Down on Beaverbrook: Back back scenes…

Beaverbrook, my H0 scale shelf layout is viewed at eye level. Literally, you are looking across the ground surface at eye level, part of the reason for my choice of just a sky back scene…

This scene is about 12-18" from front to back, but from the grain car to back-scene is just 6". Yes indeed.

This viewing angle works well I’m terms of placing you in the scene but the gaps between the half relief structures along the back scene was beginning to jar. Channeling my inner Lance Mindheim I fired up Google Earth on the iPad and found some imagery from between the real structures on the real Beaverbrook Street in Moncton, New Brunswick. Knocking back the contrast and saturation, and playing with various sizes I’ve settled on a few of the scenes shown in these photos. They are cut out pretty quickly with scissors and just placed loosely on the existing sky for now, to make sure I’m happy with them. I also edited a photo of the real Co-op mill to reduce the truck loading doors from two to one, and have used this on the back scene. I think this may need a thin sheet if styrene to give it just a tiny bit of relief vs the more distant scene, but the effect already is very promising.

At the opposite end of the layout the brick office building neatly nocks off the road behind the TerraTransport office, and the warehouse sneaking behind the next one adds a little variation. These simple additions, back back scenes if you will can quickly add real depth to a scene as well as a connection to reality with our often compressed layout spaces. This almost counts as one of those 5 minute makeover in terms of its impact based upon the time taken. Until next time, more soon…

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