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When Is A Layout Ever Finished? And Would You Squash A Scratch-Build? I Certainly Couldn't!

By Justin, 27th April 2024 | Weekly Newsletters

Morning Gang!

How's things? And that's April done and in the bag pretty much. Just a couple more days before we step into the madness and mayhem that is May and all the challenges that it brings. But didn't April go quickly?

What have we been up to this week? Well we finally managed to get the garden tidy last weekend which was good for clearing the mind. It's a bit like building a kit really… you don't really think about anything other than the job in hand. And then at the unit this week, Tina's been cracking on with documenting more shopfloor systems to improve how things run in fulfillment, hopefully saving a good chunk of time on a daily basis. It's something we've been wanting to do for ages but not yet found the time really, but now with the showroom to keep stocked, all our scenic products to manage and other product lines that we buy in, we need to claw back as much time as possible from the working day!

Jess has just completed her third week with us… yesterday declaring that it seems like she's been with us for ages! I think she meant that in a good way ;-)

Actually she's been really getting to grips with more of what we do, getting her head around scales, she's now quite fluent in 4mm scale, but it's been a huge learning curve for her I'm sure. I must admit trying to explain all the different modelling scales and their millimetre equivalents does make everything sound unnecessarily complicated! And she's been working with Sam this week, beginning to get our social media channels properly organised.

And while that's all been going on… Tina, Carl, Kate & Scott have been keeping things running in production and fulfilment making it all look so easy!

Ooh and huge thanks to everyone that's sent in photos for the catalogue. There are some absolute crackers! But please keep them coming if you have photos of any of our accessories or buildings on your layouts.

Product Development - Latest News

This week, Stu's been working on some Micro Pack versions of some of our popular kits that come in big pack sizes. So they're more wallet friendly for those that just want a couple of bits for a micro-layout or diorama rather than a massive pack full.

Sam's been busy taking care of our social media posts and also working on a new version of a couple of textures. There's a link to at least one in the new releases section below.

And but popular demand, I've been getting stuck into a full version of the backstreet garage we released last weekend. Within a few minutes of last weekend's newsletter going out, I had emails asking for a full kit so I thought I'd better get cracking on it. So that's done and available via the link in the New Releases section below. My plan was to push on with the pub kit but that got put on hold this week while I got the garage done and out of the way.

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

Good morning! It's the weekend which I'm sure many of you have been waiting for. Hopefully, you've had a great week. This week, I've been reworking some textures which will be released soon alongside my usual jobs. As you know, Jess has started working at SMS so I've been talking to her and there are some more reworks to be done.

A quick note - I want to thank all of you who have sent in images via the help desk or in the club for our catalogue. There have been some brilliant submissions. If you have used some of our products, please send them via the help desk or my email: help@scalemodelscenery.co.uk and sam@scalemodelscenery.co.uk . You can also upload them to the club and tag me (@sam) in the caption that they are for the catalogue.

It's time for some videos!

Destroying A Scratch-Build

For the first video, I've selected Chandwell's most recent upload titled "SPLAT! - Why did I SQUASH this N Scale card building?". In this, he covers a building he recently worked on but was not happy with. He answers the question, when is enough, enough? He states that the more work he did on the building, the more mistakes he made, causing him to dislike creating the model and decide to start again. There are some excellent points in this video which I think everyone should take on board, no matter your skill level.

Michael's channel is full of great videos so check them out! His layout is incredible and he is an active member of the www.railwaymodellers.com. I've personally given him gratification and expressed my interest in Chadwell. He posts some great images within the club so if you aren't already a member, you can sign up for free and get interacting.

When Is A Layout Finished?

Chicago Crossing Model Railroad is a channel I've featured before and for good reason! His modelling skills are so impressive and his videos are of high quality. A couple of weeks ago, "The Fine-Scale Modeler's Dilemma" was a video I put in the newsletter which is part of Eric's ongoing series "Train Talk". This is the next video in that series and in this one he discusses "When is a layout really finished?" - a question I've had for a long time.

It's an almost impossible question to answer as it varies from person to person. Some people are content with calling a layout finished whereas others will work on it for years and still add to it daily. He covers some interesting points and mentions that his full-time job is science! I'd love to hear what you guys think about this question.

Layout With Thousands of Details

Again, my next selection comes from a channel I've featured before and again, for good reason. PILENTUM focuses on showcasing layouts and is the "largest international YouTube channel for model railroading and model trains." according to their description. If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out their channel as it is full of inspiration.

This layout is called "Peterseck" which roughly translates to "Peter's Corner" and it comes from PEMOBA which is an abbreviation for "Peter's Modellbaan". There are so many brilliant details in this layout, everywhere you look you notice more detail. A highlight for me has to be the birds being fed by the woman at the farm. I did a bit of digging and found he is still somewhat active on Facebook under the page "Pemoba Holland". He also has a WordPress site which has some fantastic images on them, the page for this layout can be found here: https://pemoba.wordpress.com/modelbanen/peterseck/

Archived Videos

This section is going to be slightly different than usual. I stumbled across a channel called "British Pathé" which produced newsreels and documentaries between 1910 and 1970. A lot of what they made can be found on their YouTube channel. The videos I've selected range from 1936 to 1967 and give us an excellent peak into the past, not only for the hobby but in general too.

First, we have “Miniature Railway (1936)” which focuses on what we would call a garden layout I suppose. This was started in the 1890s by the Holder brothers.

Next, we have a video titled "Model Railway (1950)" which shows some unissued/unused material. This layout comes from Plymouth and we see Chris Soper operating the railway.

After that, we have a video titled “Model Railway (1954)” in which we see a group of 14 boys gathered around a layout they constructed themselves. This comes from Dr. Bernardo's home in Kingston, Surrey.

Taking it across the globe, for the next archived video we have "Model City (1965)" in Sydney, Australia. This layout was created by John Morrow and it took him 20 years.

Finally, we have a video titled "Railway Vicar (1967")". We see Reverend Teddy Boston in Leicestershire and his home layout. This layout recreates the GWR line between Newton Abbot and Totnes. I'm not sure how true this is but I saw a comment from user @dieseld261 stating "Teddy Boston was actually a close friend of the Rev.W.Awdry" who, if you didn't know, created Thomas The Tank Engine. Interesting stuff.

And with that, my section of the Newsletter is over. There's a range of videos for you to check out above. As always, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post telling me what you think. You can also contact me via the help desk or over at www.railwaymodellers.com where my username is @sam. Have a great week.

New Stuff

Right then… it's time for links to the new & updated stuff…

KX112-OO Backstreet Garage - OO/4mm/1:76
As mentioned above, the full kit of the backstreet garage that's proved very popular is now available to order. As with its low relief cousin, it's packed with plenty of detail including heavily weathered interior and exterior brickwork (in a choice of red & white painted brick), rusty corrugated iron roofing, concrete interior floor with oil stains, tyre marks & covered inspection pit, as well as a separate office building which can be placed either side of the main garage or separately as a standalone building. Guttering, downpipes and posable doors complete the kit, making it a very enjoyable kit to build, creating an atmospheric scene on your layout.

If you fancy building a complete backstreet garage scene why not grab the complete bundle containing the garage kit along with all the new micro-packs listed below.

And here's a list of the new micro-packs Stu's put together this week. What is a micro-pack? Well, a lot of our older kits come in quite large pack sizes, so micro-packs offer you better value and smaller pack sizes when you only need just a few of each things for your dioramas and micro-layouts. Here's the latest ones to be released with many more to come!

Right… that's about it for this edition of the weekly news. We're up in the midlands today visiting parents as it's my mum's 79th Birthday. Heading back home tomorrow though so we can be back in the office on Monday working on more Realistically Better stuff!

Have an amazing weekend folks… And of course…

Keep on shunting…

Justin, Tina, Elizabeth, Lola & The Team

P.S. This weekend's header pic comes from Chris over on the RailwayModellers Community with this fantastic OO9 scene looking towards Quarry Sidings. If you look carefully, you can see he's even added a tiny sign to the top bar of the LX464-OO Crossing Gate! Amazingly detailed work. The chestnut fencing to the right of the track isn't one of ours, but we do make something similar… LX433-OO Chestnut Allotment Fencing. You might also spot a few of our thistles and marsh grass tufts by the fence too!

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