The Model Train Nut
is Richard Havenga – aka Crewbus01
Module 3
Area 53 - a complete send up of all things alien.
About 6 years ago, the idea of building a 3rd module started to take shape. It had to be something different to the usual landscapes or city scenes. Being a corner module it would also lend itself to blend into two modules on either side.
The idea of using a flying saucer or UFO appealed to my sense of humor and I started experimenting with various bits and pieces, eventually settling on using some thin card, a ping-pong ball and some silver spray paint. UFO Mk1 looked like something that must have crashed in Rosewell in 1947 so I figured I was on the right track.
Mk2 looked better but still needed that extra something and since no-one could tell me what they looked like, I figured I had free reign. Using a kit I found at a local electronics store, I put together a chase-light using 3mm LED’s and cut open the ping-pong ball to mount them inside. As a complete send-up of Area 51, my own Area 53 was taking shape!
The concept was simple, an open tarmac with a well sign-posted secret bunker with a UFO MK2 hovering in the clouds, lights flashing as in “Close Encounters” and a hive of activity from the army would do the trick.
This picture should give you an idea of what my UFO looks like after some panel beating, mods and quite a few beers!
A MK2 UFO with the drinking straw support stuffed with 15 wires to feed the LED’s.
A simple chase-chase light with LED’s was set up using an electonics kit with a NE555 clock chip and the invasion was on!
The actual module was built to look like part of an air base for the navy but with directions to a top-secret bunker. The movie Disctrict ( had just been screened so there were several references to “prawns” not being welcome. In 1:160 scale this proved to be quite a challenge.
As with everything in life, after a few years of incorporation into every N Gauge Guild exhibition layout, this corner module was in need of a makover and so Area 53 gave way to “A Touch Of The Old Country”.
Another send-up of all things revered, its all in the imagination and is entirely fictitious but follow the building of “A Forgotten Corner Of England”.