Modelling mojo

It may have been obvious that I’ve lost my modelling mojo recently so when I saw this article in the NMRA BR e-news, I thought, just what I need, a kick on the backside!

It’s a structure challenge, starting on the 1st December and ending at the end of February next year. Three months to build something and record the build on the NMRA BR forum.

I went up my loft as I had a sneaky idea what I wanted to build but wanted to see what the gaps were. To be honest, there are more gaps than structures on my layout at the moment!

I did declare that November would be “Love my layout” month. It needs it.

The view as you come up my loft ladder:

The far side is a bit clearer:

Who am I kidding!

Anyway, I looked around and I could do my City Classics diner for the city street scene:

Or above it, my Rugg Manufacturing section, one of the places I have visited the prototype and am going to have as a permanent feature on the layout.

Or perhaps my prototype structure for that AP certificate although I have already spent a lot (and I mean days of my life) of time on it on the computer and gone nowhere at all. One to revisit but not by February next year!

I did wonder about the coaling tower as it is a glaring hole in my steam servicing yard:

As I look around the layout there are so many more structures I could mention… Well if it was finished, what would I do?

The one section I was itching to do is still there. I have decided to do areas with multiple dioramas so I can swap even more into my limited space. One section gas three diorama bases built ready to pop in along the top. They will each have kit bashes of several South River Modelworks kits. I have a pile and need to get on with building them. They are lovely kits and one of the dioramas uses two early ones.

This is the location on the layout:

There are three potential kits with that level of river water drop (they all have to have the same scenic base to fit in the one location. O

These are three options but I would swap the extensions and add-ons around. This is one:

This is the one I am going to choose. It’s a mix of Treadwell and Ware Knitters.

Treadwell was Bob’s second kit from 1989. That’s 25 years’ old!

http://www.southrivermodelworks.com/page120.html

Ware Knitters was Bob Van Gelder’s 4th kit and is 23 years’ old:

http://www.southrivermodelworks.com/page140.html

Both are beautiful kits and I am combining them because they have the same stone work courses. Ware Knitters and Treadwell are quite small so this gives a larger mill complex.

I dug out the base. The competition says that you can’t have started the structures yet, which I haven’t but I did build all three diorama bases several years ago to ensure that they fitted in the layout spot. For those of you with long memories, 4 years ago I posted this blog post.