I hope even silly progress counts as progress

P

perpetualnewbie

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I feel like sharing this and expect a bit of merriment at my expense :-) I may be the perp-etrator of the Newbie & Family Railway Co. but I'm not the sole perp-rietor*... my getting to buy nice trains is conditional on the family being happy. And if the kids want to help me make scenery and play with trains, rather than demanding more screen time they're not going to get, this takes priority over any dreams I might have of 100% faithful recreations of real times and places. (I have a lot of admiration for people who do that stuff well, but I don't get to do it right now).

I can't start a permanent outdoor railway 'til my yard stops being a building site (shifted 600+kg of debris out of it on Saturday, which is a start, but that's another story) so we all agreed some temporary buildings were needed, starting with station platforms so the passengers have somewhere to go. Since I need to be able to pack this stuff up I thought a "chibi" compressed/cutesy scale was a better bet than breaking out the real 1:22.5 scale ruler, and I thought finishing something was better than perfection. (I'm a bit proud of the fretwork platform canopy fringe, though). So, here's the first of a set of modular platforms that fit the inside of the awkwardly tight R1 curves we currently rely on... with a little help and a fair bit of design input from the smaller Newbies, who also had very strong ideas about what sort of passengers were appropriate for us.

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Incidentally, I found a good trick for the curved platform front. It's made from an odd sort of balsa-in-card-sandwich blockboard I remember buying speculatively from a modelshop I don't really get to visit any more. I cut vertical slits in the back, evenly spaced every cm or so, so it could easily take up a relatively steady curve. I wish I'd taken a work-in-progress shot, will of the next one if there's any interest.


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*(since you're never going to let me live this silly name down I'm going to jolly well own it)
 
Never lose track of the idea that this is supposed to be fun. At the moment you seem to have grasped that. Well done with the building which seems purrfect for what I think are Sylvanian passengers.

Paul
 
Paul - Thanks! yes, all I can do at the moment is not take trains (and myself) too seriously and we're all having a lot of fun. The creatures are indeed Sylvanians. They turn out to fit G scale perfectly. Getting the girls playing at railwaymen and engineers for a change has to be a good thing.

Jon - perfect! :-D And now you suggest that, it seems a pity they don't seem to do a little bat-person with sharp fangs...
 
That fretwork canopy is very good.

When my daughter breaks out her Sylvanian Family stuff from my loft for her daughter/ my granddaughter to play with, I will probably end up with something similar. As you say anything to get girls interested in engineering and children generally away from screens.
 
Wonderful idea and and wonderfully carried out. Our great-niece, 9 this weekend, had a Playmobil RC diesel train set given her when she was 5 (not by me, she surprised her parents by asking Father Christmas for one), which comes out regularly. She also announced her aim in life to "build bridges like my Dad" when she left pre-school.
 
There's a lot in the Sylvanian range that is G scale friendly. I can vouch for that. Playmobil is a good source too.
 
Dave aka idlemarvel - thank you! :) I love any excuse to break out the scrollsaw.

Playmofire - also thank you! Most kind. Your great-niece sounds like a great kid. Playmobil is also, I notice, a dead-on fit for G scale*... I just wish they still did the fantastic modular castle they did when I was a kid... I'd be sorted for engine sheds then. The new ones are inflexibly set-piece-y by comparison :-(

*EDIT - hadn't seen ebay mike saying the same thing, when I wrote this. Mike got there first.
 
perpetualnewbie said:
Dave aka idlemarvel - thank you! :) I love any excuse to break out the scrollsaw.

Playmofire - also thank you! Most kind. Your great-niece sounds like a great kid. Playmobil is also, I notice, a dead-on fit for G scale*... I just wish they still did the fantastic modular castle they did when I was a kid... I'd be sorted for engine sheds then. The new ones are inflexibly set-piece-y by comparison :-(

*EDIT - hadn't seen ebay mike saying the same thing, when I wrote this. Mike got there first.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're only too right, the later Playmobil building stuff is limited in what you can do with it. There are some Suystem-X bits and pieces which are useful though. I'll post some photos next week when I'm back on the internet.
 
I agree the old stuff you could kit bash the daylights out of like my sawmill, even have a 3 story hotel that I'm redoing with wraparound porches, the old western building walls were the best.
252100sawmill os 4.JPGplaymobil in the garden 1.jpgplaymobil in the garden 2.jpg
 
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