What exactly is a Village Idiot?

The other thing that divides up villagers is the size of the village layout. If they put their village up in one large scene they are Uni-Scene Villagers if they set their villages up in multiple scenes in different locations their layout is "Multi-Scene". Uni-Scene village layout is closest to Model Railroading in execution while Multi-Scene is more like Diorama construction. The biggest difference between a Uni-Scene layout and a Model Railroad is the lack of a Model Train. But even that distinction is not complete. Sometimes Uni-Scene layouts include a model train for realism and if that train is functional I'll leave it to you to decide whether they are still a villager or a model railroader.

The best thing about Villaging that I've found is that it allows a person who doesn't have a lot of space to engage in the enjoyment that comes from a hobby similar to model railroading. Since there is no train to set up ( and model trains require enough space to set up at least one loop) a Village scene can be set up in a considerably smaller space than a model railroad layout.

Consider the scene above at first it looks big and complex and it seems like it's taking a lot of room.

However when you look at the pic above you can see that it actually occupies one shelf of a small showcase. (15 1/2" x 30", less than three feet wide)

Let's take a closer look at some of the details that make up this scene. I try to make all of my village scenes relate to one another and each one has a name that defines it's place within the village. This scene is "The Park".

Now the first point to be made about the park is that it's not Entirely Dept. 56. I center my village around Department 56 pieces because they are my favourite but I also use other pieces as well since I want my village to have it's own unique look.

Take a look at the pic above. There are a number of different pieces here. (I apologize if they are kind of hard to see. I was trying to allow you to get an idea of the scene in it's natural light. So naturally it's a little dark.)

First of all the cabin at the end of the road in the distance is actually made by Lemax ( sold at Michaels stores) I chose it over Dept 56 because they just didn't have anything that would fit in this scene like I wanted. However the Starbucks Coffee Vendor and the Lady Customer are Department 56 pieces. I took advantage of the fact that these pieces are out of scale to the buildings ( See 1/43 Scale Diecast for a discussion of the scale of Dept 56 Pieces and the problems associated with it) to produce the effect that the building is farther away than it really is. The teddy bears sitting around as a side line for the Starbucks guy are my wife's idea. The bears themselves are a craft supply item also available at Michaels or most craft and hobby stores. (To see more about my wife's passion click here >> Lori's Bear Shelf ) The sign is home made. To the Right you see a rounded tree with a white base that's Department 56 while the street light to the right of that is Lemax. The trashcan to the right of the street light is Department 56 as well. The trees in the background are various manufacturers and are easily available in most hobby or model railroad shops. The "asphalt" is actually black art paper and the gray "sky" is actually gray art paper. At this time the background are still being finished for this scene so the "sky" isn't complete.

This scene shows more of the detail in the center of the scene. The truck is a Department 56 Piece. ( note I should point out that Dept 56 retires pieces from their various collections every year and that many of the pieces in my collection are retired. If you see a piece here that you would like to have and you find out that it's no longer available your next best bet would be Ebay ) The Ice Skating girl sitting next to the lake is actually a Coca Cola Piece. (Note collecting Coca-Cola memorabila is another passion of mine, when this site is completely finished my next site will be dedicated to that, coming soon.) The mermaid statue in the distance is a Christmas ornament I picked up at a Christmas Store in Beavercreek Ohio. Again I used difference in scale to make it look farther away than it really is.

In this scene the flag pole, park bench and snowman, and the kids are all Dept 56. The White Picket fence is a Lemax accessory and the "rock" that the whole scene is sitting on ( see second pic above) is actually a "display platform" and it's made by Lemax as well.

WHAT ABOUT THE LIGHT?

There are three sources of light within this scene (I added an extra one for the photograph but there are only three) The light within the cabin, the two street lights, and the two flood lights. (5 sources if you count them individually). The street lights are a Lemax accessory (available at Michaels Stores) the flood lights are actually a Department 56 accessory sold within the Snow Village line, item # 52611 . (Btw if you want a great place to actually BUY Department 56 stuff Go Here ) The flood lights are used for two important purposes in the park scene. They light up the American Flag and the Statue of the Mermaid, and they provide extra incidental light allowing you to see other objects in the scene.

They are hard to see in the above pix and there is a reason for that. They are hidden so that all you see is the light they provide. In the pics above the flag and the mermaid are being lit by the flood lights IN THE SCENE. That's NOT the photography light you see.

In the pic above you can now plainly see the flood light. You can also see the light shining up on the rock causing the front of the rock ( or display platform) to show to great effect. Look at the pic of the lake above. That light shining on the Mermaid is the other flood light (they come in sets of two) and you can see what a dramatic effect is produced by it.

It seems that when people produce a village scene they know that the buildings or houses will be lit and they often put in street lights or other lighted accessories but they forget that all important third kind of lighting, incidental lighting. Incidental lighting is the lighting that is neccesary to make objects in a scene show up and may or may not be related to the scene. In the scene above the lights are lighting the mermaid and the flag. Since in real life there would be flood lights lighting these things I was able to put the lights right out in the scene where they are visible. The lights themselves become accessories to the scene in this case. But what about a scene where flood lights wouldn't be part of it. You stiil need incidental light, you need it no matter what.

Consider this. This scenes are designed to be lit up. That means that they are night scenes. But what would a scene like this really look like at night? Well let's take a different period. How about the Dicken's Village? That's a good example from two centuries ago ( didn't that sound funny? It's true now you know) In the 1800's they didn't have electricity. Therefore the sources of light at night would be from flames of some sort. Either fires or candles or maybe gas lights in the city or oil lamps. Needless to say it would be very dark. Most of the light would be in the houses and it would be dim. There might be some gas street lamps and maybe some lanterns around outside but that would be it. But if you tried to just use the light in the buildings and the street lights for the scene, it would be realistically dark yes but you wouldn't be able to see it very well. Since a person's eye's adjust to the dark it doesn't look realistic to have masses of dark shapes that you can't make out. That's because no matter how little direct light there may be in a given scene there is always going to be additional ambient light as well. You may have bright moon light for example or even the stars provide some light if there are enough of them and it's clear enough. Therefore to finish lighting your scene after you have put up your street lights and have lit your buildings you need to add some additional light. Light from hidden sources so that you can see the effects of the light but not the light fixtures themselves. Lighting that is put in place for the express purpose of creating artificial ambient light is called Incidental Lighting.

The best incidental light I've been able to find is the Department 56 52611. It's not very expensive and it provides a bright clear light from a flashlight bulb. You can run them on batteries but I recommend you get the ac adapter as well. It makes the light brighter and and it lasts longer and you won't go broke buying copper tops to keep your village lit. Also the light bulbs in these flood lamps are replaceable and they even comes with spares.

If your village is a large Uni-Scene than you can use a string of minature christmas lights. just work the lights around in your village and hide the wires. This is a great way to add multiple incidental light sources easily and cheaply. If the village is the Snow Village ( or some modern equivalent) you don't have to hide the bulbs just find some way to make them look like flood light fixtures and aim them at something that makes sense. Like the signs on the front of buildings or walkways or streets. If a person-figure is standing between the light and the it's target so much the better. This is a natural way to light the people. If your village is the Dicken's village (or it's traditional equivalent) and is set in a time before electric lights. Use yellow, orange or red bulbs and try to make them look like fires and lanterns and such. If you need to light a place that wouldn't have a fire or lantern hide the bulb so that only the light can be seen but it's source isn't clear. Try whenever possible to lay out the wiring for all the lighting in advance. That way you'll know where to put everything before you put too many things in the way and it makes it easier to hide the wires.

In the next issue we will go through the construction
of a Department 56 Type village scene step by step from begining to completion
and cover every step of the planning and construction.

© 2000