I haven’t had much opportunity to work on my layout this last month, but in the time I have had, I’ve dedicated it mostly to adding scenic details. These details include traffic signs, additional foliage, figures, and vehicles. It is amazing the amount of detail products readily available by dozens of different manufacturers, and really comes down to just deciding which products to use to achieve your desired look and level of detail.

The first details I added were from a Walther’s Cornerstone City Accessory pack, which included garbage cans, pay phones, fire hydrants, bike racks, mail boxes, and parking meters. These parts require assembly and painting, which isn’t that bad as you then have free range to customize them as you please. I did this with the mail boxes by painting them red to resemble a Canadian Post mail box instead of a blue US Postal Service box. I used these parts almost exclusively in my downtown scene, but did use a few details elsewhere on my layout.

Traffic and street were next on the list. I couldn’t seem to find commercially-made signs that offered the style I was looking for, so I turned to creating my own. I found high-resolution sign images online and used Adobe Photoshop to scale them down to a prototypical size. Most provinces/states have online traffic standard manuals posted online which I found useful for sizing. I printed the signs out on 5x7 photo paper at Walmart then cut each sign out and glued it to a thin sheet of styrene for extra rigidity. I trimmed the styrene right to the edge of each sign with sharp scissors, keeping them nice and tidy.

Syrene posts were glued on next and painted an aluminum colour along with the back of each sign. I used a dull black sharpie to colour the edge of each sign black so it would seamlessly blend the white edge of the styrene into the black border of the sign. Using a new marker seemed to bleed into the photo paper so I used an almost-dead black marker. I then glued the signs to the scenery with superglue. For the Coca-Cola billboard and walkway, I used the same process with scrap styrene and printed graphics on photo paper. 

People figures were probably the most enjoyable details to add as they really brought the layout and scenery to life. Most of the figures are from Woodland Scenics and a few from Model Power. I still have neglected to give my layout an exact era and as a result some figures seem a bit dated while others are much more modern. However, everything seems to blend together almost seamlessly. Woodland Scenics offers an amazingly large selection of detailed figures and scenes and there are still several figures that I will be adding in the future.

Vehicles are proving to be much more difficult to find than anticipated. Cars and trucks for the steam and transition eras are readily available in a wide selection but more modern vehicles, especially North American prototypes, seem to be almost impossible to come by. Model Power seems to be the most promising as far as selection, though most of their models are European makes. Atlas had a run of North American vehicles but I currently cannot seem to find any other than the two Ford Explorers I purchased last month. Adding more cars and trucks will definitely be an ongoing process.

My latest detail was a small woodland Scenics tool shed die-cast kit which I installed into the turn-table yard. This small structure is highly detailed and comes with several separate tools and details which I used elsewhere on my layout. Other details I added were small benches that I purchased off eBay and wooden pallets from a local hobby shop. I added a small pile of scrap rail and lumber right behind the work shed and used unwanted spare plastic wheels on the turn-table spurs to represent a locomotive repair area.

I don’t think there can ever be enough or too much detail. It's these details that truly prevents a model from ever being entirely complete, as there is always something that can be improved upon. After 3 years of construction, the skills I have gained are significant, and there are several items and details from the beginning stages of my layout that I now want to re-model or enhance. I am sure that any future time spent on my model for as long as it exists, will be dedicated to adding and enhancing details.