Scenery

The platform will need to be as long as the longest rake of coaches you are running plus the length of the engine. Many people fall foul of not allowing for the length of the engine but you need to remember the driver needs to get out as well!...

When making a lake paint the base with a light colour (white or light grey) as you would if you were priming a model. Then create your shoreline adding sand or earth, whichever fits with what you are trying to achieve, then add rocks and fallen...

Ballast can be either colour. If you are creating a layout of a prototype line then you should try and stick as close to the real thing as possible, the stone would have come from a local quarry so the colour of ballast would change from region...

It sounds like you are using a clear two-part casting resin, which although very smelly when mixing and setting, is a good medium for creating rivers. I would say that when mixing the resin, not enough hardener went in. You may be able to...

Using several shades will add more realism to your layout and create depth. This is how trees are in real life: when you are next going past some trees, stop and take a look at the different shades of green, even take some photographs for...

Ballast comes in varying degrees in coarseness, fine medium and coarse. For OO scale the most realistic would have to be medium. OO gauge is 1/76 scale so measure a few ballast stones and multiply the size by 76 to check whether it would be...

DAS is an air-drying clay. When dry it can be sanded and painted. It is ideal for many model making applications such as buildings, walls, terrain, even school projects, you name it! You are only limited by your imagination. When using DAS make...

A backscene is a proportionately sized photograph or painting that sits upright at the back of a model railway layout depicting the landscape that you would typically see in the distance in real life.The function of a backscene is to add...

Which is the most realistic gauge? This is likely to have been the topic of conversation during many modellers tea breaks, internet chats or long car journeys to exhibitions.The answer to this debate depends on which angle you are viewing the...

Diorama derives from the greek dia (which means through) and horama (which means view).Diorama is one of those modelling terms that we use so interchangeably that its definition has almost been lost amongst the noise.The definition of...

Although N gauge is very popular (and for good reason), it can't be denied that the most popular gauge on the UK market today is 00, therefore manufacturers produce and sell a significantly higher volume of 00 gauge products than N gauge, this, in...

Installing a model building on a layout is often referred to as planting the model. On the surface this is quite a strange phrase as the words plonk, place or put would all be more descriptive, but, try to think of it another way, if you plonk...