Pola G 331784, G-Scale "Waldau" storage hall

The time has come to grow my garden layout even more. This time I'm building and installing "Waldau" storage hall which will act as a cargo loading point for my trains. The model is Pola G 331784 and I ordered it for around 56 Euro from the Arstecnica store. It's supposed to be a new Faller model for 2016.

The product comes in a really big box. The package is twice as large as my previous buildings and measures 60 x 40 cm. Looks impressive!

Unboxing reveals the same concept as usual. Boxes inside boxes and everything carefully packaged. All the elements came undamaged. No glue is included.

Here we have all the plastic parts in one photo. There aren't really that many. This is going to be an easy build.

Windows glass parts are again thick transparent plastic. They were protected with a wrapping paper to avoid any risk of damage.

The most impressive part is the base. It feels very, very sturdy. It also features a pretty big hole, so lighting installation should be a breeze.

The manual is 4 pages long and describes every step in great detail. All the parts are numbered and there's absolutely no doubt when to use what.

A small sticker sheet is included. Rather unimpressive compared to my previous building models. Unfortunately no plastic base for the labels can be found in the set. That's all OK - I'm making my own decorations anyway...

Build step one - making the walls. Two big surprises here...

One is the sliding elements. The cargo door and the windows open and close. This function is based on plastic rails that allow movement of the elements up and down or left and right. Pretty cool!

The second surprise however is more shocking. The model has three door frames but only two doors. How come? I had to check it several times but it's true. One entrance is going to be permanently open.

Build step two - raising the walls. The parts fit pretty much perfectly. Not really much to describe here...

One thing worth mentioning is that the door in this model open to the inside. From my experience it's a slight inconvenience because when they do, it's difficult to pull them and close. Luckily there are enough openings here to always be able to stick a finger inside and push the door out.

Build step three - the platform. This is the most interesting part of the build. And also the most eye-catching part of the model.

Build step four - the roof. The elements fit almost perfectly again. I find connecting such easily matching parts a pure pleasure. The model is finished!

It's time for the decorations. I use the same method as in case of "Oberndorf" train station to create my custom stickers. Once applied, they complete the final image of my model:


So what do I think about the look? Well, it's a mix... The "front side" with the platform is very interesting and is exactly what I expected. I'm fully happy with its appearance. The "back side" however is very generic. There's literally nothing there, not even the door. I will definitely place the building in a way that will hide the "back side" as much as possible.

Now let's see what the building looks like when installed outside and lighted:


Does not look bad although there are two things I don't like that much.

The first one is obvious. The walls are not completely opaque. I can clearly see some "weak points" where the light is coming through. I may have to think about filling those spots with a non-transparent material...

The second complaint is related to the huge windows. The windows themselves are nice, really nice. Unfortunately they also allow the spectator to see inside of the building very well. And considering there's nothing inside, the effect is not that great...

Summary 

Considering the surprisingly low price, "Waldau" storage hall is a very interesting product. It can definitely serve as a goods loading point for both trucks and cargo trains. The model is however also very simple looking and does not offer any great details. And while I think I made a pretty good deal here, others may want to look for something more sophisticated if their budgets allow it.

Piko 35281, G-scale rerailer/grade crossing with track

After building the first pieces of a street network on my G scale layout, I realized I may actually need to build a railway crossing. Luckily PIKO came up with a required track piece just this year, and I quickly bought one!

PIKO 35281 is a 320mm long brass track piece with a short road section wrapped around it. It comes in the same kind of a box as PIKO switches and other PIKO elements. The only unique part about the packaging is the sticker in the lower left part of the cover.

Inside we'll find the track and some accessories...

What we get is:

• 320mm long brass track piece with grade crossing
• a set of two American-style crossbucks
• a set of two German-style crossbucks
• a manual

It's obviously disappointing not to get Polish-style traffic signs but I can't say I really expected to get them :)

The manual shows some really obvious steps. Feels like PIKO really could have saved a tree or two here but on the other hand - it's nice that they tried...

This is what the crossing looks like from the top...

...and from the bottom. Interestingly the part looks like something really new at first sight. But as soon as we turn it around it becomes obvious that it's just a regular track piece with some plastic elements attached. Clever!

Let's see some more photos:


Looks nice to me!

The track is not just a grade crossing, it's also advertised as a rerailer. I was very curious to know whether the rerailing functionality actually worked...

The answer is: yes and no. It does work but not always. I rolled my derailed car over the track piece several times and got mixed results. I'd say it rerails in around 50% of cases and it's difficult to say what the influencing factor here is. So unfortunately it would be hard to rely on this product in terms of rerailing loose cars.

An idea for making G-scale streets

A part of my new garden layout is supposed to be a "town area". And obviously a town cannot exist without streets. I was looking at different ways to make those and finally decided I wanted them to look modern and asphalt-like. This is what I got...

So how did I make them? The best material I found so far are composite decking boards. The ones I bought are 14 x 350 cm and they sell at 15 Euro per piece. The top side of the boards features grooves which are an issue.

But the bottom side is completely flat and that is the one I use.

The boards are too narrow to form a G-scale road. That's why I always cut two pieces of the same length.

Then I connect them using glue and screws. And of course I use the side with grooves to make the connection, so that the flat side is not affected.

Once the connection is solid, I turn the element upside down and attach pieces of a masking tape to define the areas that need painting.

The paint I use is a white mat spray paint. It's declared fit for outdoor use, so I expect it to work well in my case.

I spray it all over the boards. Several thin layers are needed for good result.

Once the masking tape is removed, the road piece is ready. I have to say it looks pretty convincing considering how easy it is to make.

Of course several pieces can be used together to form the town streets. It's always just a matter of painting a proper pattern.

The gaps between the elements are of some concern to me. I'm yet to find a way to get rid of them. Perhaps I need to connect the road pieces together somehow. I'll definitely post an update as soon as I manage to improve my method.

Schleich flora accessories

Schleich is a company well known for high quality action figures of animals and people. Additonally they manufacture a rather small selection of accessories which also include some flora models. And it so happens that many of their products fit the G scale layouts very nicely. I've decided to give some of them a go...

The decision was inspired by a photo posted on one of the Facebook groups. It shows a very nice layout with some very interesting trees. Those trees were made by Schleich...

Unfortunately those particular models are not on the offer right now. They're retired and can only be bought on Ebay at some very high price points. I wasn't ready for this kind of investment so instead I focused on what is available now. That's how I got: an agave, a fern and a palm tree.

Each of those is sold at around 3-4 Euros. Let's take a look at them.

Schleich 42243 - Agave

The model comes in 5 parts. The build takes 5 seconds and requires pushing each of the elements into the next one. Everything fits perfectly...

This is what it looks like next to a Bachmann G-Scale person model. It looks quite nice and the size is about right.

Schleich 42244 - Fern

The fern consists of only 4 elements. The build is as easy as in the case of the agave.

It looks pretty big next to a G-scale figure but I think it's correct. It's supposed to be a model of a tropical plant and those can grow quite big. The model looks really nice. The details of the leaves are top notch.

Schleich 42248 - Palm tree

The last one I bought is a palm tree. The content of the box is a surprise. The palm tree turns out to be a fern with a trunk. Well, I guess it makes sense...

The palm tree looks really nice but it could be a little larger. Or in other words - it would look just fine if there were some other taller trees around it, too. But again - the quality of the model is really good.

Summary

Three models, 3 Euros each and my Bachmann guy became the king of the jungle :)

On a more serious note. I like the Schleich flora accessories a lot. Just like their animal figures, those products look really good and feel like high quality items. Of course I wish the selection was much, much wider.

I will probably use the palm trees and ferns to create some tropical area on my layout but I really wish I could buy some European plants, too. And I also wonder how they will do outdoors, but looking at their quality I do have high hopes.