How To Model Rainy Scenes & Interchangeable Scenery

Morning gang!

How's things? Hope you've had an amazing week… What happened to the hot weather then? It's been decidedly grey down here this week… with a touch of liquid sunshine and the odd actual sunny spell. But that's meant it's been perfect weather for getting a bit of modelling done. 

Did you vote? We did… but we'll not go there… let's just see how the next four years pans out and leave it at that. The less said, the better. And no, I didn't want the other lot back in either!… Moving on swiftly…

It was mine and Tina's 6th wedding anniversary this week (been together 28 years though), so we popped down west a bit on Thursday as that was our Sunday this week… Heading down the new A30, which is a joy to drive now compared to the old one, to a lovely pick-your-own farm to pick strawberries, cherries, and gooseberries. Who on earth decided it was a clever idea to pick gooseberries I've no idea… those things are lethal! The thorns get you from about 3ft away, the b*ggers! But we had a lovely lunch and a freezer full of fruit now which should see us through the autumn.

Work wise, we've been pushing on with a variety of behind-the-scenes things... Stu's been working on the next issue of the First Class Railway Modellers Newsletter which should be ready next week. Sam's be busy looking after our social media pages. And with Tina and I working the weekends now while Elizabeth is working at the shop in Meva, we've been able to make some progress on a few projects as well as improving the showroom a little. Still loads to do though.

New Product Development

Last weekend, Tina and I finished work on the new KX114-OO Low Relief Nightclub & Offices. It's based on a building we spotted down a side street in Liverpool when we went up for Elizabeth's end of term show. We love the architecture up there as there's such a mix of eras and style. This particular building caught my eye as it could just as easily back on to a railway line as be on a main road or high street. So, we've configured it so you can build it as a nightclub with offices above, that would sit on a main road. Or you can leave all the main signage off and build it so it's an apartment block etc on a main road or backing onto a railway line etc. The choice is yours really. Link and a little preview image below. I was hoping to shoot a quick video but ran out of time on Friday evening.

And on my workbench now is a rework of an older simpler kit which I'm hoping to finish off next week.

In the meantime, it's over to young Sam for this weekend's videos.

Good morning! I hope you are doing well and enjoying the summer so far. Like Justin mentioned last week, the village signs (S034-OO Customisable Village / Town Welcome Signs) are finally released so be sure to check those out if that's something you are interested in. I worked hard to get these spot on and provide a range of different badges as well as essential road signs. Apart from that, I've been working on the custom jobs, social media posts, helping you guys with various modelling-related stuff and a couple of textures which should be released shortly.

As always, keep sending in your images that include our kits. We are still looking for catalogue images as well as Scenery Showcase submissions. You can send these via the help desk - help@scalemodelscenery.co.uk or to my email address - sam@scalemodelscenery.co.uk. Again, a huge thanks to everyone who has sent any images so far.

With all that being said, it's time for some videos! Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you thought about these. Also, feel free to send me any interesting videos that you found or have made yourself. I'm always happy to give a shoutout.

Modelling a Rainy Scene

Our first video this week comes from Kathy Millatt, who I believe I have featured before. In this video, she creates a scene which has been heavily rained on. Kathy's weathering looks incredible and there are so many cracking techniques which I'd highly recommend you use on your own layout. Her technique to create the interiors is simple but effective, they look brilliant. The way the paint travels through the building cracks is very satisfying. Her method when painting the pavement and the asphalt is great and perfectly captures the patchiness of these materials. I could go on for ages about all of the amazing ways she made this look realistic but I think it's best you watch the video and see for yourself.

Interchangeable Landscape

This tutorial is a little more complex than a lot of the tutorials I've featured so far. It comes from the man himself, Marklinofsweden. In this video, he goes over creating interchangeable sections of scenery for your layout. The benefits of this are you can change it out for different seasons or if you aren't happy, you can take it off and replace it. For a beginner modeller, this might be quite difficult to achieve but would be good practice. For those who have made a layout, you should have a go at this for your next layout. Another benefit of this method is you can take a part of your layout and work on it without leaning over anything that's in the way. I know Kevin Phare (a well-known modeller and a member of our community) does this so he can take out houses and other sections of his layout.

Heat Derailing Trains

Since it's summer, I thought this video was quite fitting. This video comes from V12 Productions (someone who I've featured a few times before). Their channel is great as it feels like a TV show. Seeing the train buckling from the heat is insane! In the comments, a user called "adeptusslugusgaming" said, "I don't know what they do in the US, but in the UK where there are known heat issue areas they paint the rails white to try and keep them cooler.". After a Google search, I discovered this to be true and that painting the rail with white means it'll be 5-10C cooler.

Perth Model Rail Exhibition

To finish off the videos, we have a bit of Exhibition coverage. The title threw me off because I originally thought of Perth, Australia. After I googled the exhibition, it turns out there is also a Perth in Scotland. This event was held over the weekend of the 29th and 30th June. Dave from Dean Park Model Railway does an excellent job at covering this show, there is a 2-minute intro in which he gives a brief overview of the layouts he has recorded and then goes into each layout for a few minutes.

For up-and-coming exhibitions, you can click here.

That's it from me! I hope you enjoyed these videos. Like I said, feel free to send me anything you find interesting or leave a comment down below. Have a great rest of your weekend.

New Stuff

Just the one new addition to the range this week…

• KX114-OO Low Relief Nightclub & Offices - OO/4mm/1:76
  This has been such fun to work on I have to say. Nightclubs are a feature of pretty much every town or city and they often popup in the most unlikely buildings. So when we spotted this one in Liverpool it was crying out to be modelled. This low relief building is really straight forward to build and features solid MDF cores, laser-cut windows, doors & detailing accessories so you'll have this complete and on your layout in an evening. It's probably the sturdiest building in our low relief range to be honest and at only 12mm deep it doesn't take up a lot of room either.
  
  It's also supplied with a choice of window detailing sheets so you can building it with offices or apartments at the top and a nightclub, gym or anything else you prefer on the ground floor. My favourite feature is the wonky venetian blinds… Nobody ever seems to manage to keep them straight (apart from Tina of course!). There's also a choice of signage supplied too.
   

Back In Stock This Week…

We've restocked a load of scenic stuff again this week as we get stocked up ready for the forthcoming modelling season. And we're getting a lot of folks calling in to the unit to talk to us about the flower ranges and grasses we stock, so we thought it was a good time to get stocked up. So these are back in stock this weekend.

• Static Grass Starter Bundle
  Everything you need to get started in the world of static grass, but without the expense of a fancy-pants applicator! Our starter bundles include a choice of three shades of static grass in lengths of your choice. Plus a generous tub of Gaugemaster Static Grass Glue along with Gaugemaster's extremely handy Puffer Bottle applicator. They're great for getting started in the field of static grass (see what I did there?)

• Embankment and Forest Floor Bundle - OO/4mm1:76
  If you're modelling an embankment or forest floor, this handy bundle of goodies is just what you need to add a bit of colour to your scene. With a pack of daffodils for a splash of colour, laser-cut bracken, a tub of forest floor scatter and generous pouches of clump foliage and Eden static grass you have everything you need to create a realistically better scene.

We've also just had a delivery of 3d printed stuff arrive but we didn't have time to get it all packed up and booked in before close of play on Friday, but we'll get that done today. So look out for email notifications for Chimney Pots, Gas Bottles, Road Cones, Three Piece Suites and Rusty Barrels!

Right, that's about it for this edition of the weekly news. As Elizabeth is working again this weekend, we're heading down to HQ shortly to crack on with a variety of things… mostly boring admin!

Have an amazing weekend folks… And of course…

Keep on shunting…

Justin, Tina, Elizabeth, Lola & The Team

P.S. There was only one choice for the header pic this week and it comes from the incredibly talented Steve WW over on the Railway Modellers community member. He's been busy installing lights on his latest project and it's completely transformed the scene!

P.P.S. Missed a newsletter? You can read all of our recent newsletters online here.