Halloween is here and I'm glad actually to move on from spooky posts for another year. Well, not quite as I'll still be posting updates for the Ravensblight Ghost House. I wondered at times why I bothered to put this thing together because it's not the most detailed or realistic display but in the end analysis it was just kinda fun messing around with it so I guess that makes it all worthwhile. Also, it did serve to give me some ides for future set-ups and maybe, just maybe, something like this could find a permanent home on any future train layout. The paper house from Ravensblight.com are about 1/43-ish scale and would fit nicely into an O-gauge layout - heck, you could put one of these buildings into any O-gauge train layout as an abandoned house!
Okay, so here's pretty much how the layout ended up. I've been goofing around with it constantly so details have been moved around some but you get the general idea. I used the old 'Plateau' portion of my former 'Marxville and Plateau train layout as the ground site for the village. It measures 44" (111.76cm) x 84" (213.36cm). In any future set-up I believe the haunted forest portion would be smaller and more condensed into one space - on this layout it takes up nearly half the ground area. I believe it would be best to design a town that actually looks like a town with more streets - which would be narrow and possibly winding, but by the same time I don't know if I'll ever have room for that. Anywho, I can dream.
Coming into town one sees Harry Potter standing behind the Munsters House, staring down Main Street at a Dementor floating above the Vampire House
A view of the dark side of town - Haunted Forest, Vampire House, Witches House (you can't see it in this shot)
I tried to do a panorama shot with my camera and it just didn't turn out so here's a couple of single shots going from left-to-right
A Boley Scooby Doo train set (hey, I just had to get a train on this thing somehow!). I didn't have time to cover this set - maybe next year or whenever :-)
PS: the Boley set only has two straight sections of track. I have two sets and used two straights from the other set to make a bigger oval
A practice in low-light photography using a flashlight
The Gothic Church from Ravensblight.com. This is in a smaller scale than their houses and works well with 1/64 scale vehicles
The Haunted Village's version of Uber picking up a fare
Various effects shots. There are three cardboard putz houses from the '50s which I used in the Haunted Village. These aren't necessarily Halloween themed but they looked spooky enough to include them. I may blog these before long.
Witch on bike heading for a meeting - no need to ride a broom through this town
And now...
...night time in the Haunted Village. Not a place for the faint of heart bwahahaha
Sirius Black roaming the hills
...watch out harry, you don't know what he's about!
Dementor's on he prowl
Ghosts lurking behind every tree
technically not a good photograph but it does look like someone taking a real quick shot of a very scary apparition
Not a friendly tree!
Flying at night can be hazardous to your health!
Playful spirits
The backyards here are a tad bit different
Frankie feels right at home
Oh Oh! Run villagers, Frankenstein has broken out of the castle!!
Duel in the Night
The witches house
We hope you liked the Haunted Village. Have a Happy, Fun, and SAFE Halloween folks!
