Commission: Leatown…

Last weekend Leatown, my latest cameo layout build, went to its new home. However, before it did I managed to take a series of photographs documented it's final condition...

You might remember that Leatown is inspired by a blend of memories from my customers life mixed with a dose of the prototype we both found inspiring. For me it was a chance to exercise some 'Silvertown' modelling - a prototype by the mid 1980s that was full of my usual cat nip, overgrown track, track inset in roads, industrial backdrop, a sense of decay... wonderful stuff.

The layout uses a mix of kit bashed and scrcatchbuilt scenic items and blended with the custom back scene and a modulated hand with paint choices has, I hope, the sense of a wintery but relatively bright day. Big sky, open spaces BECAUSE things have been demolished. A feeling of space mixed with a feeling of decline. There are things I'm really pleased with - the first of which is the station - heavily influenced by Lea Bridge, elsewhere in London but another touch point.

Building these layouts isn't a paint by numbers commission service using ready to plonk or kit built structures, or even an out of the book layout plan. Instead, the process is very artful, working with you to understand your traditional constraints but unpicking your emotional connection to the hobby and blending that through my hand with a plausible reality to create a place many of us could imagine visiting, getting lost in. That footpath along the back of the layout, down those wooden stairs and along the gravel sandwiched between concrete and chainlink... weeds and litter... we've all been to places like that around the railway and now, every time we look at the layout, we can visit them again.

 

Blending the man-made with the natural, and then the deliberate with the accidental we see brick, concrete, metal... we see grass and weeds and we see litter. No one item shouts louder than the others - a deliberate blend to match the muted palette, the mood of the composition.

It is when our favourite locomotive rumbles into view that the layout comes alive. Suddenly that blank canvas is a playground for our imagination. Where are you stood watching the 08? From the pavement of the road or on the platform waiting for a train? 

If you would like to work together to create your own piece of magic I always recommend we start with the layout design process which starts from £175. This allows us to explore your wants and givens, constraints and more importantly your dreams. I still have space for probably one more layout build this year, if you'd then like to progress to a full build. Ask my customers and they feel very much part of the process as we discuss progress and decision making and I share regular video updates through the build. Get in touch (using the form in the menu, or you can email me via Facebook, no account required, link on the Modelmaking Commissions page) to see how this might work for you, but otherwise, in the meantime, I hope these photos inspire or energise your own modelling. Until next time, more soon...

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