STUART JORDAN describes the first steps to adding a diorama or scene to your layout.
Adding a well-planned diorama or scene to your layout can increase the feel that it is ‘lived in’. Things like adding cars to empty streets or figures waiting on platforms are easy wins, but with a bit of planning you can add something spectacular or unique to your model railway.
It was one such idea that came to me recently, after building some of the Metcalfe OO Scale Castle Kits, featured here and here in previous issues of RIGHT LINES. Castle ruin sites are often used by organisations such as English Heritage to put on military reenactment shows, featuring period campsites or vehicle displays, as well as battles or drill displays. Often these are limited to one period but can also include displays from others.
I can’t claim complete ownership of the idea, as it was inspired by a scene on Pete Goss’ layout Knaresborough, which was featured in Railway Modeller back in 2016. The layout featured a battle reenactment by The Sealed Knot English Civil War group in the grounds of Knaresborough Castle.
With the basis of an idea, I could then move on to the planning stage. The area that I wanted to cover was around 1ft by 1ft. This would comprise the castle walls already built for the two previous articles, an arena area where displays and mock battles could take place, a World War 2 US Army camp, and a classic car show. There would be a mock battle taking place in the arena, with crowds watching.
I created a 12x12 grid on Photoshop to help plan, measuring the wall sections to make sure that they would fit the required space. I could then plot out the rough areas of the rest of the elements. Of course, feel free to use paper and pencil! You can see my plan below:
Once this basic plan was in place, I started looking around our ranges for suitable products to add to the diorama. The actual scenic landscaping would be pretty basic (and I might get my colleague James to help with that), so it can be looked at later. It’s more exciting to go shopping and pore over lists of interesting items!
This is probably the easiest element to plan for. Some nice cars from the Oxford Diecast range will be identified and will be lined up in their allotted place. If I can get them, I’ll try and find some figures in deck chairs to represent the proud owners of the cars.
Again, turning to Oxford Diecast, they have some useful vehicles in their military range. Jeeps were so common that many have survived since WW2, so Willys Jeep MB US Army is a good bet for the sort of thing you see at these shows. Their owners will often dress in period uniform, and there are some useful figures in the Airfix USAAF Personnel pack, a set released back in 1974 but still going strong. The camp itself can be made up of parts from the Military Kits in the Fordhampton/GM Structures range - tents, barbed wire, and sandbags.
In the Arena there will be a Napoleonic battle reenactment going on between British and French forces. These figures will be taken from two Italeri box sets – ITA06058 English/Scottish Infantry Napoleonic Wars and ITA06002 French Line Infantry Napoleonic Wars. These unpainted 1:72 Scale figures will need painting, but as a wargamer I should be able to tackle that in a small amount of time.
The visiting public will be taken from various manufacturers HO and OO Scale figures depicting passers-by. Of course, one thing that these events need on bright sunny days is an ice cream van. Once again, we turn to Oxford Diecast, in the form of OD76WM007 Whitby Mondial Ice Cream Van Piccadilly Whip.
In the next part, we will take a look at the first steps of constructing the scenery now that the plan is in place.