
Down here in the Southwest there are so many markets to choose from and I personally always look forward to going to my local market on the first Saturday of every month. It's lovely to chat to the stallholders knowing you're supporting small businesses selling local produce. It's also a great way to discover and try out traditional recipes (like Hog's Pudding, a new favourite!). And of course, markets have been the lifeblood of the local community for hundreds of years, so they make fantastic scenes to model on your layouts and dioramas.
Modelling a market scene on a model railway layout can be as simple or as complex as you'd like it to be, whether you're working in OO scale, N gauge or O gauge. They can take up as little or as much room as you like too. If you're stuck for space, then just a couple of simple market stalls are all you need to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere on a busy street. If you've got a dedicated market square, then you can really go to town and create something more elaborate with a dozen market stalls with traders selling everything from clothes to books, carpets & rugs to fruit & veg, bread and cakes! It's all down the space you have and how detailed you want to get really.

We've been really inspired by some of your wonderful market scenes on your layouts this week including the wonderful scene above by Nick. So we've compiled this handy guide to help you get started with creating a market scene for your OO gauge model railway layout or 1:76 scale diorama.
Creating A Realistic Market Scene In OO Scale

There are certain things you're always going need for your market scene of course:
- Market Stalls - pretty obvious but you'll definitely need these
- Benches - shoppers will always need somewhere to pause and sit for a while
- Market Cross or War Memorial - these have been the centrepiece of marketplaces in many towns and villages since WWI and earlier
- Parish Noticeboards - where better than the marketplace to put all the notices for local events than the busy market square?
- Bunting - stallholders will do all they can to make their stalls the brightest, most inviting stalls in town and bunting is a great way to do it!
Once you've got these, you've got the basics for putting together a super little market scene for your layout, so we've compiled these into a handy OO scale market day scene to help you get started.
You can get super crafty with all of these laser-cut kits and customise any of these accessories with your favourite acrylic paints and/or weathering powders (shop ours here) to bring your market scene to life with lots of colourful details.
Adding detail to the market stalls
Once you've assembled the market stalls, you're going to need to stock them up with goods and fresh produce. There are several ways you can tackle this, and how detailed you want to go is entirely up to you. So here's a few suggestions for stocking up your market stalls:
- Fabric & Haberdashery - Rolls of fabric can be made by tightly rolling coloured paper. Cut strips of paper about 20mm wide (equivalent to 5ft in OO scale) from an assortment of coloured paper (photographs of patterns from catalogues and magazines will also work) then roll them tightly around a thin piece of wire. Roll until they're about 2 to 3mm in diameter, then secure the end with glue. Remove the wire and trim as necessary.
- Fruit & Veg - There are several companies like Modelu & Preiser that offer 3D printed & injection moulded fruit and veg which is great for stocking fruit and veg stalls. But if you want to make your own, there are a few options: coloured foam flock and scenic scatters are great for filling up fruit & veg crates etc, mould your own fruit and veg from Fimo clay (if you like working with tiny things!), or use tiny pieces of scrunched up coloured paper to represent lettuces, cabbages & cauliflower etc.
In the image above, Ashley has used small pieces of coloured flock along with the photographs supplied with the LX067-OO Market Stalls Kit to create a fully stocked fruit & veg stall.
If that all sounds a bit like hard work, specifically for things like fruit & veg creates, why not fill the crates with simple chunks of balsa wood, then glue an image of bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes etc over the wooden block to mimic a filled crate.
- Clothes - If you have access to a printer at home and are handy with graphics software, why not download images from your favourite online clothes shop, scale them down and print them out. Then cut them out and fold them up like the real thing would be on a stall.
- Garden Tools - Several manufacturers supply garden and DIY tools in OO/1:76 scale (and other scales) including Modelu, Noch etc. We also have our own OO scale Garden Tools pack. Simply paint and detail these with acrylic paint, then glue into place on your stall.
- Furniture & Household Goods - ScaleScenes and other manufacturers offer downloadable interior detailing packs with a variety of items of furniture and white goods. Otherwise, Faller, Preiser & Noch offer lots of interior accessory packs which are technically HO scale but will work perfectly for OO.
- Books, Newspapers & Magazines - These are probably one of the easiest things to model, and again you can use simple coloured paper & images cut from magazines. Simply cut a scrap of medium thickness which card into rectangles. Glue them together to form random thicknesses of books. Then wrap them in book covers made from coloured paper and magazine images, stacking them on the stall as required. For newspapers, why not use the newspapers from the AX012-OO Litter Sheet? Simply cut out and fold, then arrange them neatly on the market stall.
- Carpets & Rugs - These can be created using images of carpets & rugs cut from paper catalogues (Argos) etc… Or you can use the AX023-OO Antique Carpets & Rugs. Roll a few up, and drape a few over the stall just like James has done here at Dylington Market.
AX023-OO Antique Carpets & Rugs used to detail a Dylington Market Stall by James
More Market Scene Inspiration
A couple more inspiring scenes sent in by customers… Here Robert has used a combination of the LX067-OO Market Stalls and additional moulded plastic accessories to create this lovely market scene in the corner of an elevated area on his layout. This is a great example of creating a market scene in a small space!

And here's another image of James wonderful market scene on his layout, Dylington, with the local carpet salesman & newsagent serving customers on early in the morning on market day.
Build Your Own Market Scene - Shopping List
Hopefully this has inspired you to create an amazing market scene for your layout. Fancy creating one? Here's a quick shopping list to help you get started….
Key market scene elements:
- Market Day OO Gauge Bundle
- LX067-OO Market Stalls
- LX138-OO Market Cross
- LX239-OO Parish Noticeboards
- LX012-OO Wood & Concrete Park Benches
Detailing accessories for your market scene: