Helpful Hint
When choosing details for one's layout, it can soon be apparent that an item we have bought or are considering buying is overscale - that is it is too big and just does not look right. A solution to this problem is to try to find that detail in a smaller scale; I did this years ago with my HO scale Montauk Branch layout. I saw some HO scale retaining walls by a popular manufacturer (Woodland Scenics) and just hated the way they looked. My solution was to buy those same retaining walls in N scale. Voila - these N scale retaining walls look superb.
Another example of this technique is seen in Photo 1 is an example of a pair of crows - Scenic Express O-Scale Black Crow Raven/2PCS. Item Number CG403. Made of pewter, a set consists of two crows painted black. My friend Gary Eames purchased them for his O scale layout and just never used them because they did not look right - they seemed overscale. Gary gifted two packages of these - four crows in all - and I have used all four on my Fn3 (1:20.3 scale) Oahu Sugar Company to great advantage.
So next time you are scratching your head that a detail does not look right, try what I and others have done. This can work around many scales - an N scale item is overscale? try Z scale. An O scale item does not look right, try that detail in HO or S scale.
Revised March 19, 2022
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