I've been thinking through my layout plan. It seems to be about all I can actually do at the moment. :::grin::: I have a few "big ticket items" I'm looking at at the moment.
Harbor Area
The Harbor Area is going to prove to be the most challenging overall, I believe. Basically due to the water space involved. The water issue I faced on my shelf layout looms for me. I'm still not sure about the cracking of the water and I'll need to block off the water area to avoid the horrid leak and drip issue I ran into. "Knowing is half the battle", however, so I'll do some additional planning there.
I have my submarine launch area underway. That's a fun aspect of this area. The other buildings need to be addressed as well - adding some elevation and getting the bases set to the landscape properly and taking the water into consideration as well, of course.
I need to raise the walking bridge, think through the gate leading into the area (the area is closed to random through traffic) and I think that will lead to the Temple area on the hill being higher and a bit more dynamic as well. I see it being nestled into the landscape with trees and lushness all around it. Raising that area and the Village will give the track between a nice depth as well.
Soyokaze Village
I want the village area to have some variation in levels as well with streets running through the hills and the buildings peppered among trees, hills and walkways. It won't be too drastic in this space, but it needs to have some height variants to make it more interesting overall.
There will be a tunnel under the track to lead into the village area from the outside roadway area. I want to see about including a small farm area in the space where there is currently a statue space, but it may be a bit crowded. The "Farm Scene" I want may move to another small shelf scene instead of trying to cram it into the spot.
The road will wrap around the outside of the layout with a bridge in parallel to the train bridge at the front. I think this will be a fun little detail with a lot of potential. (I just hope my toddler and baby girls don't end up playing the role of Kiju Babies after it's built - ripping it out Godzilla style!)
Shizuka
I'm still not thrilled with the transition between the Soyokaze (Old town) and Shizuka (City) areas of my layout. Of course, what I really would love is a long, field area space between the two areas to really get some distance going. Yes, I have thought about blocking off one of the two doors into the converted garage/office space this lives in and pushing out the area so that this could happen. I may do this after really thinking it through. If I did, I'd have space to do everything I wanted to take on instead of chopping bits out. However it's an additional expense and would require some additional heavy planning to accomplish.
As it stands now, I'd just like to tweak the Shizuka tracks so that the City shifts a bit at more of an angle instead of how it sits now on parallel to the table edge. Not only will it be more interesting, but it will give me a little more play around the surrounding area of it and through it. I might then try to move the main station area to the outside space and drop the current, small station that is in front back to the back space. I could also build up the back portion of the city so that it has the same height variance that I want to have in the village area. Far more interesting.
I have more buildings for the Soyokaze town area as well, so more space might be a good things for that as well. Food for thought for sure. I would love to have a little more space especially if it's only a shelf layout sized strip that extends the layout a bit. I already have some of the pieces I'd need to make this happen. I just need to look over the space to see if it would be a viable option. We're already looking at door additions to weatherize the space, so maybe closing off one of the doors would be a great thing.
More to follow.
Comments welcome, as always.
Cheers
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