Modelling Scenery the Kirtley way is another first class title from Peter Smith. Peter Smith is a full time architectural model maker and a master of his craft. In Modelling Scenery the Kirtley Way he shares many of his skills with us in a masterclass from a true expert.
The scenery on a model railway demands totally different skills from track laying, electrics or baseboard building; they are crafts, things that can be taught. To do the scenery, though, that’s on the opposite side of the coin, the artistic side. You can teach anyone how to wire up a point motor or make a leg for a baseboard, but you can’t teach someone how to paint a backscene. You can either do it or you can’t and if you can’t no number of lessons is going to turn you into John Constable. Looking around at layouts at exhibitions, most people can’t! The trouble is that a backscene done badly can ruin an otherwise good layout…so can poor trees, unrealistic contours on the hills or water that looks like painted plaster. This book is for those who find scenery difficult, to whom it does not come naturally. The gifted will learn a trick or two as well, hopefully, but for the majority who don’t instinctively know what to do without thinking about it, this is for you. If you follow Peter Smith’s techniques you will find that you can produce realistic scenery, without needing to do anything difficult or complicated, and with no need of expensive tools either despite what some would have you believe, (mostly those trying to sell you the tools!) If you follow Peter Smith’s guidelines you will be able to create a model landscape using the simplest of materials and techniques; cover the ground surface so that it looks realistic and convincing; add a backscene that gives depth to the layout and looks utterly believable; model water that looks like water; and finally add all those little details that bring a layout to life.
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