Fiddletown Main Street

[night train]

I bird's eye look at the Fiddletown Main Street. The little structures in the foreground were modified from Hal Reynold's Lobster Shanties.

[ACL1504]

Dave,

Wonderful scene, I can hear the fiddle now!

Tom

[oldbloodhound]

Well, that is nice there pilgrim. (drawl)

[S&S RR]

Very nice, thanks for sharing it with us Dave.

[gnatshop]

Beautiful scene - makes the Ledbetters feel right at home!!

[Mike Engler]

Very cool. More photos needed of this great little railroad.

[night train]

I built six little Army-style tents for Fiddletown but only used two. If you remember the HBO show Deadwood (a good f**king show) you may have noticed the main street was full of temporary living quarters. Mostly tents and lean-tos. I wanted that scene in Fiddletown.


The tents were made from writing paper and shirt cardboard. I tinted the paper with a wash of burnt sienna and made the frames from cardboard. Then I wrapped the paper around the frame to form the tent. Little dots of white glue held everything together. On the display I put a bed and a chair in each tent, and a campfire in front of the tent.

[night train]

Here's an in-process view looking up the creek toward the rear of the tent. All the landforms are made from the dreaded bead board and painted using acrylics. The rocks are slivers of Scenic Express foam rocks. The whole display weighs only 20 pounds.


I treated the scenery the same way I'd paint a landscape - I first underpainted the whole display a dark red color - the darkest red that showed up in the prototype photos I had. Next I mixed 4 lighter colors using white in each step to make each one lighter than the last. These were dry brushed over the scenery in steps from dark to light allowing each to dry before adding the next. Then I finished by painting some of the shadows darker and the rocks lighter to get a nice contrast.


I just sent a complete construction article to Bob Brown at the Gazette. He said it would appear in the May/June issue.

[Pops]

loving this.

[night train]

Someone asked about the horses and cowboys used on this display. Well, all the horses and figures are from Preiser and they were bought from the Scenic Express catalog. You can find it online.


I used a lot of ordinary figures but made cowboy hats for them using a paper punch. It's easy peasy - punch a circle out of construction paper. Cut an X in the middle, pull it over the figures head and put a drop of white glue on top. When the glue dries, trim the brim and paint it.

[Pops]

Thank you