ranuska

The buildings of Ranuska

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of Ranuska will be the bizarre architecture, all of it based on real life examples of Communist-era architecture.

Psirtskha tunnel portals

One of the most striking thing to me about the Psirtskha railway station is the bizarre tunnel portals that it features. I have no idea why they are so large and ornate, but they are very striking:

(Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/16701862)

So I decided Ranuska should have one.

I designed the master in a CAD program, then converted it into G Code for my CNC machine and left it to do its business.

Ranuska progress

Progress continues slowly on Ranuska, but between a honeymoon and starting back at work surprisingly little has been achieved.

However progress is being made. With Rachel's help I've started building up the land forms. First off some scraps of foam were stuffed in the gap between sea level and land level to form a ring of rocks.

Other lumps of polystyrene were used to build up the land forms:

Around the beach are I added some foam core where the beach is to be. I then mixed up some very ancient Woodland Scenics Scultamold, which is a sort of lum...

Birth of a new module: Ranuska

There is much to celebrate here in Utrainia at the moment, be it the crowning of the Queen of Utrainia, the start of a new year, or first anniversary of the founding of Utrainia. And to celebrate, the citizens felt it was time that they had somewhere warm and sunny to go and bask, somewhere with a beach, and nice hotels, perhaps somewhere nice to eat, and naturally with good railway connections.

And so Ranuska is born, named in honour of the new Queen of Utrainia. It is a balloon shaped loop, a small peninsula of land surrounded on three sides by sea. Like many Soviet-era seaside towns, it has seen better days, however some of the old grandeur still remains. The tracks may be a little overgrown, and weeds are sprouting between the cobblestones, but that grand "communism will conquer all" attitude in their architecture is still there. The town is nearly tropical, which you may think is an oxymoron for the USSR, but I draw my inspiration from a real place: