Friday, August 7, 2015

Plotting and Planning - August 2015

More plotting and planning in Soyokaze, Shizuka and the yet to be named Factory City.


FACTORY
I'm still looking at exactly where the factory will live. I have a few ideas on the subject and I've been sitting with them to see if something gels.



The first image shows the factory on the right. This is desirable because it can have it's own entrance area towards the front of the layout area. The access road for it could be completely out and on it's own in the scheme of things. Kinda works well. However, i have more factory bits coming and I was concerned that - while it would create a lot of visual interest - it may be "in the way" and blocking some of the other visual elements I have planned for this section. This is really only an issue for shots of the bridge towards the back and the hillside towards the right side of the photo which will have trees and other scenery that will be nice to take photos of. So...what about popping it all over on the left side of the tracks?

Well, this does work as well, but it's also going to block a bit of the road I have planned that will run along the waterfront area under the bridge. Hmmmmm...interesting issue. And, one that I have tabled until I get my other pieces in. Once I have all the major parts, I'll be able to plan a bit better. I think the ideal would be a new track arrangement with the factory area wedged off and out to the far left side of the layout space.


It might make more sense to toss the factory over here.
HA! I love what this guy did with the factory and some Photoshop! :)  Some great photos in their page!  http://www.kaijuaddicts.com/building-city-environments-x-plus-vinyls-n-scale-buildings/



LIGHTING
I totally forgot about my lighting. I got caught up in all the extension planning. heheh
I currently have these large boxes over the layout space. They are working well and giving me some nice light. However, I left two sockets open for orange and blue lights which I have yet to pick up.


Once I have these orange and blue lights, I'll be able to play around with more color sculpting of light to get different times of day represented. Each light has it's one switch, so I'll be able to add and subtract to get different looks to the scenes below. I may play with double bulbs as well, adding two blues to one box and two oranges to the other to see if it gives me a "setting sun" look.



NICE CITY. WHERE IS EVERYONE? :)

I'm still shuffling people and cars and trying to flesh out some of the city areas. The area below with bare track in the middle of the uniplate will be a workman scene - folks doing some work on the track and surrounding street space.  I'm going to start adding more cars and people soon, but I'm also looking into that blank figure purchase so I have more hobby time I can take on up in the main part of the house. Painting a hundred or more people at night seems like it might take a while. :)

I also need to keep trying to make my modern building (left side of photo) work. It needs a lot of help.


I also pre-ordered a few more buildings from HOBBY SEARCH. Because...they come out in December (...which means I don't have to pay for them until then) and I liked the looks. These may end up replacing my modern building effort if it doesn't work out. hehehe







While the dust settles from the extension, I'm going to do more little scenes on the layout. I also plan to address the height changes I want to have in the village area by adding some foam core and/or styrene in certain areas to get more height variation in the area.


Little scenes like this are what I really love. What are these folks chatting about?

An engineer without and engine. He stayed here and his engine went to the extension.

TROUBLE BREWING

The military is still patrolling Soyokaze. :::grin:::   I was giving some thought to the purchase of the RELIC monster, but I think I'm going to go for it and make my own creature, leaning more towards the HOST creature design. Before you ask - nope! I've never taken on this sort of project before! hehehe  It should be interesting. I'll build an armature, then will work with clay to get the creature going. Many....many drawings to come. 


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2 comments:

  1. Great post! I'm really interested to see how the lighting works out for you, it's not something I'd have thought of.

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    1. Thank you!
      Yeah, I wanted to get down to the hardware store for the bulbs today so I had them around, but various errands and work items prevented the journey. :) Maybe tomorrow.
      I love how the box lights are working. A nice, soft light with soft shadows. However, I need to play with the addition and subtraction of light more to get a little more light modeling happening on items in the scenes.

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