KNARESBOROUGH PLAYMOBIL EXHIBITION 2012

[playmofirth]

One for Elaine

I was looking at the Hogwarts picture from Kirkbean again.  Just how big was the board that the castle/school rested on.  Was it 8x4?  It looks bigger. Do want a grey board for this that we can add green to?  Do you have the green paper you used for grassy areas?


Mark

[skypurr]

Yes it was 8x4. 
I have the green, and the grey material to cover the gap behind the rocks.  I also have a few more rocks thanks to Playmofool.
I was wondering about making some sort of walkway down from the castle to the village, that I could just put in place instead of the green paper.  I'll see what I can come up with.

Elaine

[playmofire]

I'll look further into the remaining areas of the railway display, Mark.  I may ebd up modifying what I've said so far, but we'll see what comes up.

As regards a bit of landscaping for the railway, if you can get some stiff brown paper, crumple it slightly and then glue it from the top edges of the end raised boards and the one running along the back and then to the lower board to form a cliff, then after a coat of diluted PVA (or even neat PVA) to stiffen it, it can be painted in brown for the more vertical surfaces and green for the more horizontal ones. 

As regards height, I'll measure up tomorrow in the daylight and let you know.

[playmofire]

Ok I've started putting a few things together:
Contribution to railway:

4055 Farm set
Some loose animals
some fencing
some odd pieces, tractors etc
Fencing, hedging, walling
Some material to make a paddock.


Damo

Damo, can you give me a rough estimate of the area the 4055 set etc will take up, please?  This will help in deciding what space there is for other things.

I also have a tractor and plough and the DS farm water bowser if they would be any use.  I also have some goats and sheep and pigs if needed.

Thinking of the gymkhana, you could also have a field or grass area set aside for car parking.

[flatcat]

Gordon,

Thank you for this detailed plan - I like it very much

I'm afraid I don't have accurate measurements of the farm - just guessing at the moment

I think I am ok for farm things - I have most of the farm sets, with lots of tractors, trailers, impliments etc

The gymcana base mat measures 4ftx2ft, so that can go portrait to the front, with a farm lane running parallel to the right of it leading from the road at the bottom to the top of the paddock where the gate is.

The farm yard can then go parallel to the right of the farm lane, with the entrance to the yard from the bottom right corner of the lane (diagonally opposite as it were to the paddock entrance at the other end of the lane), and perhaps the farm house horizontal to the road, and the farm yard behind it, accessed by the gate.

The farm yard would be, say, 3 - 3.5ft wide

I could then have the space at the back of the farm yard (it wouldn't be as long in depth as the paddock) as another fieldy area for car parking/storage (Got to have a bit of a farm dump there! ) accessed by a gate directly opposite to that of the gymcanna paddock.

The farm lane can then either bear left or right (or both) and/or continue under your proposed (bridge?)

I'm expecting the farm lanes to be approx. 6" wide, and so the remaining foot or so can be taken up with some fields with cows or somewhat in.

Basically 4 blocks of land of different sizes, inter-connected by farm lanes in places



If any of that makes any sense at all!

Damo

[playmofirth]

Gordon said

if you can get some stiff brown paper, crumple it slightly and then glue it from the top edges of the end raised boards and the one running along the back and then to the lower board to form a cliff, then after a coat of diluted PVA (or even neat PVA) to stiffen it, it can be painted in brown for the more vertical surfaces and green for the more horizontal ones.

Funnily this was exactly what I was thinking of.  It is the simplest way of doing a bit of short term landscaping of slopes.

I was going to suggest the same for Elaine's raised Hogwarts too.

Mark

[playmofire]

It's the system I had as a teenager on  my Hornby OO railway.  I painted the rocks a reddy brown for sandstone.  Mind you, in those days brown paper was much stiffer than now and I just painted it with no base coat of pva.  I suppose it's probably better to paint the less glossy side.

[playmofirth]

Elaine said

Yes it was 8x4.  
I have the green, and the grey material to cover the gap behind the rocks.  I also have a few more rocks thanks to Playmofool.
I was wondering about making some sort of walkway down from the castle to the village, that I could just put in place instead of the green paper.  I'll see what I can come up with.

Did you see my plan for the exhibition layout?   It had the 8 x 4 board for Hogwarts at the back corner of a 12 x 8 base.  This leaves 4 x 8 front to back for Hogsmeade.  This is a slightly different set up to what you had.  See diagram attached.  Is this okay?

Mark

[skypurr]

That will be fine Mark.
I can have the rocks around it and I thought I would put the station at the far end of the board this time because there will be space there, then have the village set around the far end of the board and the lake.
Will the height of the base boards be the height of a table or will they be lower like Damo's western diorama last year?
The only problem will be reaching to the back to set the castle up - I may need some help with placing things in position!

Elaine

[playmofirth]

Elaine

I was going to put them low like Damo's Western display.  The boards should be very stable so it will be possible to climb on them to set up the back first - and then work forward from there.

Will you want the higher (hogwarts) board cut around the edges to make it less regular.  I  now have a jigsaw so this is relatively easy to do.

Mark