:: A visit to Vic Smith's City Edge layout ::

Great urban layouts are hard to come by.  They take a lot of planning and a lot more work than the same amount of rural space would.  Finding a modern era city is harder yet.  So it was with great excitement that I first laid eyes on Vic's work, a few years back in the Walther's catalog.  Then in 2003 I saw a feature on Vic's layout in Model Railroader.  At the time I wasn't buying Mainline Modeler, so I didn't know that Vic had already been featured multiple times in their magazine as well.  I searched the web for photos of Vic's work, but came up empty.  Who was this guy with such a great layout?

Fast forward a few years; I ran across a new DVD when looking over Green Frog's site: Street Running on the City Edge.  I immediately bought the DVD and after watching it multiple times, got Green Frog to pass a message to Vic for me.  To make a long story short, we finally connected and Vic was nice enough to have Angela and I over for a layout visit.  The layout is amazing, Vic is a great host and we had a great time watching all of the action on the City Edge.  I asked Vic if it would be okay to share some pictures of his work, he agreed, and thus you can all enjoy seeing his excellent layout.



 

Click here for PAGE 2 of the City Edge >>


I don't usually place ads on this site, but after watching Vic's DVD and seeing his work first hand, I wanted to promote it here.  The DVD is very entertaining, and the bonus features are great extras.  Along with some very interesting new ways to present a train video, the DVD has  segments on DCC and two of Vic's "test" dioramas.  Perhaps the most interesting featurette though was the section on "focus stacking." Have you ever seen an extremely sharp picture in MR and thought - man, how'd they get that great depth of field? Focus stacking, that's how.  I've seen examples from Vic and a few shots from Lance Mindheim that have convinced me that this is the future for model photography.  Anyway, I could ramble forever, but I won't. Check out the links.

  :: All Contents Copyright Matt Gidley 2009::