Thanks Chris - they are superb photos & modelling.

Great Photos mate, love the detail you have done, so much to see in each picture.
Phill

Even the ballast is attractive! I love the weathering on the loco.

 Mike

Well i keep coming back to these photo's and well what is that saying, "a picture paints a thousand words".
I mean so much detail in each one.
I take it you have a smoke stack in those engines?. i just love that layout, any more pics Chris  :D .
Phill

Has the loco smoke been added with photoshop?  Excellent pics by the way. :)

phill said

Sam said

Every one photo of your Chris, be it prototype or model, is inspiration for me! Can you do the photography on my layout!?  :wink:  

Regards,
Sam.

                , can you do my pics on my layout, oh thats a good one that.
Sorry Sam.
Phill

Gwent Rail said

Sam said

Every one photo of your Chris, be it prototype or model, is inspiration for me! Can you do the photography on my llayout!?  :wink:  
Regards,
Sam.

I've been told that Chris (still lots more years until he reaches 50) is not going to do any more photos after he reaches 100 years of age, so your request is out, Sam :!:  :!:

I have a cunning plan up my sleeve that is already on it's way.  :wink:  I already have enough funds (goodbye stock and prvious layout :roll: ) to get something of the size to be done relativly easily. :roll:  I'm not telling before it's all becoming clearer. Secrets..Bliss.  :)

Here we go again then Sam  :D  :D  :D
Phill

cTo try to answer some of the queries………

The smoke is fake. I thought I'd try out 'clouds' in Photoshop (Filters>Render>Clouds), the program used for the picture editing.

All my layouts are portable, I'd hate to have to destroy often years of work just because of a house move. My oldest layout, the one seen here is Combwich, the baseboards being built in the summer of 1980, if it had been built into a house, then it would have gone to a landfill many moons ago.

I would love to have a large layout room, maybe one day for something really big (Evercreech Junction?), it will still have to be portable though.

My layouts aren't really that detailed, it's all in the colouring, get that bit right and  the brain creates the rest. Many people use colours that are too rich and tones that are too dark. Look at a distant road on a sunny day, tarmac is in fact very light. Lighter shades also gives the feeling of a bigger layout too. Cement Quay for example is only 2' x 5'6".
fotopic.net

I think many people get into the trap of looking at other layouts and copying them, what then happens is a layout of a layout. Get lots of books and try to emulate pictures of the real thing (of course if you model the present day, get out there with a camera).

Above all though, have fun and don't worry about the rivets, they're for people that just talk rather than model.

Wise words, Chris.  Food for thought in all of that, and an interesting discussion could be had, particularly about colours and tones.

 Mike

Words of wisdom from an expert Chris - particularly your last comment !!!!

Petermac

Chris

very good reply comments and i can undestand the reason you do not build a static layout. But one day perhaps the ultimate layout when your sure it will stay there.

you are quite correct also where you say about tones and colours i think as Mike C has suggested we should start a thread on that subject as i think all of us could learn and teach from discussing that.
I for one am to quick at grabbing the  stereotype colour pot of paint.

Cheers Brian.W

How true this is.

I remember seeing Cement Quay in a magazine and was absolutely smitten by the colour Chris had achieved with his sky. (Mind you I then went back to the UK and turned B & Q upside down looking for the recommended colour but they had never heard of it). There were no clouds and a sort of haze to it, so realistic.

You can also be sure that when the camera gets a hold of the photo, the colours seem to be enhanced even more. Camera's are cruel servants.
    so when things look good from a photo, they really must be good.

Les

nevardmedia said

My layouts aren't really that detailed, it's all in the colouring, get that bit right and  the brain creates the rest. Many people use colours that are too rich and tones that are too dark. Look at a distant road on a sunny day, tarmac is in fact very light. Lighter shades also gives the feeling of a bigger layout too. Cement Quay for example is only 2' x 5'6".
fotopic.net
Above all though, have fun and don't worry about the rivets, they're for people that just talk rather than model.

As always, Chris, you are modest about your achievements.
I remember seeing Cement Quay "live" for the first time and being amazed at it's size, it really does look far bigger in photographs.
The modesty bit comes in when you say that it's not really detailed, I would say that it's not cluttered, but all the necessary details are there and well done too.

You comments on shades are interesting and something that we should all bear in mind.
I've recently been looking at layouts with a far more critical eye, trying to work out what makes them good or bad.
Some exhibition modellers seem  to model what they think is right in their mind's eye, without checking the real world and I think that's where the vivid colours come from.
Grass is green, green is the colour of a snooker table and off they go.
Well I suppose grass is green, but it's also yellow and brown and various other shades, depending on the weather, time of year and location.
This is the wealth of detail that good layouts (like yours) capture and we would all do well to remember.

In an e-mail discussion I had today with another YMR member Neil about various topics , he suggested & I agree with him, that if Chris Nevard published a book of his layouts, tips & photos, it would sell very well.

Both myself & Neil would purchase one.

While it is good to read & see on the Internet, nothing beats a hard copy to read anywhere in the house, etc.

Yes that's right Ron.   Chris has an excellent combination of being a good modeller and photographer so one supports the other to get the best effects.  I think if Chris was to do a book with some of his techniques both modelling and photography it would be a hit.  Something to speak to Ian Allen about maybe?

By the way Chris do you do your own backdrops?  I was looking at the one for Catcott Burtle this morning on your website and I was getting the impresssion that this was custom made and developed by yourself.  If this is the case can you actually buy sticky backed photograpic paper?

Neil Wood said

By the way Chris do you do your own backdrops?  I was looking at the one for Catcott Burtle this morning on your website and I was getting the impresssion that this was custom made and developed by yourself.  If this is the case can you actually buy sticky backed photograpic paper?

Hi Neil,

Last summer we went near to the location of Catcott and fired off half a dozen or so frames. I used the Panorama Maker in Photoshop Elements to stitch them together. Through a contact at Hornby Mag I was able to get the 7 foot long file printed onto sticky backed plastic.

After photographing many layouts over the last year or so with no backscenes quite often, I was determined that no computer jiggery pokery would be required on my current project.

What you see here is right out of the camera……

Hi Chris,  thanks for that information.  It really makes a huge difference having a tailor made back scene as can be seen from your photos.  It looks very natural.  Great stuff.

Hi Chris

Brilliant just brilliant, as everybody has already said before me you and your layouts are a inspiration to us all. Top class modelling and the finest photography to show it off.

Just one question what gauge do you model in, is it EM or P4.