Spring garden

Spring garden

With the huge range of off-the-shelf scenic products HORNBY MAGAZINE sets out to show just how simple it can be to create an attractive miniature garden to enhance the background of a railway scene.

A Skaledale 1930s suburban house leads the scene which has a grassed lawn followed by a bare mud area for growing plants.

The European modelling scene is awash with miniature scenic details from the likes of Noch, Faller, Preiser and many others. In this scene we have aimed to bring together a selection of readily available items to show how they might be arranged in a model garden. There is nothing here that can’t be bought off-the-shelf, making this project well within the reaches of every modeller no matter what their skill level is.

The basis for the diorama is a panel of 6mm MDF measuring 400mm x 150mm. The headline act is the Hornby Skaledale 1930s suburban house which stands front and centre between the garden and main road. Behind the house is a grassed lawn which is followed by an area for growing and cropping vegetables and fruit. For good measure we have added a Primo Models apple tree at the centre of the lawn while the grass has been bordered with coloured tufts from Noch as well as a strip of flowers from the Model Tree Shop cut down to fit the space available.

This whole scene took no more than an hour to assemble from start to finish (excluding the drying times for the base layers of paint and gravel) and it would be easy enough to replicate along a street of gardens to give each one a unique character. Further searching through the proliferation of accessories from the likes of Noch, Faller and Preiser will also bring you to items such as washing lines, animals, window cleaners, home maintenance personnel, gardeners and more. Viessman even produce a gardener which swings a watering can in its eMotion range of active figures for ‘HO’ scale.

The table with this feature lists the products we have used in making this scene, but the Skaledale 1930s house is currently out of production. For more on this scene including a step by step guide and time-lapse video follow this link where you can get even more detail about how we created this miniature garden.

Noch’s laser cut mini cold frames together with garden tools set bring life to the area around the shed.

To see our full step by step guide and watch the build in timelapse, head over to our separate feature here on Key Model World.