Paper, Scissors, Rock…

I mentioned, at the back end of 2008, that I wanted to change the appearance of ‘Overdale Quarry’ so that it looks less American and more in keeping with Derbyshire quarries like Tunstead. So, behind the scenes, in the past few weeks I’ve made a start on some scale drawings.

First test fitting of the proposed loading silo

Besides creating some drawings, I also cut the Walthers kit at the first floor level and rotated the top storey by 90 degrees. By cutting out, and sticking together, printouts from the scale drawings, I was able to do a test fitting of the proposed loading silo. The structure was roughly based on one of those at Tunstead.

It’s definitely a tad too tall!

It was worth doing because my immediate impressions were that it was too big and dominated the skyline too much. These structures are really big in the flesh but when scaled down I think it’s more about what looks right.

The second draft of the scale drawing (click the image for the full size PDF)

So, back to the drawing board. I decided to break, almost completely, from the original design and go for two loading silos. Once I had done I just cut out the side elevations and positioned them roughly to judge the difference.

The revised drawings roughly cut out and positioned

Both structures could still be reduced in height and both need slight adjustments to their lengths, in one way or another.

I’m reasonably happy with the effect now. So, the next step is to bring on the plastic and start scratch building.