Kinross: Visser warehouse...

The left hand end of my Prince Edwards Island cameo layout, Kinross depicts the view that inspired the layout, the spur at Visser...

Unlike the greenery on the right hand, where it's possible to use scenic tricks to more easily suggest depth, there is not really anywhere to hide when you're depicting a real structure (that still stands today...

...and so a mock up has sat here throughout construction to help with judging the space and the visuals. However, with the greenery settling in nicely, this weekend attention has turned to the warehouse. An order from Eileen's Emporium with some expensive, but well moulded Evergreen board and batten sheet with 2.5mm spacing arrived so I had all I needed to make a start. The mock up had been moved about, cut into and adjusted a fair bit which meant that I could make a good start quickly, by replicating the dimensions in 60thou styrene, and then overlaying this with the Evergreen sheet. Scenic modelling is a bit of an artform again, and in my opinion you need to include enough detail and texture to structures that are behind the trains, but not too much that the detail takes the eyes away from the focal point - the track and trains... to that end I added a basic guttering and down pipe, and some off the  brickwork along the base - but not door handles, wiring, conduit, vents or anything else... 

In position it looked the part, and I mulled over something Chris suggested a week or so ago, whereby the closest corner was the real colour, and then across the front (right to left) and on the side front to back the colour was faded slightly, to give a subtle effect of it blending into the background. I tried this, and probably could have gone further, but it is a pleasing effect never the less, and one to play with in future. Perhaps on the Claremont and Concord project... my mind then turned to how the scene could be completed, as the structure on it's own wasn't quite working for me. My mind drifted and I glanced at Pont-y-dulais, to where I've used photographs cut down on the left hand side to suggest distant hills... I wondered if I could use 2D photos on the back-scene to suggest the elements of Visser not modelled. If you look at that Steve Hunter photo you'll notice a seed elevator, along with some other industrial looking agricultural equipment above the roof line. I've looked about on Google Earth and there are a few other structures on the site too, so I trawled Google images and Prince Edward Island seed elevators found a few suitable photos I could tweak...

As well as the elevators, I added a small building with a pair of vertical silos in front, trying this behind the tree... this showed promise but I thought it was a bit small - my thought was if the shadow of the tree appeared to cast itself on this building, then the fact there was a shadow on the back scene wouldn't be so jarring. The small print was moved to the left hand side (from the front) and a larger picture put in behind the tree and these were glued in place with Prit-stik...

Now, the scene begins to show real promise, so I added some styrene to stand the building up a touch from the surrounding scenery and then blended this in with filler, before painting to match the other ground cover ahead of scenic treatment next time... 

But something jarred... 

Yes, the sky between the diagonals on the elevator was too light, and no matter how long I looked at it, things weren't improving. I pondered if this could be blended with some airbrushed emulsion, or perhaps over-laid with another image... then I realised, as I'd used Prit-stik it would be wet enough still to tear off without causing excessive damage. I printed out a few more options with adjusted tones for the elevator to better match, and then carefully replaced this...

 

Perfect, the scene feels complete...

just enough detail and just enough balance - and ready for some grass and undergrowth to blend into the rest of the scene next time, after that just the road and 'Level Crossing' signage to add, as well as build staging extensions and a lighting lid of it's own once lock down ends here in the UK. However, as I look at the scene above, I'm transported to a more peaceful headspace, and I can feel the warmth on my face and imagine standing by the pick up, watching the casual switching un fold in front of me, before heading onwards for a cold Coke down at Murray Harbour. In the meantime, more soon...