# HO Harbor Scene ... ideas for structures?



## Timothy (Jun 11, 2012)

I've been reading posts for the past couple of weeks, and am impressed with what I see! Although my quest is not directly related to trains, the skills and advice I need are all related to the work accomplished creating a train layout. It appears to me you folks have that down to a science!
As I mentioned in my intro, I have a small pond that I want to build a waterfront diarama for. I have a set of Lindberg 1/90 scale ships/boats, and have RC'd one of them, and although the scale isn't actually HO, it's close enough for my purposes. 
The project I am embarking on is a modular waterfront scene built on a rigid closed foam base that will actually be floating in the pond. The scene needs to be modular for portability.The bottom of the floats will be epoxy coated, and the docks will be cantilevered from under the wharf-side buildings. The piers will be supported on the pilings which will rest on clear plexiglass that will be fastened to the floats from underneath. I anticipate the plexi becoming virtually invisible when it's under water. Building lighting will be from batteries....not too keen on too much voltage in a water environment,  and I have a couple of ideas relating to a ships docking triggering a micro-switch turning on wharf front building lights - conversely, when the ship leaves, the lights go out.
I'll need advice and help with phases all along the way, which brings me to my first inquiry; Who offers the most detailed plastic structures? Being this will be a damp environment, I anticipate plastic structures being more viable along the immediate "sea side", but some of the wooden structures should suffice higher up the "hill". I have been accumulating components for this which include pieces from "Tichy", "Banta Modelworks", and "Scenic Accents". 
I anticipate beginning with a first module of probably 2'X 6' as the "heart" of the project, then expand from there. 
I welcome any thoughts and ideas.

Thanx in advance,

Tim


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## Timothy (Jun 11, 2012)

Deleted


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ya' now have your own thread, Tim. Sounds like an ambitious undertaking.

I'll defer to others to answer the "best" plastic structures. That said, are you aware of the large inventory that Walthers offers? www.walthers.com

We had an excellent recent post on creating pierside structures, here ... see the 2nd post/link in the thread:

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=12376

I went to a multi-home layout open house event recently, with a few very nice harbor scenes. Some pics here:

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=11710

Cheers,

TJ


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