I want to preface this post by saying that trains hold absolutely zero interest to me, but I do love the layouts! XD
My uncle is part of a model railway club up north which always travels down to Glasgow for the show each year, so the last couple of years my dad and I have gone along to see him and his club's layout, and this year was no exception. Luckily Dad had managed to win us free tickets in a Scotrail competition, so there was really no excuse not to go!
Being a big fan of dioramas, this kind of show is perfect for me, I can ogle quality layouts to my heart's content! I've often thought about joining a local club just so I can do the scenery, but I think my complete lack of interest in the actual trains may rule that out, haha!
My phone kept running out of space so I was frantically uploading everything to flickr every five minutes. XD
Here's my uncle with his club's layout - I approved of all the weathering!
He was responsible for the scrapyard area, and even included a thief running away with a watchman and dog after him! Its quite hard to see at this scale but they're on the left of the yard.
As much as I liked it, it wasn't my favourite layout there, I prefer those with more green...
This one was based off a station in Wales, and I just love how well the backdrop blends the whole scene together, even though it's obviously painted.
This one was, hands down, my favourite. I can't describe how utterly incredible it was to see in person, the level of detail was just phenomenal and I wish I'd been able to photograph it for longer.
This one was set in an American mining town I think, and I loved the way they'd done the rock features.
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| You can't really see it here but he's pointing at a skull! |
To me, the best layouts are the ones full of tiny details, from careful figure placement...
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| Fox! |
...realistic scenery...
...and of course, a good sense of humour... XD
This one made me laugh as soon as I spotted it...
I loved how well some blended with the background and it's something that I think model horse folk could learn from, as photo show images are often plagued by a really obvious joining of foreground and background.
Some had gorgeous layouts but no background at all which I thought was a bit of a shame.
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| Nothing beats cork bark for rock features! |
I think this was someone's attempt at a Fjord. XD
This one had moving vehicles which brought so much life to the layout.
The best bit was the tiny little cyclist, who actually pedalled!
This one was massive, and had a 'working' ski slope at one end.
We couldn't take it seriously though as the ski-lift was juddering in a rather out of scale and frankly terrifying way!
I found an 'official' video from the show a couple of years ago so I thought I'd include that too. XD
So, in conclusion, if you ever get the chance to go to one of these shows, please do! There's so much there to see, even if you aren't into trains in the slightest!
