We see billboards and outdoor advertisements all around us, everywhere we go. In modeling they not only add a sense of reality but also help to set the timeframe or era we are trying to reproduce.
My switching layout is set in the late 1960's to early 1970's. This was a time of great change. The youth stood up to demonstrate against the establishement, the Vietnam war was in everybody's mouth and muscle cars still roamed the streets. This was also reflected in the advertisements of the time.
In the picture above, I modeled an interstate exit over the rail yard with appropriate highway signs but also two billboards which perfectly reflect the mood of these times. Love and Peace on the left and a more conservative ad reminding us to send our next letter to our boys in Vietnam.
A quick search on the internet will bring up hundreds of period pictures of billboards and advertisements. I only selected signs without specific dates. These are most common on automobile ads, as they usually praise a car of a certain model year, like 1968 Ford Mustang. I did not model one specific year, but wanted to give a feel of this era.
The Love...try some sign immediately caught my eye, because it reflects the feeling of the time, Make Love, Not War, with a little hippie touch. Also it extends over the boarders of the billboard, which gives the sign more visibility.
I downloaded the picture and resized it accordingly. Then I printed it out and glued the sign to a piece of .015" plain styrene. Using a fresh #11 blade in my hobby knife, I cut the overhanging contours out.
The sign looks some kind of special now
Then I added some braces to the back of the sign and a walkway as well.
I mounted the billboard to a styrene tube and installed it on the layout next to the highway bridge.
Seven-Up at the time had many psychedelic looking advertisements. This one seems to be inspired by the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.
I used a wooden billboard frame from Blair Line to mount the 7-Up Poster and attached it to the side of the distributing facility.
Another special billboard I absolutely wanted on my layout - the Marlboro Man.
I mounted the image in the same way as the Love billboard above. Plain styrene sheet, reinforced with styrene C-channels. I don't claim to have done it prototypically because it will not be seen from the back side.
I found that a wooden dowel fits exactly into the styrene tube. I used it to stiffen the tube while mounted on the layout. If needed, I could also remove the billboard. I did the same with the Love billboard.
Here the sign is installed on the other side of the highway bridge.
Although advertisements for cigarettes are more and more banned from our daily life, back in the 1960/70's they were a predominant sight. Famous actors and stars gave us the impression, that we only needed to smoke the same cigarettes to become as famous as they are.
I mounted the large Salem brand advertisement to the side of a small business next to the aisle on the layout.
Another slogan seen all over the place in the early 1970's was issued by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, saying "War is over, if you want it!". Again, I wanted this one on the layout as a reference to the opposing opinions about the Vietnam War in those days.
Another sign I like, is the Dollar Rent-a-car key sign, next to the building.
Billboards on building roofs were and are still very common. There are limitless possibilities to add character to any layout, using period billboards and signs.
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