African birds2021-03-12 For a smaller aviary in the African section I was looking for several african bird species. A species that I've seen in Frankfurt zoo 10 years ago is the white-bellied bustard. At the moment only
Zoo Berlin has them in Europe and this would be a great addition to the aviary. However finding these in miniature is impossible. So ducks that are standing up from Noch were repainted to resamble the bustards.
A combiniation that is often seen in zoos are Von der Decken's hornbills and turaco's. To make these birds the small animals set from Busch was used. The raven model was enhanced with longer tailfeathers
and longer bills to make the hornbills. The same longer tailfeathers where used for the turaco's and with a lot of patience a crest was put on the head.
The superb starlings didn't need remodeling, but painting the small pigeons from Preiser to resamble the starlings was also a challenge. Easier to paint where the lilac-breasted roller, based on the
raven model from Busch.
Building a zoo2021-03-11
I still had a lot of animals from the days I was a child an my parents bought plastic animals in zooshops. But they had different sizes. Several were Britains animals or look-alikes.
So this was a first option but difficult to find nowadays and the plastic look-alikes aren't great.
Next step was looking at what was available in h0 scale. Preiser has several animals, also Faller and Noch. This was the better option allthought a bit limited in species. But with 3D-printing more and more animals became available.
Next was to see how mutch space I had an the attic and what kind of zoo to make. It's not an option to use the whole attic and as I really like to read about the history of zoos my first thought was
to make a zoo from around 1900. But that would mean lots of small exibits, and no natural exibits.
And I like to visit modern zoos to, so after thinking about it, I decided to make a modern zoo.
In h0 scale, how large would the zoo have to be? Animals need enough space, visitors need places to eat, exibits have to be attractive and so on. Step 1 was drawing it on a paper, in h0 scale.
That's a lot of A4-papers glued together. Based on the animals I knew from Preiser, Faller and Noch I made decisions and tried out several layouts.
Would I really make this? It is a childhoodsdream but as an adult would I still like it? So step 2 for me was making some buildings for the African section of the zoo. And I liked working on them.
Inspiration for the buildings I could find in the zoos I visit. The giraffebuilding for example is based on the entrance building to Serenga in Wildlands Adventure Zoo, the African huts on the African village in Planckendael animal park,
the interior of the penguinhouse on the exibit in Antwerp Zoo.
After working on buildings for a long time, it was time to construct a big 'table' on the attic. It gives me 2m46 on 1m54 space to develop to zoo.
Starting small with the entrance area Terra Atlantica with animals from around the Atlantic ocean, I had the possibilitie to learn more about really making a h0 scale zoo. The theming is based on a Nordic style and had to include an entrance building, zoo shop, a small place where visitors can eat and drink something.
Next step is to develop Africa. Several exibits are ready but more will come in the next years.