Another piece in British Railway Modeller; this time, it was kits for a pair of of the redesigned terrace houses.
Looking for inspiration literally close to home; I'll admit to not really looking at our street much, but once I had, I started spotting the myriad of differences and details. If anything, I thought I'd need to hold myself back with what details I included
A lot of parts in the kit, but well laid-out, and lovely clear instructions.
Lets go through the Bay Window...
Modifications to the kit, adding a basement storey and modifying the roof over the bay windows.
Raising the ground texture.
The kits came with paper to roll into chimneypots, but being less patient (and wanting to inject a little variety, to better match my own street) I went for various lengths and thicknesses of plastic rods, and even old lollipop sticks, coloured with permanent markers.
I had a vision in my mind of how I wanted the header pics to look, and planned on a diorama. I probably should have just shot the houses against a white background, as they were, but I've got into a habit of doing these big, over the top scenes now. In my defence, it can be used in other pics and as a backdrop in other articles though.
Installing the houses.
The little details would make or break the scene... these are nice, if ridiculously fiddly, flowerpots by the German firm of Busch. The plastic plants to go with them are even fiddlier, so I compromised on scenic scatter and Katy Sue Designs flowers.
Ah yes, the lighting; we'll come back to that, but sufficed to say a few sets of old, cheap battery Christmas lights ended up being used.
More interior details; again, this will be revealed what-for as well.
Going mad with the scenic scatter for an overgrown garden, but the basement window is in there somewhere. In hindsight I could have done this feature on a different house where it would be more visible, but I suppose it's nice having a hidden detail in there somewhere.
We're getting to the time of year again where you can't guarantee decent natural light when you need it, so the final pics were shot somewhat hurriedly before work one morning when it was still gloomy outside.
The side of the diorama that isn't on the article, but will appear in a future one.
So, the lighting; this was a bit of a cock-up with the project on my part. The Editor wanted me to have a separate part of the article all about including working street lights, but I didn't have the right power source to run them before the deadline hit. It's going to be a job for Future Ben, but at least the houses are rigged up with lights and and impression of interiors.
Emergency Water Supplies sign in Carlisle, photographed over the summer. Amy went to some trouble whilst we were at Uni to record the many surviving WW2-era signs around the place, and with this diorama partly inspired by where we lived in Carlisle...
...it seemed appropriate to include one on the street.
And here we have it, the finished diorama. The idea was to have 4 contrasting houses, all basically the same but with modified details, and each with details and figures that represented a different generation living inside.
This is effectively our house, with the neat little box hedge arrangement we inherited when we moved in.
One house on the end with an older couple living there (nice garden and mature tree, but the greenery is a little out of control to show the owners are getting on a bit and can't maybe keep up to the maintainance). Distinguished Gent and his dog leaving the house.
Overgrown garden in the empty, for-sale house next door. And look, a same-sex couple looking to move in. Who says we modellers are stuck in the past? I thought it was a nice subtle detail to include when the figures turned up in a second-hand box.
And the house belonging to the young family. A bonkers mess of colour and chaos (been there, albeit some years ago now). Well it wouldn't be a Benjy project without the inclusion of a gratuitous beachball, something that's become a staple of the summer-themed projects this year. Actually this scene was directly inspired by one of our neighbours who was hosting The Dreaded Five-Year-Old Girls Birthday Party. Ah yes, I remember the chaos when we hosted parties for our kids, and wondering how it was time passed so slowly when you were surrounded by screaming and shrieking 6 year old kids.
Again, little details hidden in the scene for people to spot, based on real life, like the boy trying to pop the birthday-girl's balloon.
And here it is, on the page.
The team at BRM have done an excellent job, as ever, with the design work.
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