1:24 VEHICLES
1:43 VEHICLES & LANDSCAPING
The 1:24 scale is rather limited in terms of the variety of makes, models and eras that the scale serves. The scale has provided Banterbury with some key vehicles which are widely sold in that scale - such as diecast Landrover Defenders and Volkswagen, plus gas and security vans (sold as plastic kits). But outside of those models and a few others, there simply isn't the range of everyday British vehicles needed in order to create various depictions of Banterbury throughout the decades. 1:24 is well stocked with a plethora American muscle and 50s cars but not much for the British highstreet.
Therefore, it's been decided to use another scale which has a wider range of vehicles to purchase, build some similarly scaled landscaping for them to be parked on and then use forced perspective when photographing the 1:24 hospital and these vehicles together in the same. 1:43 seems to have the widest array of vehicles and widely available. As these cars, vans and industrial machines are bought, two areas will be landscaped to 1:43 scale. One placed a set (and preciesly calculated) distance in front of the hospital model. And one placed behind. Therefore, when photographed, all the vehicles and hospital should look of the same 1:1 scale of real life.
Shown above are some of the models earmarked for purchase. Linehan Vale will have various eras depicted, from right-back to it's construction and early years throughout the turn of the 19th century, then into the 20th, through the '70s, '80s and '90s and into the present-day. Vehicles will range from doctors' and patients' cars, emergency services, maintenance and supply vans and increasingly into the '90s as Banterbury begins to be demolished - diggers, cranes and security vans. Plus, of course they'll be ice-cream vans, as no one can turn down a Mr Whippy!
Ambulances, in particular, are really hard to find for previous decades for any era and in either scales. There are models of contemporary ambulances and paramedic cars but nothing from the 80s. There are some in 1:43 from the '50's and '60's.
The vehicles will be arranged in 1:43-sized car parks and sections of road, with appropriately scaled street furniture, foliage and lighting. The vehicles themselves will (like with the 1:24 scale ones) be wethered, customised and dented where appropriate to look as realistic as possible. Separate dioramas in 1:43 will also be made depicting the same car parks decades later, when they are overgrown and filled with rubble as parts of the hospital site are being torn down by the diggers. Inspiration for the type of vintage vehicles and the style of grounds taken from the images below of various hospitals throughout recent(ish) decades:
G SCALE & 16MM RAILWAYS
Much like Hellingly Hospital and Whittingham Hospital had their own light-railways, Linehan Vale will have one too. And like those railways, Banterbury's line will have it's own platform at the mainline station (which may be built in the future) and wind its way into the hospital grounds arriving at a terminus near the main admin building. This line will be both passengers and supplies and would be in the popular G scale. Another track in a smaller scale (16mm) will then travel from this little station and enter the hospital's basement tunnels. This track would be the narrow-guage railway designed to transport coal, oil and other vital maintenance supplies directly into the boiler rooms and bunkers underneath the hospital.
In real life, the boiler rooms, bunkers, storage tanks and maintenance areas would have been in placed towards the rear of a hospital complex in dedicated, purpose-built structures. Usually such areas would also be where you'd find the water tower (usually becoming the most iconic structure of the site as well as a local landmark), laundry buildings, workshops and often the kitchens. These areas were the most industrial areas of hospital sites.
With the limited space of the model, Banterbury's industrial areas will be contained in the basement of the admin block, with its water tower sitting above the second floor of the same building. If the model were ever to expand into separate dioramas and structures, then there might be scope for creating a dedicated model for these areas.
