Combining Different Scales of Structures

Dennis Brennan has a few pages on this in his excellent book Realistic Modeling for Toy Trains.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

IMO, this can be done on the same layout because of forced perspective.

Here is an example on my layout:

The classic station (at least O Scale, maybe Standard Gauge) with O Scale trees in the foreground, with an HO theater and HO buildings in the background, on my O Gauge layout.

This forced perspective is not limited to HO and O Scale. If the layout is deeper than mine, it may be possible to put N Scale structures behind the HO structures, which are behind the O Scale structures on the same O Gauge layout.

Now, you can share photos and explain how you may have combined different scales of structures on your layout. Arnold

OOOOOOOOOOooohhhhhhh, your stretching my brain.. Nice topic. ty

I am going to try that in my Consist, Menards BIG O scale cars first, then MTH and RailKing then Lionel O Scale, then Traditional O gauge then .027 , and then, Video from the FRONT towards the back.....

That's excellent. I do it with vehicles, but haven't done it with structures.

@Bill Webb posted:

Dennis Brennan has a few pages on this in his excellent book Realistic Modeling for Toy Trains.

Bill, I have that publication that I read years ago, and it may be where I got the idea. Thanks for mentioning it, which can be helpful to us all.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

IMO, this can be done on the same layout because of forced perspective.

Here is an example on my layout:

One reason I did forced perspective is because of what caught my fancy during a visit to a LHS. Those HO buildings in the background were fully assembled by a modeler far superior to me. They have blinking red lights inside that simulate a fire. I didn't even know that when I bought them for a very modest price. I was thrilled to buy those buildings.

Same is true with the HO red theater: bought that at a store in Latham, NY that had toys and other things for sale.

I just had to have those buildings and that theater on my layout, and when considering where to put them, they looked better in the back, instead of the front, of the layout. Arnold

Excellent scene, Arnold!  I am planning to do something similar on my layout.  This is just a simple mockup with the HO house sitting on a couple cardboard boxes, but depth of view is evident.  The engine house is O scale.  My younger daughter and son-in-law gave me the house for Christmas a year ago.  My son-in-law is a audio video editor.  He edited a couple videos of famous HO modelers, one of which was Howard Zane's layout.  The house is a Howard Zane custom build in HO, so I have to put it on the layout somewhere. 

Maybe O scale followed by S scale then HO scale.

John Allen was a pioneer in Forced Perspective and incorporated it on his legendary Gorre & Daphetid HO scale pike.

The jeep is HO, and I built the little structures and accessories significantly under-scale. The dirt road is only a few inches long.