Windy Day Play - HO Scale

Spring wind over a meadow by the line

Flying a kite belonged to the first warm days of the year as naturally as the first mown grass. An open area where nothing casts a shadow was enough, and the children ran against the wind until the paper wing gained height. There used to be plenty of such places around railroad lines: an embankment protected a meadow from buildings and the air moved freely above it. That is exactly why a scene with kites reads at once on a layout and needs no explanation.

Six figures in motion

The package holds six figures of children and the kites that belong with them. The poses are built on movement, that is heads tilted back, a running start and raised arms, which shows on a small figure more than an expression of the face does. The set needs neither a backdrop nor a building: it works on any free area between the tracks and the edge of a module, where otherwise only empty greenery would be left.

A note on placing them and on the lines

It is better to split the group up. Leave two figures close together, as if they were conferring, set another two some way off and place the last ones so that they look toward the line. The kite line tends to be the weakest point of such a scene, because at a ratio of 1:87 it should be barely visible; a thin filament stretched in a slight curve looks best, rather than a straight line. It pays to place the kite itself lower than reality would suggest, otherwise the scene falls into two parts with no connection between them. Anyone who wants to save work can leave one kite lying in the grass as if it had come down after a failed launch.