If the 80's are the dark ages, I remember milk crates that were made out of wood. As a kid in the 60's, I used to deliver milk and we had wooden crates. 🙂
When building a model railroad you have to realize that there are different people with different knowledge of railroads who come and see it. Some know how a real railroad operates while others just want to see the trains run around the layout and look at the details, especially kids. I am the latter. I’ve seen other YT channels where the owner has many little vignettes that catches the person’s eye. I really like what you did and how you did it. I like the lawn chairs as I remember them as well. And the little girl playing hop scotch is great. One thing I don’t like. You have a stop sign on a road that leads into a building. You need to change your backdrop to something that may show the road continues down a city street. I will be waiting for your next video. 😊
That non intersection is very noticeable in the closeups, but the intent is that the backdrop building is “across the street” and should be less noticeable In person. Even so, I need to come up with a way to hide the transition better.
The backdrop building is the same size as the structures and it looks like it is not across the street. Downsizing the backdrop would give it depth of field and make it look like it is further away. I have seen modelers us HO scale out front and N scale in the back to make it look like it is far away. Just a suggestion.
I feel like detailing smaller scenes makes the overall build process of your layout so much more enjoyable. Especially if you end up keeping the scene for a later layout allowing you too see how you’ve improved in the hobby
Thanks for another inspiring video Joe. For a frosted glass look, you can use a layer or two of satin "Scotch" tape. Might be quicker to apply. Just a thought.
One cool detail for a future build could be if you cut some of those double windows in half and put one half at an angle to make it look like the window is tilted open, and then hang the window blinds straight to emphasise on this effect =)
Agreed. I think you need to get the bulk of the big stuff taken care of before you move to details. Otherwise, I find, you end up needing to take the detail out to do other work, and then replace them.
Fantastic! The hop scotch was an inspired detail, as was thee big-wheel. And I love Mini-Prints. I just got the lawn chairs as well, plus wheel barrows for my pickle station and water troughs for the stock yard. Placed another order this week. If I were to add anything, it would be more trash in the alleyway where the tracks are, papers, tire, etc. - Paul
Thank you! I agree with you about the trash. My plan is to do all that as an overall thing when the scenery gets further along, but it does need to get done.
Obviously a little late to the party on this one. While I am, admittedly, an armchair railroader I am a very active wargamer and miniature painter. There are a couple of things that you can do to make it easier to paint small items. First mount your intended victims on something to serve as a handle to use while you are painting it. Good handles that you can find around the house are: Popsicle sticks, especially good for painting multiples of similar miniatures (I like jumbo ones for larger miniatures) Pop (or Soda) bottle caps, for painting single miniatures, particularly larger miniatures Wine Bottle corks, same use as pop bottle caps Really just about anything that will keep your fingers off the miniature while you are painting (or marking, coloring?) You can mount them to handles with just about anything; double sided tape, hot glue, PVA glue etc. Do not use CA glue. You are likely to break things off at the base rather than simply removing it. I prefer hot glue or PVA myself, just depends on my patience level at the moment, waiting for PVA to dry means I need to have something else at hand to work on. Pay attention with glues you only want it on the bottom of the foot, don't let it slop up on the surfaces you need to paint. In HO, and smaller scales, we need to at least hint at details that aren't there to make the miniatures "come alive" or "pop". We don't have to paint things down to the buttons or the eyes but if we give the illusion that they are there the human mind tends to fill in the details. The easiest way to do that is by adding shadows and the easiest way to do that is with a wash. I prefer acrylics or even oil paints as the base color for a wash and I avoid inks because they have a tendency to stain the paint. Making your own wash is relatively easy but there are plenty of commercial products out there (Vallejo, AK Interactive, Ammo by Mig and a number of others). Apply the wash evenly over the entire miniature, don't let it pool, let it flow and use a brush to wick away any excess. Use a clean brush to wipe away areas (especially on highest surfaces) were you don't want it, but for the most part it will flow into the crevices and lines and give the miniature a quick pop. You could also go back and add highlights but those would need to be very small and are probably not worth the effort except in a foreground scene. Almost forgot avoid using black, instead use a deeper brown like burnt umber especially if its going on a miniature with skin tones. There are certainly times when black would be the right choice but thing about the environment that particular miniature is going to be in. This one is preference. I never use a rattle can to prime anything this small, its has a good chance of filling in some of the molded detail. If I had to use a rattle can I would go with a primer that is designed for miniatures, while more expensive it will provide a thinner layer of primer and not hide the details. My preference is to use an airbrush so I have more control over the spray. I usually load the airbrush up with gray primer from either Vallejo or Badger. Rattle can primers are great for a lot of things on our railroads just not the really small stuff, like people. The age old fight amongst miniature painters is which color primer to use. There are a lot of colored primers out there but the big three are white, black and gray. That base primer color affects how your colors will look, so use the one best suited for the environment. Black is going to subdue the colors you paint over it and some colors are really hard to use on black primer (reds, whites and yellows come to mind). The colored marker technique is not going to work on black primer. White primer will make the overlaying colors much "brighter" and seems to work pretty well with the colored marker technique. Gray is neutral, what you paint is what you get right out of the bottle. I prefer gray primer for just about everything I paint and adjust colors with washes and highlights. This colored marker technique should work okay on grey primer. For brushes I would purchase a good quality #1 kolinsky sable brush. There are a number of different manufacturers out there. Winsor Newton, Rafael, DaVinci and Rosemary come to mind but there are others. Don't think that you need some 000 brush to paint something small, a #1 with a good tip will handle any kind of detail that you can see. My preferred brand is DaVinci and if you take good care of it it will last a long time. There is plenty of uses for cheap brushes but having something that can really get in there for fine detail is a must have tool. Sorry, this got way longer than I intended.
Nice detailing. The street runs directly into the back building, which looks weird but I guess it’s better then running directly into the bare wall. I wish there was a better way.
I didn't even think about the road dead ending into a building until you put the sign there. How about placing the stop sign prior to the tracks. Seems there's no signal there will serve to distract from the dead end into the building and hel with immersion
@@bookerz100 That's a great insight. It should have been obvious that the bright red sign would immediately draw the eye and call attention to the backdrop. I will definitely give that some thought. Thanks!
Wow!! your detailing really brought everything thing to life! Great ideas!! Love your videos 🙌🏽 I think it’s FOS scale models that makes the fire call boxes 😃
Seems like the guy on the crate wasn’t the only “grumpy old man” in the video 😊. Just wondering. What if you made the curtains out of aluminum foil? It’s much easier to paint than tissue. I’ve used it to create “tarps” to cover flatcar loads.
Who you callin’ old?!? 😉 Foil would probably work, I’ve never tried it. But I do like the fact that the tissues stay flexible after painting, without losing the color. Would foil do the same?
Hey Joe! Happy new years, I just stumbled upon your channel and youve given me some inspiration and motivation to start this year off on the right track - Especially now that i have a new job that can facilitate a small layout. Cheers!
Another very informative video. Definitely sweating the details a little help make a scene. Have you thought about making a hole so your dead end road can go under the building? Maybe a small mirror in the background to give it more depth.
I have a mirror on the main layout that is perpendicular, but it's very far away from any viewing point so you can't see yourself in it. That's always my concern when the viewing angle for the mirror is straight on.
I don't plan on having a lot of people or cars on my layout. One thing I always didn't like about model railroading is how the trains were the only things moving. Your miniature people don't walk down side walls and your cars don't drive on roads. I'm planning on only having people who look like they are in a very stationary activity, a couple guys chatting on a smoke break for example. And I think I'll only have cars in positions where they are parked.
I actually agree with you, so I try to pose the people in positions where they may reasonably stay for a while with minimal movement. And I usually have cars parked. Even the highway scene on my MCTD will be a traffic jam.
If the 80's are the dark ages, I remember milk crates that were made out of wood. As a kid in the 60's, I used to deliver milk and we had wooden crates. 🙂
The 60s are “prehistoric times.” They predate me! 😉
Joe thought you might like to know the grumpy old man is Bruce Wilson from the podcast A modelers Life 😀
I do have to check it out. I promised Lionel I would!
Much better! Actually looks like a neighborhood rather than just buildings....
Thanks, Paul!
When building a model railroad you have to realize that there are different people with different knowledge of railroads who come and see it. Some know how a real railroad operates while others just want to see the trains run around the layout and look at the details, especially kids. I am the latter. I’ve seen other YT channels where the owner has many little vignettes that catches the person’s eye. I really like what you did and how you did it. I like the lawn chairs as I remember them as well. And the little girl playing hop scotch is great. One thing I don’t like. You have a stop sign on a road that leads into a building. You need to change your backdrop to something that may show the road continues down a city street. I will be waiting for your next video. 😊
That non intersection is very noticeable in the closeups, but the intent is that the backdrop building is “across the street” and should be less noticeable In person. Even so, I need to come up with a way to hide the transition better.
The backdrop building is the same size as the structures and it looks like it is not across the street. Downsizing the backdrop would give it depth of field and make it look like it is further away. I have seen modelers us HO scale out front and N scale in the back to make it look like it is far away. Just a suggestion.
Love those chairs. Great details. Thanks for sharing. Dave
Glad you like them! I really like them, too. And I think they came out well.
I feel like detailing smaller scenes makes the overall build process of your layout so much more enjoyable. Especially if you end up keeping the scene for a later layout allowing you too see how you’ve improved in the hobby
I agree completely!
Detail always brings a scene to life. Big difference, Joe. Thanks for sharing, David (F & B Railroad).
Happy to share. And yes, even a few details can make a HUGE difference.
Stunning details….wow, nice job 👍🏻 big wheel, potted plant 🪴 go a long way to compliment everything else you’ve added.
Great video! Good idea using the Sharpies.
I was going to let you know I’d posted this. You beat me to it!
How about some streetlamps and power poles, Joe? Great video! Thanks
I will get there, I promise!
Thanks for another inspiring video Joe. For a frosted glass look, you can use a layer or two of satin "Scotch" tape. Might be quicker to apply. Just a thought.
Interesting idea. Not sure if it would be quicker or not. 🤔
One cool detail for a future build could be if you cut some of those double windows in half and put one half at an angle to make it look like the window is tilted open, and then hang the window blinds straight to emphasise on this effect =)
Thank you for the inspiration on detailing some buildings.
Glad to help!
Thank you for another great demonstration. Details are important, but not immediately. Appreciate all that you have done.
Agreed. I think you need to get the bulk of the big stuff taken care of before you move to details. Otherwise, I find, you end up needing to take the detail out to do other work, and then replace them.
Nice one 😊
Thanks, Rob! 😄
Fantastic! The hop scotch was an inspired detail, as was thee big-wheel. And I love Mini-Prints. I just got the lawn chairs as well, plus wheel barrows for my pickle station and water troughs for the stock yard. Placed another order this week. If I were to add anything, it would be more trash in the alleyway where the tracks are, papers, tire, etc. - Paul
Thank you! I agree with you about the trash. My plan is to do all that as an overall thing when the scenery gets further along, but it does need to get done.
@@ThePixelDepotLLC seems no matter how much detailing you do, there always more down the line. 😁
Another great segment!! It's the little things that count. Those details really bring the scene together.
You’re right! I stole that for an updated video title!
@@ThePixelDepotLLC I won't seek royalties. 🤣
Obviously a little late to the party on this one. While I am, admittedly, an armchair railroader I am a very active wargamer and miniature painter. There are a couple of things that you can do to make it easier to paint small items. First mount your intended victims on something to serve as a handle to use while you are painting it. Good handles that you can find around the house are:
Popsicle sticks, especially good for painting multiples of similar miniatures (I like jumbo ones for larger miniatures)
Pop (or Soda) bottle caps, for painting single miniatures, particularly larger miniatures
Wine Bottle corks, same use as pop bottle caps
Really just about anything that will keep your fingers off the miniature while you are painting (or marking, coloring?)
You can mount them to handles with just about anything; double sided tape, hot glue, PVA glue etc. Do not use CA glue. You are likely to break things off at the base rather than simply removing it. I prefer hot glue or PVA myself, just depends on my patience level at the moment, waiting for PVA to dry means I need to have something else at hand to work on. Pay attention with glues you only want it on the bottom of the foot, don't let it slop up on the surfaces you need to paint.
In HO, and smaller scales, we need to at least hint at details that aren't there to make the miniatures "come alive" or "pop". We don't have to paint things down to the buttons or the eyes but if we give the illusion that they are there the human mind tends to fill in the details. The easiest way to do that is by adding shadows and the easiest way to do that is with a wash. I prefer acrylics or even oil paints as the base color for a wash and I avoid inks because they have a tendency to stain the paint. Making your own wash is relatively easy but there are plenty of commercial products out there (Vallejo, AK Interactive, Ammo by Mig and a number of others). Apply the wash evenly over the entire miniature, don't let it pool, let it flow and use a brush to wick away any excess. Use a clean brush to wipe away areas (especially on highest surfaces) were you don't want it, but for the most part it will flow into the crevices and lines and give the miniature a quick pop. You could also go back and add highlights but those would need to be very small and are probably not worth the effort except in a foreground scene. Almost forgot avoid using black, instead use a deeper brown like burnt umber especially if its going on a miniature with skin tones. There are certainly times when black would be the right choice but thing about the environment that particular miniature is going to be in.
This one is preference. I never use a rattle can to prime anything this small, its has a good chance of filling in some of the molded detail. If I had to use a rattle can I would go with a primer that is designed for miniatures, while more expensive it will provide a thinner layer of primer and not hide the details. My preference is to use an airbrush so I have more control over the spray. I usually load the airbrush up with gray primer from either Vallejo or Badger. Rattle can primers are great for a lot of things on our railroads just not the really small stuff, like people.
The age old fight amongst miniature painters is which color primer to use. There are a lot of colored primers out there but the big three are white, black and gray. That base primer color affects how your colors will look, so use the one best suited for the environment. Black is going to subdue the colors you paint over it and some colors are really hard to use on black primer (reds, whites and yellows come to mind). The colored marker technique is not going to work on black primer. White primer will make the overlaying colors much "brighter" and seems to work pretty well with the colored marker technique. Gray is neutral, what you paint is what you get right out of the bottle. I prefer gray primer for just about everything I paint and adjust colors with washes and highlights. This colored marker technique should work okay on grey primer.
For brushes I would purchase a good quality #1 kolinsky sable brush. There are a number of different manufacturers out there. Winsor Newton, Rafael, DaVinci and Rosemary come to mind but there are others. Don't think that you need some 000 brush to paint something small, a #1 with a good tip will handle any kind of detail that you can see. My preferred brand is DaVinci and if you take good care of it it will last a long time. There is plenty of uses for cheap brushes but having something that can really get in there for fine detail is a must have tool.
Sorry, this got way longer than I intended.
Thanks for all that info, especially on brushes. I never quite know what to buy.
Nice detailing. The street runs directly into the back building, which looks weird but I guess it’s better then running directly into the bare wall. I wish there was a better way.
I agree. But, there are other ways to fool the eye. I just need to find the right one for this situation!
I didn't even think about the road dead ending into a building until you put the sign there. How about placing the stop sign prior to the tracks. Seems there's no signal there will serve to distract from the dead end into the building and hel with immersion
@@bookerz100 That's a great insight. It should have been obvious that the bright red sign would immediately draw the eye and call attention to the backdrop. I will definitely give that some thought. Thanks!
Looks good and very life like
Thanks, Joe. Like I said above, even a few details can make a HUGE difference!
Wow!! your detailing really brought everything thing to life! Great ideas!! Love your videos 🙌🏽 I think it’s FOS scale models that makes the fire call boxes 😃
Thanks so much! And thanks for the kind words!
Seems like the guy on the crate wasn’t the only “grumpy old man” in the video 😊.
Just wondering. What if you made the curtains out of aluminum foil? It’s much easier to paint than tissue. I’ve used it to create “tarps” to cover flatcar loads.
Who you callin’ old?!? 😉
Foil would probably work, I’ve never tried it. But I do like the fact that the tissues stay flexible after painting, without losing the color. Would foil do the same?
@@ThePixelDepotLLC The paint might crack. Another thought, why not just use colored tissue paper and skip the painting altogether?
Hey Joe!
Happy new years, I just stumbled upon your channel and youve given me some inspiration and motivation to start this year off on the right track - Especially now that i have a new job that can facilitate a small layout.
Cheers!
Happy new year! Congrats on the new job, and the new layout!
Another very informative video. Definitely sweating the details a little help make a scene. Have you thought about making a hole so your dead end road can go under the building? Maybe a small mirror in the background to give it more depth.
I have a mirror on the main layout that is perpendicular, but it's very far away from any viewing point so you can't see yourself in it. That's always my concern when the viewing angle for the mirror is straight on.
Ultra Fine Sharpies may work better for the fine detail areas.
Good call!
I don't plan on having a lot of people or cars on my layout. One thing I always didn't like about model railroading is how the trains were the only things moving. Your miniature people don't walk down side walls and your cars don't drive on roads. I'm planning on only having people who look like they are in a very stationary activity, a couple guys chatting on a smoke break for example. And I think I'll only have cars in positions where they are parked.
I actually agree with you, so I try to pose the people in positions where they may reasonably stay for a while with minimal movement. And I usually have cars parked. Even the highway scene on my MCTD will be a traffic jam.
@@ThePixelDepotLLC oh right I forgot you mentioned that in your video about the highway.
Fire call box might be from DPM kit....
OMG! I've run out of Grunge videos!! Now what will I do? All is lost!!!
I know, I know! I have to get back in the saddle on my Grunge video production.
I just found your channel, but if you aren't aware, the moderately agitated mailboy is from "A modelers life" podcast.
Welcome to the channel! Thanks for letting me know. I do have to check it out. I promised Lionel I would!
WHERE ARE THE CROSSBUCKS?! Motorists should be alerted to the active rail line that passes between Laila's Joint and the apartment complex.
Fair point!
The person driving that red vw must be drunk being they driving all up on the sidewalk like that.
They are just really bad at parallel parking! 😆