Breaking up the jigsaw…

Reading Matt’s post provoked mixed feelings. Exceptional modelling as ever, with his trademark dedication to craft and detail. However, it also made me painfully aware that I have little to show for recent efforts. Obviously it’s only a few weeks since my last post, but that feels like an eternity in the modelling cycle of someone with an attention span as short as mine. 

Juggling two conflicting inspirations - the masterful Tollesbury Quay by Martin Stringer, and Rye Town by Stephen Hannington

I find myself stuck between two rocks, and my enthusiasm is in a hard place. On one side is Coursehorn, on the other Butley Creek. Both are layouts derived from prototypes to which I am immensely fond, and which I am very keen to see complete. However, I find myself paralysed by two opposing dilemmas. 

Coursehorn is far advanced and looks from a glance to be coming together. However, I find myself dissatisfied with the basic composition and form of the layout. The Kent and East Sussex provides an endless supply of model-o-genic buildings, stations, and rural idylls which I am desperate to turn a scalpel to. However, Coursehorn is narrow, cramped layout, a conventional 4ft long but not even a foot wide, so space is desperately limited. I am very conscious that the “less is more” mantra is never truer than with a small cameo, but this rational thought is distinctly at odds with the draw to model more and make something greater. I am very happy with the baseboard, and the layout works well, so I am reluctant to do anything drastic, but I do wonder if I will ever be truly happy with it in its current restrictive form. 

I'm grappling with how to preserve the sense of space at Coursehorn, whilst also modelling those wonderfully ominous winter trees. This sense of space feels like a challenge to recreate.

On the other hand, with Butley Creek I continue to vacillate between designs, trackplans, and schemes, unable to settle on things as basic as the overall size or location of the layout in the home. 

This weekend I even tried to distract myself with a 009 “layout in a box”. However, without a clear inspiration to drive things forward, it has crashed and burned. The less said about it the better.

A break in the rain earlier today brought me to Salehurst, walking in the shadow of the rapidly developing K&ESR extension to Robertsbridge. Drinking in the surroundings, I mused on my unequal relationship with different aspects of modelling.

Heading from Salehurst Church down to the site of the old halt, through a dark and moody hollow way

Some trees crying out to be modelled. Here nature displays some masterful composition with the treelines drawing the eye into the distance.

Looking out across the Rother Valley near Salehurst. The newly re-instated K&ESR is just visible in the distance.

One thought that popped into my head was how much I enjoyed scenic work, and I even considered whether I would be content with a “layout” with no railway, or with little more than a track running through leafy countryside. I then wondered about the value of modelling scenic features - trees, buildings, rivers and lanes, as projects in and of themselves - if not dioramas, then components of a greater layout yet to come. If Matt can do it with stock, could I with the patchwork that makes up my beloved Kent?

Bob Barlow and Iain Rice had a similar idea to model their East Suffolk Light through a series of dioramas. Perhaps the Cranbrook and Tenterden could have a similar treatment, and in doing so I can scratch that itch to model things and places which a single layout could ever allow.