Street View to a more accurate model

I love using photographs of real shops on my layout and thought I’d describe how I go from a picture on a screen to a model on my ‘OO’ gauge layout.

I started off by doing some research into shop signs and fascias from the 1980s and 1990s and stumbled across an image from Staffordshire Past Track.

I searched the site and came across a photo of a row of shops in Uttoxeter. Afterwards, I did a search on Google Maps. I then used Google Street View to get a clear view of the building(s) in question. Once I printed off the relevant image, I used a scale ruler to measure the buildings.

After marking out the size(s) and location for windows on mountboard, I cut them out. I wasn’t confident at the time of building the longer row of shops so I used a bit of kitbashing using some of the Scalescenes shop kits for the shop fronts. I also used the shop fronts from these kits as an additional guide when measuring. Before I fitted them in place,

I added the relevant details such as the window displays and any backgrounds. The final task was to add the signage. Once again, thorough research was key. After finding relevant photos, I set to work making the custom shop signs using a design programme. After measuring the sizes for the signs using a digital calliper, they were printed out and fitted in place. Although some of the work on these shops was achieved by kitbashing, I did the majority of the work using my art and design/ illustration skills.

I hope that this helps other modellers and that I can show off my layout in a future issue. Nicholas Ham