Toy Like Models
Well, there are lots of different sub-hobbies here, track planning, electronics, laying track, structure building, rolling stock work, miniature landscaping, and painting to mention just a few. In my mind at least, whether or not the final product looks more toylike or more realistic does not depend on whether you use ready-made track or handlay your track and make your turnouts from scratch, or on whether you use already built or kit built or scratch built structures and rolling stock, or on your soldering or glueing skills, but on (1) whether your proportions are reasonable, and on (2) how well your models are finished.
By "reasonable proportions", I mean whether or not your models and scenes are sized and shaped like they either did or could have existed in the real world. Examples include whether details like porches or downspouts or shutters or chimneys on buildings are of a reasonable size and shape for the building, whether your modeled terrain looks like it was there first and the tracks and structures came later, whether the ratio of track to available square footage is reasonable for the theme you're modeling, whether vertical and horizontal separations between/among elements are at least semi-close to what's found in the real world, whether your modeled factory is big enough that it really might have been served by a rail siding, and so forth.
By "well finished", I mean whether your models and scenes are colored and weathered like they actually were, or really might have been, those shades in the real world, and whether or not realistic details (grass and shrubs, litter, highway signs, stuff sitting on loading docks, ballast, people, little random detials, etc. etc.) have been used to enhance your scenes.
Obviously, a lot of this is the stuff you get better at as you become more experienced, and some of us who've been at it a long time are still learning and still feel that our work just doesn't measure up to that of the REAL experts. But you gotta start someplace, and you WILL improve.
A couple of things to think about as you go forward with your layout (and I'm sure every modeler has his or her own list of basics and lessons learned): (1) take pictures of real world stuff that is similar to whatever you're modeling, then refer to your pictures; also take pictures of your own finished models and study them for obvious giveaways that they're just toys, (2) have no unpainted plastic anywhere on the layout; unpainted plastic always looks toylike; if you use plastic rolling stock or plastic buildings, at least spray them with a matte finish clear spray, and hopefully add a little weathering with paint or pastels or chalks before you spray, (3) ground that slopes at more than about 45 degrees is just not gonna hold in the real world; if your terrain is steeper than that, you need a retaining wall or a rock outcropping, (4) use as many different kinds of shrubs, trees, and ground cover materials as you can readily find or afford; nature is infinitely varied, (5) most modeling mistakes (building walls that don't join properly, big glue splotches on the surface of a model, paint splotches from the time you had an extra beer before painting, etc. etc.) can be easily covered up with weathering, a hunk of ground foam, a detail in front of the offending spot, etc., etc., and once you do that, the bad model will suddenly look OK, (6) look around for a club near you; it's amazing what I've learned just by watching someone better than me do something. Finally, (7) keep trying new (to you) techniques and methods. Remember that success is a journey, not a destination, so if it ain't fun and/or a step on the journey to better modeling, it's probably not worth doing.
Good luck, and welcome to the hobby.
Sandy http://www.sandysacerr.com
