If I Could Turn Back Time

Happy Easter!

If I could turn back time... then I would not paint my crane yellow. That task wasted a couple of days.

The crane is finished.

Isn't that crane the same colour as before? No the luffing jib is yellow. Our eyes are attracted to bright colours. There is a reason why the golden arches are yellow with a red background. The first coat of paint for the crane indicated that being all over yellow would be too eye catching. I want people to look at the layout, not just the crane.

There is a lot of art and design that goes into model railways, whether we realise it or not. How many times have we moved things about so that they look good? We position our buildings, our vehicles, our figures so that they look just right.

If you look at the image for long enough, you'll see what I mean. The viewer of the model railway will notice that there is a bright yellow jib which would look better in grey. I really couldn't agree more. However, model railways always involve compromise. Therefore, as I don't want to keep rebuilding the crane, part of it is yellow so that the operators notice it and don't knock it over.

Another task finished yesterday was the barge. It is hard to see in the image above and in its spot on the layout, you need to look down on it as well. The next task is working on the interior of the station building.

Until next time.