Losea Esplanade

This is one of two modules that form my seaside resort town - Losea (perhaps the originator of the saying "they went on holiday and only brought me back a Losea tee-shirt"). The module consists of a section just under 12 inches wide that has three hotels in front of the rail line, a strip of esplanade and a sea wall. Steps lead down from the esplanade onto a narrow strip of beach.

The Hotels
These are the Marine (an Art Deco style hotel), Hotel Splendide and the Grand Hotel (a traditional late Victorian Hotel).

Marine Hotel was made from styrene sheet and strip, a styrene cotton bud container and plastic disc spacers from mini CDROMs!

Hotel Splendide was made from styrene sheet

Grand Hotel was made from styrene sheet, some windows (from the Heljan Railroad Hotel kit and some gable ends (not sure where they came from). The hotel is 220 mm wide by 65 mm deep.

The Esplanade
This is a roadway with pedestrians and cars along the beach with hotels on the side away from the beach. The pavements (sidewalks) were made from thick card covered with paper printed with paving and curb stones.

The Beach
The beach has sea defenses, people sun bathing, a Punch and Judy Show, donkey rides, sand castles even a storm drain outlet. All the things that you would expect at the seaside.

A Sea Wall runs along the beach edge of the esplanade. This was made from a strip of wood (1/4 inch by 1.25) and covered by paper with mortar lines printed on and painted with a Acrylic wash. Running down from the esplanade to the beach is a set of steps.

Groins and Sea Defenses are necessary to prevent the sandy beach being eroded. I made the posts from firework rocket sticks and the boards from lollypop sticks cut down the middle. Both were coloured a dirty black as they would be impregnated with preservative. (I picked up the rocket sticks in the street after Guy Fawkes night - November 5th. This is the night every year that traditionally we celebrate the (unfortunately, unsuccessful) attempt to blow up the English Parliament (in 1605) - the fact that we still celebrate more than 400 years later shows that the British have the right attitude towards politicians.

Beach details: The people sun bathing are suitably painted plastic figures lying on coloured "towels" made from tissue paper. The Punch and Judy show was made from card printed in colour. (Punch and Judy is a traditional British amusement for children involving Mr Punch beating his wife (Judy) to death and then killing everyone who takes him to task for this (the Policeman, Hangman etc.). So it is good, childish fun. The donkeys in the rides were from Atlantic Gold Rush Figures (currently being made by Nexus). The storm drain outlet was made from a ballpoint pen barrel and a scrap of styrene strip painted a rust colour. The 5ft by 6ft (18mm x 21mm) beach huts were made from some 1/700th scale house kits (remaindered out for pennies) with walls from Slaters Plastikard Ship Lap and the doors from Plastikard planking. The roofs were made from surplus black styrene sheet. Reflecting their owners, each beach hut was painted a different colour using Acrylic paint.

The people on the beach were lying on beach towels (sized 21mm by 11.5mm to 17mm to 10mm) made from coloured tissue paper.

Rail Traffic is holiday-makers going to the seaside with the track running behind the hotels.

The Module
The esplanade is not a standard module (a box 22.4 inches by 15.25 inches by 3 inches deep). Rather it had a strip of Insulation Board (UK) (Homosote (US)) about 12 inches wide and just under 22 inches long representing the land. The beach was a strip of 3mm (1/8th inch) ply about 4 inches wide starting about one inch below the land and sloping slightly downwards. Thus the overall dimensions are still 22.4 inches by 15.25 inches but only the back (land) is 3 inches deep.

The Ends were made from two strips of 3/8 inch (9 mm ) plywood. At the front of these a section was cut down for the beach.

The Back was made from a standard 3 inches wide strip of a sandwich of two strips of plywood.