Shadowlands and Tellynott

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks Curt, Jerry and Bob. I'm pleased you like my colour schemes.

Bob - Yes - I think a good number of these kits can be turned into lovely structures.  Some of them I find the ornate details on the front walls a bit clunky and crude, but I think the Seymour block has some nice features.  I also think it helps tremendously to change them up significantly into a one of a kind design.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

I've been doing a bit of planning for a tricky spot on my layout.  It started with me going through some kits, pulling out Campbell's Norm's boathouse, and then playing around with a three story kit-bash.  I copied off walls from the elevations, made a mock-up, and put it into position.  It didn't matter what I did, so much of the structure was completely hidden from view it was almost a waste of time.  It also looked pretty crammed in.  Eventually (after a lot of contemplation) I decided to try moving my Chippy Hollow mock-up to the far side of the track, and liked that a lot more.  It opened up some nice views, and framed snapshots and gave a more natural open view by leaving a lot more open space in the form of a yard in the foreground.  I added a road going across the track to serve the left end of the structure, and decided it might be nice to add a road tunnel suggesting the one lane road popped up on the far side of the hospital.  I have found a lovely structure front of a New Zealand farmers dairy union which I plan to add to the right end.  Access to this end will be via a shared rail road bridge crossing the river.  I tried a few different stacks until I found a Crow River one I liked.  The white plaster structure I think I will make a cabinet makers, and plan on adding an open aerial walkway over the river to the front plaster shop front, which will be a retail shop for the business.  I recently bought a small Scale Structures kit, and I think the back wall of this will make a nice low office with scratch-built sides and back, keeping the view of Chippy Hollow open behind.  I'll look at adding either a timber rack or a 3-story lean-to with stack at the back of the main cabinet makers workshop.  Lots of details still to work out, but I feel this area is now working much better.

Photo 1 - shows an aerial shot of the area.  The plaster structure was made up from Downtown Deco boneyard castings.  I hand carved the stonework on the river side.  This shot also shows the two-storied cabinet makers shop front which will connect to the main factory workshop by an aerial walkway across the river, shown here as a plaster wall and a piece of 3"x2".

Photo 2 - A better shot of the hand carved plaster wall.  Directly to the right of the stack, on the other side of the track, is the cardboard front representing the Farmers union shown in photo 6.  The small cardboard lean-to next to the stone bridge is a mock-up of the small shop to the right of the farmers union in photo 6.  The row of shop fronts angling down to the bottom of the frame end with what will be the two-story shop front for the cabinet makers connected by and open aerial walkway over the river.  I'm feeling like I'm leaning more towards a timber rack behind the main plaster structure and the omission of the stack.  I feel the stack obscures a bit too much of the view behind.  I can add a sluice gate to power the factory.

Photo 3 - The green building behind is to be replaced.  Again, it is too tall and obscures too much of the view of the low relief structure.  I'm thinking that the fronts of the Scale Structures small kit might work.  I've also been looking at a couple of Mainstreet Heritage kits that might work here.  This shot also shows the yard area along with the one lane road and road tunnel.  I bought an N-scale tunnel mouth yesterday to replace the one I have in place as a prop.  There will also need to be some retaining walls in this area, and I also bought some more hydrocal yesterday with this in mind.

Photo 4 - shows how Sam Cahoon's fishing pier frames the view nicely, creating a lovely snap shot.

Photo 5 - gives a good view of the road, the SS office and Chippy Hollows behind.  This will leave me a further side wall of Chipp'y for a further kit-bash, and perhaps a gable wall.  There may be a bit of further shuffling of Chippy's, as well as the addition of a small wedged shape connection between Chippy's and the NZ Farmers Union structure.  Chippy's was bought as the wall and window/ door castings only.

Photo 6 - What a gorgeous photo!  You can see why I felt I needed to incorporate a scratch-build of this scene somewhere on my layout.  I had to separate the cute little shop and turn it 90 degrees to fit it into the scene.  There is also a small water tower to add.

Well, I hope this has given you a bit more insight into my working process.  It all started with a dead end mock-up of Norm's boathouse.   I often hit dead ends in my design process, but they often lead to a realization of what you need to do.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[postalkarl]

Hey Mark:

All looks just great. Where did you get the Chippy Hollow walls. Did you bust up your F&SM kit?

Karl

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi Karl.

Thanks.

I bought the Chippy Hollow walls and window/ door castings off Jimmy of railroad kits on Ebay earlier this year.

He bought the spin molds off George, but didn't have the rights to produce entire kits.  He has since sold them again (I think to Bill at Microlumina).

Cheers, Mark.

[Keep It Rusty]

Hi Karl.

Thanks.

I bought the Chippy Hollow walls and window/ door castings off Jimmy of railroad kits on Ebay earlier this year.

He bought the spin molds off George, but didn't have the rights to produce entire kits.  He has since sold them again (I think to Bruce Nickerson of Seaport Model works).

Cheers, Mark.

Bill at Microlumina bought the molds.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks Craig.

I changed my above post to this.  I'd listened to it on a podcast recently, but couldn't remember which episode.  Bill sounded like he had a lot of projects on the go.  He seemed a little overwhelmed.

Cheers, mark.

[Keep It Rusty]

He really does.

He's been helping my locate something I think you all might be interested in from
George's molds.

Soon as he gets set up, I'll make a thread about it.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Well, in the process of constructing my latest project - my second Fountain Brewery kitbash - I went off on a bit of a tangent when trying to decide what industry the kitbash would be.  It dawned on me that I didn't know what all the industries on Tellynott were and so it was time to start a proper structure plan.  I say start, because I still don't know what or where every structure will be/ go.

Below are a version without names, and a version with names.  I'll fill in and update as I move forwards.  There are actually very few gaps left in this area of Tellynott.  I need to fill in the area in front of Goodrich Footware co.  I'm thinking three small one story structures here, including a corner structure with a door on an angle.  The next area is the back wall section between the pumping station and the Tellynott department store.  Next is the loop to the right of the department store, and then the back right corner.  The engine facilities are floating around in my head, but I have a scratchbuild of a 25T coal tower underway, and am hoping to also add a sand house, water tower, ash pit and outdoor inspection pit.  The position of the coal tower is shown without colour.  There will also be three hydraulic cranes to add to the length of track behind the three boats.  There are, of course, lots of unfinished buildings, but I have for the first time since 2012, made up a list of what I want to achieve in 2021.  I am trying to keep it logical and will be working on the section which includes the back wall diorama and the corner diorama.  Basically from the Tellynott Hospital around to the unfinished loop and including Zealandia bicycles, Burkes railway station, the Palmolive factory, and everything behind the road which goes from behind the Palmolive factory around to the hospital.

This should hopefully provide enough variation to keep me motivated, with some design work, kitbashing, kit mingling, scratchbuilding and finishing work.  It would be nice to finish the scenery as I go as well.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Keep It Rusty]

Love this, Mark.

Great selection of companies and names.

[Jerry]

That is really cool looking.


Jerry

[PRR Modeler]

That will be outstanding Mark.

[GPdemayo]

That is one heck of a business and manufacturing area Mark.....looking good. 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks very much Craig, Jerry, Curt and Gregory.

I do enjoy a bit of planning for a change.  Being my wife's school holidays until this coming week, we have had a number of visitors lately, and most have wanted a tour of our garden and a detour into the layout room.  When people get excited about what I am doing I find it really motivates me.  There was a lot of genuine interest, which was nice.  One friend even made a second visit bringing her mother to see - who was most enthusiastic!  Of course, our 2020 Easter convention has been postponed to Easter 2022, and so this is also in the back of my mind.  Every time I walk into the layout room I'm looking to see what I think would make the most impact to the layout in the short term.  Of course some form of logic has to be considered, and so working from the back walls to the track first makes a lot of sense.

Moving forwards I will make a list of the structures with the kits they are derived from (when applicable).  I'll try to also create a plausible fictional history based on my 'what if' scenario.  I'll also load some photos of my previous structure builds as we move through the dioramas.

Cheers, Mark.

[ACL1504]

Cheers, Mark,

I also like the names and locations of the structures. And, I also find that new visitors to my layout gives me a certain motivation.

What is the size of the entire layout diorama? Maybe I missed it. I went back and didn't see any demensions.

Tom 

[Mark Dalrymple]

I also like the names and locations of the structures. And, I also find that new visitors to my layout gives me a certain motivation.

What is the size of the entire layout diorama? Maybe I missed it. I went back and didn't see any dimensions.

Hi Tom.

Thanks for following along.  I figured you must be wrong, but going back through my thread I couldn't find any measurements either!  Sorry about that!  Firstly, I've added some measurements to the plan I'm working on.  A rough estimate gives me around 50 square feet of real estate.  I would estimate that this would be about half of Tellynott, making Tellynott around 100 square feet, and that Tellynott would be a little less than half the total layout area - around 220 square feet all up.  I'll get this closer moving forwards.

The two rooms combined as one give dimensions of 5.9m x 10m (19'4"x32'10").  Total area is 59m2 (635'squared). 

The dimensions of Tellynott are 4.9mx3.75m (16'1"x12'3 1/2").  Total area (including isles) is 18.375m2 (198' squared).

The dimensions of Shadowlands and Tellynott are  8.5mx5.75m (28'x19').  Total area (including isles) is 48.875m (526' squared).  Note - all these layout area measurements measure to the backdrops, but do not include layout framing or tolerances between layout walls and room walls, except when these are within overall measurements.

The photo below shows the measurements in metric (purple) and imperial (red).  The area I hope to finish up this year is approximately 2.9mx.45m (9'6 1/2"x1'6").  Total area is 1.3m2 (14' squared).  For me this will be a mammoth task and if I finish it I will be most pleased!

More soon, cheers, Mark.