look for ideas everywhere.
But I have learned about this ability to take it all in. I know what I have created, but visitors are typically overwhelmed. That is an appropriate word, because they tell me there is so much to take in. Therefore, they are unlikely to recall many of the details that I already have in place when we discuss the layout somewhat later and are away from it. This is invariably the case. Later, they return and say, “That wasn’t there last time,” but they are incorrect. It was not salient enough in their receptive perception to have stood out. That can be anything from a copse of woods to a whole turntable, to a type of locomotive (all of mine are distinctive…no three or four K4’s sitting on ready tracks).
So, I have learned to go light, and to go slow, and to please myself, which is what all modelers should do IMO. Your visitors, unless highly familair with the hobby, are not going to see what you know is there. Even if they do see it, they won’t remember.
-Crandell
The fine detailing is something a lot of us would like to do…eventually. It just doesn’t seem like a high priority for those of use who still have bare benchwork to scenic or branchline track to lay. To me, the details are something that can be added later. For now, a lot of us have bigger fish to fry. After all, what is going to have a bigger visual impact on our layouts, putting in the super fine detailing or covering a section of bare plywood with some ground cover and/or pavement. A reasonable amount of realism can be obtained if we just fill in the big picture. Fine detail that is missing isn’t going to be that noticeable.
I don’t have a home layout, do my thing on two pairs of HO scale modules. I’ve been at them for many years, adding details wherever I can so when I take photos of my rolling stock on the modules (and on some dioramas), the scene will look realistic.
Here are two scenes to show what I am talking about:
I’ve had a lot of comments on my modules at train shows, probably because those from other clubs are often plain to the extreme - all grassy areas are one color, usually flat, look more like a golf course or a pool table top than mother nature. Buildings just stuck in place, no growth around them, no evidence of human habitation, etc.
It’s a matter of observing real life and doing what you can to make something realistic. That is if that’s what you want.
That’s one thing great about our hobby - you can model whatever pleases you!
As a matter of record, no I don’t obsess over details. I find I can be happier with my work that way. Since my layout is outside, I find that nature details it nicely everyday with something different. Sometimes there are real birds on my town’s rooftops, I have real fish in the pond and the plants grow and change with the seasons- are these details? I would think so in one manner of thought.
My rolling stock is slightly weathered, mostly to kill any plastic shine on the undersides, and some I give a little peeling paint look. I don’t do much for detailing otherwise, it just doesn’t interest me.
I enjoy seeing a very well detailed railroad, one that has a lot of eye interest yet isn’t gaudy and overdone. But mostly I like looking at any railroad and having the builder tell me what details they put in and how they did it, regardless of the finished quality. I remember visiting a large N scale layout in a garage, it wasn’t very well executed, but the builder spend about an hour and a half pointing out the little details, a moonshine still in the forest, hunters and deer, and probably a hundred other little things he put in there. It was a truly enjoyable visit, and I liked his layout a lot!