I posted "Flat 3D" and nobody took it seriously. I am attaching a picture. No, I'm not wanting a child toy train board like the attached picture. No, I don't want cartoon pictures. BUT this is the idea for the layout top, BUT with real photograph scenery or professionally painted realistic scenery instead of structures sitting on top of the layout. Comments?
FLAT 3D....Serious Post
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Jim 68cuda
Well-Known Member
Sort of like the old Tycoscene layout cards.
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Jim 68cuda
Well-Known Member
Though there are structures attached, your description also reminds me of the old Remco Thimble City playsets. The scenery is printed on the board in HO scale. Well, except for the Union Station version with the very under scale train.
GeeTee
Well-Known Member
Trying to do it with satellite images , whether you use google , or something like the USGS's LandSat , Your likely to have scaling issues . While the equipment in HO is 1/87 ,or 1/160 in N ,Layouts tend to be highly compressed . a typical passing siding at say 10,000 ft length in would be 114 ft (HO) or 62.5ft (N) , not many people have that kind of room under roof.
To get it to work , I think you would have to spend sometime with editing the image and morphing it to get to work.
If I were going to do something like that I would use a 3D model railroad CAD tool and then print it out.
To get it to work , I think you would have to spend sometime with editing the image and morphing it to get to work.
If I were going to do something like that I would use a 3D model railroad CAD tool and then print it out.
GeeTee
Well-Known Member
Even at 1:220 your still at 45ft for a less than 2mile passing siding , Most layouts are scaled at least 1:500 , and usually 1:1000 in horizontal distances, so even if you scale the photograph for the size of the railroad the industries and buildings will be way off.
Some of the CAD programs have structure libraries based on kits and Atlas track libraries . So if you draw it in CAD you can just print it out , lay the track on top and add the buildings as you purchase them . They might not have Z scale libraries but you could draw it in N or HO and just scale the drawing down .
Very good point!
It depends what you mean by "work." The more constrained your perspective is on the "layout" the more realistic it's going to look. It's definitely going to look odd when there's a train mixed into the scene, but it's definitely doable to create a layout picture that appears to be 3d from one location or another. The bigger the layout is and the less able you are to move around, the more realistic the effect is likely to be. A tiny scale like Z is likely to suffer far more than a larger scale where moving a couple inches has less impact.
Personally, if I were going to try something like this, I'd want to at least mix in some paper models to help blur the lines a bit and add to the depth, but failing that, I'd probably model the entire thing out in Blender and render that to something that could be printed to cover the layout.
Barring a budget large enough to hire somebody to paint one, probably the next best thing would be to create a 3d model in software and then print that with whatever perspective you're looking for. The more you constrain your viewing angle, the more realistic you're likely to be able to make the effect. These days, there are drawings that people do that are extremely lifelike from the right perspective. From the wrong perspective, they look very fake and hard to identify, but from the right angle, with the right lighting they look rather impressive.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Would certainly make scenery maintenance a whole lot easier.
