Windmill Hill photobook, new photos of my micro-layout in a case.

[Phoenix]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well.  and wow, everyone has been so busy on their layouts !

I have been busy spring cleaning, and doing a bit of decorating, while getting to grips with a new camera phone and focus stacking to compile a photo album of Windmill Hill. Many thanks to Roger for his photographic inspiration, and tips 

I am slowly getting there, and have taken some photos, but as we all know close up photos show up all the mess lying about..... mainly dust, rogue static grass, and runaway bits of ballast, so after heavy duty brushing, cleaning with cotton buds, and hoovering ( unfortunately loosing a few bits on the way  ) I am getting some fairly decent photos.

Anyway, I will show you the photos here on this new thread. I am resizing and tidying up some photos now, and hope to get some up later ......

Meanwhile, 'till then here is a photo of a bunny with a pancake on his head 



Will be back later 

All best wishes

Kevin

[weave]

Hi Kevin,

Glad your in the land of and keeping busy during pub lockdown.

Looking forward to the new and improved pics.

I won't comment on the bunny pic as I've met you and that seems perfectly normal 

Cheers weave 

[tutenkhamunsleeping]

Meanwhile, 'till then here is a photo of a bunny with a pancake on his head 

Uncanny.  Exactly what I was looking for

[Bealman]

Hope you haven't started a trend here, Kevin 

I am looking forward to the compendium of Windmill Hill, though.

[Phoenix]

Hi All,

Glad  you like the bunny pic 

I made a book of the building of Windmill Hill, printed by Vistaprint, which was ok, but I wanted better quality for this, so am going with Snapfish, who did some photomugs for me, and the quality was great.

I am starting with some pics of the layout in and out of the case, showing some stuff with it to show the scale. (sorry to repeat these from my layout thread  )





And to give an idea to my non-modelling friends of the scale, I took these pics .....







That took the first two pages. Next I took a leaf from Rogers book, and used a bigger backscene, and a little extension on the front and got this overview. I used Affinity on its free trial and stacked 9 (I think) photos together .....



It took a few goes to get that one, as the camera needs to be in just the same position for every shot, or you get a bit of ghosting, so I got a little tripod to use.

Hope you like the photos. I've got some of the 57xx pulling a short (can't really be anything else  ) goods train round the lower level. I'm sorting them now 

All best wishes

Kevin

[Bealman]

Great pics! Looking forward to this. 

PS. You couldn't include a stubby of Victoria Bitter to give your Antipodean fans some idea of the scale? 

[port perran]

Brilliant Kevin.
I love those close ups of little people. You have a real knack of picking the correct little person for each scene.
And......ok, I'll ask, why has the bunny got a pancake on his head?

Martin

[daffy]

Great pictures as always Kevin. The 'scale' pics give a really good impression of just how small our model worlds are. Looking forward to more.


As for the funny bunny, that 'Bugs' me. So what's up Doc?

[Phoenix]

Hi All,

It really makes a difference having a bigger backcene and the little extension at the front, as the photos look far more natural as I don't have to worry about "going over the edges". A sprinkling of matching static grass hides the join in the field, along with a bit of photo jiggery pokery to hide the join in the road.

Here are a couple of shots of the goods train. The weathering is by TMC,which I am very pleased with. It's just enough, without going overboard 





Sorry there's no Victoria Ale there George ..... when I can get hold of some it would be a pleasure to have a virtual drink with you, watching our trains  run round 

Here is the signal box, a kit bashed ratio kit .....



The little people are busy Martin, and thanks to tacky-wax you will notice them keeping   themselves occupied around the layout.

All best wishes

Kevin



PS. For those wondering, the only reason the bunny has a pancake on his head is because he was having a bit of trouble balancing the banana 

[Phoenix]

Hi All,

No more bunny pics today 

Here is one of  a race between steam power and horse power .....



The horses are running on the short (about 4" wide) extension on the front of the layout, and the join is hidden with a sprinkling of matching static grass. You can also see the crossing gate lights alight.

And here is an alternative mode of transport  .......



This was taken with the backdrop removed. You can't really see who is inside the bus, but the driver is a cut down station porter, as his uniform could be seen as a bus drivers, and his hands pushing a trolley fit to the steering wheel perfectly. The passengers are cheap E.bay figures.

Sorry about the quality of these next pics  . They are taken of my computer screen, and seem to  have some kind of interference ) and show how the layout of the book is progressing ....







Once again sorry about these pics, something seems to have gone a bit bonkers     

All best wishes

Kevin

[Markthetog]

Without getting too technical the camera picks up the screen refreshing - a faster shutter speed usually stops that.

Snapfish are good, however if I may add an opinion I've found the best quality for photobooks are Blurb. More expensive but well worth it IMO.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to the next balancing rabbit installment 

[Phoenix]

Hi @Markthetog many thanks indeed for your comments. I tried some jiggling around, and got a clearer shot, although the colour needs sorting 



As far as the book goes, I chose Snapfish (A4 hard cover option) as I have had mugs from them and was very impressed with the photo quality.

I have not heard of Blurb, but had a browse earlier on, and they seem to do a very similar thing, so thank you for that suggestion..... I will look further into them tomorrow,

With all best wishes

Kevin

[Markthetog]

Apologies if fiddling with your image is taking liberties but I thought a quick tweak on my phone might assist. If you'd like a proper job done I'll happily whip it through Photoshop in the morning.

[Phoenix]

Wow, thanks  so much for that 

Windmill Hill is my first layout, so I wanted to make a record of it. I used Vitaprint to make a book of it's building, but wanted better quality for these photos.

Keep your eye out for more pics, and if you like, check out some little videos (scenic, and a "making of" ) on Youtube...... just search Windmill Hill Model Railway 

All best wishes

Kevin

[Markthetog]

You're very welcome. 

I've been keeping an eye on your original Windmill Hill thread (while frequently swearing under my breath) since I joined last year and look forward to more pics.