Copyright 2022 Nicholas Kalis
Visit
Bernie Kempinski of Alexandria, Virginia, modeling in On30, is one of the nation's foremost model railroaders - witness his United States Military Railroad Aquia & Falmouth Line. Look how he employs perspective on both his layout backdrop and the scenery close to his backdrop. In the right foreground we see two grave markers - they appear to be wood - but I am not sure - surely Kempinski is modeling them in 1:48 scale. On this winter day one can see the Civil War encampment in the distance as Bernie has painted on his backdrop.
The key to effective forced perspective is to separate the foreground and the background scenes with features that lack scale - in this case just a winter terrain - grass and bare trees. Notice how the miniature tree line - bereft of leaves - on Bernie's background ties everything together. As I have written elsewhere - building on the writings of others - what I have called "forced perspective" is likely more accurately labeled "reduced scale"; I will leave that discussion to another place (see another of my blog postings for a thorough discussion).
Your blogger was fortunate to tag along with Gary Eames to view Kempinski's layout up close one weekend in November 2022. As I have noted before, this layout can easily be described as better than museum quality. It is an On30 layout that is even more impressive close up than as it appears in photographs.
Revised January 30, 2023
Revised May 26, 2023
Comments
Post a Comment