Thanks to the foamboard construction, the whole thing is super light and could be hoisted up with one hand if it wasn't so long. It will be interesting to see if the thing warps at all over the hot and humid summer.
So the obvious question on everyone's keyboards would probably be - how silly would it be to have the track sitting about 6 and a half feet up in the air. Well here's the view from the far side of the room which is about 13x13 feet or so:
Note the green Flufosaurus from the Otaki to Cass exhibitions. And from up on a chair:
Practical? well, we'll just have to see. Moana is quite a 'flat' scene with a lot of hills/trees etc in the way of a clear view, but the next modules are intended to be a little more ledgey (like the Manawatu Gorge) so it should be a little easier to see the trains while standing on Terra Shagpile. Now you know why I didn't model a third loop through the goods shed and insisted on a motorised point...Now that the layout is up out of the way, it might be time to back up a miniskip and have a bit of a clean-out. Items of comic interest from right to left: exercise bike used to store track and safety vest, my private-label Spring/Summer collection, a Speights clock that my brother bought me 20 years ago, PC keyboard boxes full of NZ120 trains, the last piece of NZ wire-netting left in America, an incredibly messy modeling desk, a 9mm DG untouched from the last time you saw it, a temporary shelf with a nicely weathered BNSF patched SD40-2 on it (the DFT thanks you for your DCC decoder), the pink foamboard table that Moana has been sitting on, and the back of a tatty tan chair bought from Paraparam for $5 in 1990 that has been used for modeling ever since (making things, not posing) and also it would seem (based on the visible evidence) for painting lots of ceilings in shades of white.
While not everyone will be jumping in the air over high-rise layouts (except perhaps periodically to see if their train is still moving), I can see this sort of lightweight scenario thing working for the Fetid_Antler's 8 foot Patea quandary. If this was a stand-alone roundy/roundy, it could be brought down and placed on a bed or kitchen table and plugged in for a play when the family is out and then safely returned to this storage position in a minute.
4 comments:
To be honest, I like it. While standing, the layout can be seen enough to remind you it is there as well as act as "background" when you are working on other things and just have a train circulating. From a chair, the viewing angle is just about spot on....Very promising!
yes, I like the concept. I won't however be trying it myself as firstly the lady of the house would have me evicted if a layout set foot in our home and secondly , I can see myself operating this type of layout from a stool or chair and getting excited or distracted(derailment,etc)and forgeting the obvious difference in height between the floor and said stool,etc and doing a face plant onto the carpet. have already face planted off a mountain bike riding around our orchard late last year and broken my glasses, so not keen to repeat!
Stilts, man, get some stilts! And providence may see a circus pass through shortly thereafter to teach one how to use them.... Actually, I'm not kidding; this is a seriously under-utilised piece of real-estate, and if professional plasterers use clever strap-on stilts to reach ceilings without having to shag around with planks and trestles, why can't we?
Yeah DB can see you'll need some sort of elevated platform to lie back on, maybe one of those barbers chairs... you could do a trade in with the Tan chair.
But very effective, almost like relief wallpaper !
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