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Our Broad Principles

Page history last edited by Ian Stock 15 years, 9 months ago

 

Our Broad Principles


 We set out broad principles describing ways we believe this can be achieved, leaving each individual modeller to select their own personal emphases. While we accept compromise as a fact of life, whether for technical, circumstantial or financial reasons, we aim to minimise its impact on the overall effect.

 

1. The real world is the best inspiration and comparison with it is the best test of success.

 

2. A garden railway closely based on full-size railway practice throughout evokes reality, regardless of which aspects are imagined and which aspects replicate a specific full sized railway.

3. A miniature landscape with consistent planting, architecture and land formations will evoke a broad locality, maybe even a specific place.

4. A railway is inseparable from its historical and social context, and a scene with historically compatible detailing evokes a consistent period in time.

5. Every railway has a purpose which is reflected in all its train operations.

6. Consistency of scale is of greater importance in achieving a realistic impression than the particular choice of scale from the many options available.

7. Capturing the spirit of a railway is at least as important as achieving the last degree of detail. While glaring inaccuracy and anachronism detract from realism, we find that some of the most realistic looking models are not necessarily the most millimetre-accurate.

8. Mechanical and artistic skills combine to create the effect of realism, and we borrow methods from engineering, modelling, art and horticulture. We each choose to suit our preferences, some concentrating on fine detail while others create broad impressions.

9. The qualities of natural materials - earth, rock, stone, wood and metal - help root models in reality.

Work in Progress

We don't have all the answers, but we are trying to find them. There is much scope for experiment in developing techniques for garden modelling, and we are keen to learn from best practice in other areas of railway, architectural and landscape modelling.

 In addition to these broad ideas, we also offer a more detailed list of issues which we feel are key to the achievement of authenticity, detail and atmosphere in a model. This may be of particular assistance at the early planning stages.

 

 

 

 

 

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