I hadn't been terribly happy with the shots done with the Rail Studio model last year; to hit a deadline, and with a run of poor weather, I ended up rushing a shoot up in the dales and then in a derelict quarry (OK so Doctor Who would have me believe all the best post-apocalyptic sci-fi is shot in old quarries, but it didn't quite fit what I wanted to do with the shot).
After having taken some photos with the artist figure miniature on the beach in Northumberland though, I reckoned a shoot done on a beach for the Rail Studio would work, the scenics would scale out better with sand than grass, and working in late October ought to mean the beaches would be quiet, and I'd be less likely to have random dog walkers trampling the set, or get hit by frisbees and beach balls whilst trying to do the shoot... to which end I also wouldn't be trying to do a beach shoot with The Childs present this time either.
Last year, I shot a pic with the Airfix clip-together camper van for a competition. I built a quick set on an old bit of board and quickly fabricated some set dressing, then shot at sunset at Black Rock Sands, though I reckoned in this case Black Rock might be a bit busy even in a wet half term as it's a beach you can drive onto, perfect for lazy dog walkers. I decided to look elsewhere for a location.
As regards the plan for the pic itself and the atmosphere I was aiming for... Going back to 2017, this is something of the set dressing I wanted to replicate, and the sand blowing over the abandoned holiday detritus at a former seaside resort. OK so in the above pic, this was just our little family encampment after a sudden sandstorm, but nevertheless, it was the look I was after...
After repairing the heat-and-storage-damaged models, I gathered as much set dressing as I could from the odds and ends surviving from the Britannia Model Village project. I didn't want to go mad with the extra props, but needed a few odds and ends.
As the other blog entry mentioned, the first shoots in Wales this half term were done with the Road Studio model, as the Rail Studio needed a lot more time and props. The planned day of the shoot, towards the end of the week dawned... with weather that was, well, bizarre. After a few days of bright winter sunshine where we were too busy with family matters to get out taking the pics, and with only three days available before bailing out for home, this looked the best day. And managed to be sunny, windy, and stormy (where horizontal freezing rain and sleet would sweep in seemingly out of nowhere) all at the same time.
Because I reckoned it would be quiet, I planned on re-using the beach from the "Inflate-Deflate" shoot, but on arrival we (self and Elder Child who was assisting; Amy took one look at the weather and wisely decided to stay indoors) got drenched getting out of the car, and found that -because of a delayed departure, and a very unexpectedly slow journey in the bad weather following nervous drivers- the tide was further-in than I've seen it in five years of shooting here. Thoroughly wet and dejected, we turned for home...
...before spotting signs to a beach near Afonwen that we'd never been to before. We thought it was worth a punt, and found a car park for a tiny deserted railway station, about 200 yards from the dunes, at an empty camp site;
A perfect, beautiful sandy beach.
The models were set up; not so easy in the gales. The rest of the weather was playing nice though, the storms blowing either side of our little patch of coast. We rushed anyway, reckoning we had at most an hour.
Being as this was planned to be a main shot for the project, I wanted to feature all of the various studio miniatures at this location for individual shots, as well as a group shot.
The road studio was placed on the set from the camper van shoot, as I wanted the imagery of an abandoned holiday site with the ruins of it all surrounding it.
The Playmobil track was laid on a plank (to keep it as level as possible) then covered in sand, using Barmouth down the coast as a bit of a visual reference for a railway buried in drifting sand:
Oddly enough, with such a crowded set, the best camera again proved to be the phone compared to the SLR; the Samsung seems to cope better with miniatures out on location.
So was I happy with the shoots? Yes; it allowed me to finally polish-off some pics I was never properly happy with in the first rushed shoot earlier in 2018.
And what of the wider project? Well, images from the set have been entered for two open calls which I'm waiting to hear back from, and an article on the Rail Studio model should be appearing in the model railway press later this year.
It's been a fun project, and an extension of the Britannia Model Village concept some 12-13 years after that project (technically some 15-16 years since the first iteration of the Artist: Health and Safety project too), but I reckon it's done with now. Time to box the models back up so they can either fall apart again in storage, or get cannibalised for another shoot.
More projects with miniatures to crack on with though; the Steampunk Jabberwock rises again, this time as a G Scale model railway build for another magazine article. The original model is a bit broken, so this time I'm starting again from scratch...
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