Where and when does inspiration strike?

 I have been having a lot of trouble lately coming up with inspiration for my Micro Model Railroad Cartel Christmas Challenge layout. The track plan is pretty much set in stone, per the challenge rules. I just need some inspiration to get me going. I've shared some other sketches of ideas in my previous post. But right now, I'm devoid of motivation. Totally and utterly. Nothing. 

I've seen a few pictures that piqued my interest, but I've since lost those pictures through the magic of Facebook. So the baseboard sits in the corner of the basement. Sleepers down but no rails in place. 

Then on Monday, in need of a picture for a post on my Micro Model Railway Dispatch page. I cobbled together the scene below. 

Cobbled together being the operative word. There's my 7/8ths inch scale 18" gauge track project as featured in the NGIRM Review issue 127. A 16mm scale Binnie Hudson skip, and the shelter and stone wall from my 1/2" scale tribute to Cuddle. Several unfinished, abandoned projects there. I made the post and thought nothing of it.

Can you hear this image speaking to you?

Then a few days later I went back to the image. This time it was different. The image spoke to me. To me, there's an indiscernible quality in there. Squint at it, soften the hard edges, and take the background out. Is it speaking to you yet? I’m seeing a rain soaked scene. Puddles and mud abound. A locomotive shoves a couple of skips filled with something under the awning. They’re emptied and the loco shuffles off back to where it came from.

It doesn't matter that nothing in this image is to a consistent scale. It’s the feeling it evokes. To me it feels believable. A rundown, ramshackle operation. 

Could this hodgepodge of bits and pieces be translated into a scale “whole”? Does it need to be? 

Let’s consider the elements in the scene. That wall of whatever building it is. It’s built of stone. Big stones, smaller stones. Stones are stones. Big ones in 1/2” scale will be smaller ones in 16mm. So no problem there. 

How about the roofing tiles/slates? OK, I might need to replace them. Though the Welsh Slate website lists 14 different sizes of roofing slates, so perhaps something comes close to what is on the roof as it is. Maybe this structure might end up as a low relief flat so roofing might be a negligible moot point. 

The awning. Perhaps that needs a wholesale replacement, perhaps not. That rusting corrugated sheeting was created by running printed downloadable textures through a Fiskars crimper. A bit oversized for 1/2” scale. Perhaps closer to scale for 16mm. I have some dolls house size corrugated material that’s probably too large. 

The wooden frame for the awning? Let’s be honest, you can hardly see it. I think I could get away with that. I’d certainly offer up a 16mm scale person to see how they stood up against the height of the awning. But if it’s close I’d probably let it go.

All in all, this is not going to be an exact scale model like the late Roy C. Link would produce. It’s going to be an atmospheric piece of fun. So why not leave it as it is.

It's strange how an image I created for fun, quickly developed. Quite how it's going to pan out yet. I don't know. But I might be on the road to starting my challenge layout at long last.