Scale Christmas villages/Train dioramas?

[rollerboi]

I was at Kohl's the other evening and saw that they had cutesy plastic houses that you set up on a bookshelf or table to make a Christmas village or somesuch. That reminded me of my father's model railroad track, where he set up a winter wonderland with snow and houses and stuff.

Got me wondering.. anyone here do this sort of thing? What scale do you guys work in, and where can I go to find out more about it? I've got some ideas for houses and so forth that are a little.. off the beaten path, let's just say.

 

[Szyntax]

I used to set up an HO scale train around the tree...till I got a dog.

 

[Legion]

Here's our little setup at Xmas. The wife has enough houses to fill a full-sized dining table, but as it gets used, that's out of the question. So I grab a couple and do a little setup on the hallway table.

Cheers,

Guy

(btw, back at my parents house there is still an HO scale board mounted on the wall, hidden with flip-out legs. It hasn't seen the light of day in many, many years...

 

[hankey01]

This year the boys will be getting a small HO train set for Christmas. It has a Smallville (from Superman the movie) theme and a metropolis playset at the other end, that I will encourage them to take off and play with instead of the other stuff.

I made the crashed ship scene, a Kent farm with a barn that glows green.

There is also a bridge, a tunnel and a crude Dinosaur park. This is for a 4 and 2 year old so they will love it no doubt.

The only thing I'm not happy with is the train itself. They also LOVE the polar express and we do have a G Scale Polar Express set that I have set up as a Christmas decoration on the fireplace mantle (I won't have it running this year so their focus lies on the HO set I built for them), but I can't find an affordable Polar Express HO scale train. That would MAKE this set!

edit..just added some pics. I know I didn't do a perfect job but its for the kids and I had limited time. I have since added power poles, trees, boulders, sign etc etc. IF I could get an HO scale Polar Express that would be great and follow the thread's Christmas theme..but it IS a Christma gift!

 

[rollerboi]

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about. Cool to see your displays.. but what scale are they in? Where can I find out more about making models like this?

 

[takevin]

Department 56 is a nice scale for christmas villages, pricey but nicely detailed. You can go to Menards, they carry similar thou cheaper but nice christmas buildings and animated too. I run a outdoor G scale train in my side yard with about 80 feet of track. Cant wait till we get the farm and will increase the track to a 1000+ feet. You can run it all year around.

 

[Clerval]

Anything less than this and you're not a man.

YouTube - Miniatur Wunderland *** official corporate video *** largest model railway / railroad in the world

From what I understand, the activity of the trains and environments changes regularly, just the user activated elements alone are great.

I realize it doesn't exactly help you on your quest, but hope it fuels the fire.

 

[MooCriket]

Very cool to see these. When I was much younger, I would spend hours setting up my HO train, village, etc. Loved the detail. I am looking forward to next Christmas, when my nine month old should be old enough NOT to destroy a nice setup

 

[kibosh]

If you're a Lego fan, they released their second annual Christmas display set. Last year's is also still available, and i think they will add a new set yearly.

 

[yt]

My wife has tons of the Department 56 stuff, last year I got her most of the Christmas Story pieces. It is very cool, but hard to display due to space requirements.

 

[jedimaster]

Very cool to see these. When I was much younger, I would spend hours setting up my HO train, village, etc. Loved the detail. I am looking forward to next Christmas, when my nine month old should be old enough NOT to destroy a nice setup

Good luck with that. Every time I set up even the wooden train set the first thing my 2 yo does is pull it apart.

 

[MooCriket]

^Yeah, I know. I'm just trying to stay optimisitic, and think positive thoughts that she will not do that. Of course I know she will.

 

[hankey01]

Good luck with that. Every time I set up even the wooden train set the first thing my 2 yo does is pull it apart.

I'm not sure how well my simple setup with hold up but the beauty of the Metropolis play set at one end is I will have part of it my boys (2 and 4) can take off and play with.

As they get older if they are interested we can slowly build up the set to be more realistic and a father/sons hobby.

I sure won't do what my father did to me. I got a train set all set up when I was about 7 and I could barely touch it. My dad eventually took it over and it became his. Last time I asked about it a year or so ago (as I REALLY wanted it back for my boys) he claims to be unable to get it from his messy basement. I have come to the conclusion he pawned it all. A real shame as my boys LOVE trains.

Question..I have 3 engines but only one seems to get enough power from the track/transformer to move although it does hang up at a few places on the track. Bad transformer? All the rail pieces are secured and connected well at the ends.

 

[Legion]

Anything less than this and you're not a man.

YouTube - Miniatur Wunderland *** official corporate video *** largest model railway / railroad in the world

LMFAO!!!!! @ 2:47 That is frakkin' awesome!

 

[dbuck]

When I was a kid we always had a train under the tree. When I was really little we had the steam engine with the smoke pellets, but after Dad got tired of us playing with his beloved train he gave made us an HO setup with roads and hotwheels to play with instead.
Many decades later whilst the kid is now 16, we have pets, so no train.
However, I did go out this year and spend a couple hundred on some village pieces to put on the buffet. As usual, I bought too many pieces and so some will live there, and the ones the pets won't break will go under the tree. The wife just set up the buffet.

Everything was on sale for 50% off at Kohls. I think the nutcracker setup, with moving dancers and music, was from a craft store.

The modeler in me wants more people, a park bench perhaps, just more details. And I cannot get the nutcracker music out of my head.

 

[rollerboi]

Ok, I was confused for a while. Some of you are saying HO scale, but that meant nothing to me. Just looked it up, apparently it's 1:87, or 3.5mm to 1 foot. This makes much more sense to me.

Are the buildings, such as the ones at Kohls, in the same scale?

 

[kibosh]

I just got back from a trip to the Lego store with the kids and picked up their first two Christmas scene sets.

Winter Bakery

Winter Toy Shop

 

[dbuck]

Some of you are saying HO scale, but that meant nothing to me.
Are the buildings, such as the ones at Kohls, in the same scale?

I'm afraid not. Here is an HO engine sitting on our display.

Train sets come in various scales, O, HO, N, with N being quite small. The link above to that spectacular Wunderland shows HO trains. The village stuff you buy doesn't state a scale, and the people are normally far too large for the buildings.

And to those sharp eyed amongst you, yes, I did go out and get a few more items for the village today.

 

[jts1031]

Just eye-balling it, the ones at Kohl's look like they would be closest in scale to G-scale trains, or Grand Scale.

 

[takevin]

Just eye-balling it, the ones at Kohl's look like they would be closest in scale to G-scale trains, or Grand Scale.

And the most expensive, i've got about 5 grand so far in my outdoor layout.