Sitlington Animal Park Update (22 May)

Out with the old and in with the new! American flamingos have replaced greater flamingos in my flamingo aviary.

A while ago, I promised I'd share more frequent updates for the zoos I'm working on. It's taken some time but I'm finally ready to share some progress today! This update comes from Sitlington Animal Park, my low budget British zoo that shares its location with a farm.

If you haven't already read my introduction for this zoo, I highly recommend giving it a read just so you understand the concept, but to summarise it quickly: it's basically a farm that's slowly developing a zoo, similar to Jimmy's Farm and Wildlife Park and Noah's Ark Zoo Farm.

The zoo is in three parts: there's the zoo itself, the parkland in front and the farm. This week I hit a very exciting milestone by completing the parkland area!

In the zoo, there were a few areas I left until last because I lacked inspiration. I do this whenever I run out of ideas because sometimes it can demotivate me when I get stuck on something for too long.

One of those areas was my Kirk's dik-dik enclosure. I had the outdoor space done weeks ago but I was struggling for ideas for the indoor bit. The aim is basic and low budget but that's not always easy to put across in Planet Zoo without it looking like I'm just being lazy. 

I kept the indoor enclosure basic and low budget in keeping with this style of zoo.

In the end, I used the new confetti peices to simulate a woodchip floor and put in a few tree cuttings and rocks for privacy and decoration. I also added a small airlock system for staff to use, as well as the usual lighting and heating. It's basic but I feel it looks realistic for this kind of zoo. 

Another part of the zoo I worked on was the Reptile House. I had this finished months ago but I wasn't happy with the signs I made for it. They felt too big and over-the-top for such a small, low-budget reptile house, so I've completely re-done them and made them smaller. They still feel a bit fancy but they're nothing over-the-top so I'm satisfied enough.

I swapped out the signs in my reptile house for something a bit more basic.

As for the park area, there were four things I had left to finish: the overflow car park, the children's playground, the ice cream shop and the tractor ride. 

I worked on the overflow car park first. The regular parking areas I made are quite limited in size (I think there's about 40 spaces in total) so I thought an overflow car park would be a realistic consideration. They don't seem fancy in real-life, especially at low budget zoos, so I sectioned off some dirt and decorated it with some custom-made traffic cones. To blend it with the concrete road, I used decal pieces to simulate dirt tracks, with the gradient changing further away from the concrete.

The overflow car park for extra parking — I transitioned the dirt and concrete using decal pieces and created my own traffic cones.

Next, I worked on the children's playground. I had most of this finished weeks ago, with a tractor-themed slide, a climbing frame and some swings, but it needed something else to fill space. In the end, I opted for a roundabout and a seesaw. It took me a while to find a circular object large enough for the roundabout, so I made my own from rotated wooden planks. I gave it a rounded edge using metal LED end pieces (I forget the name, sorry). The seesaw was easy to make, especially with the new ranch gate pieces from the Americas Animal Pack — they're proving so useful for nearly everything I make!

The seesaw and roundabout filled out some empty space in the playground.

When I started this project, the aim was to keep things simple so I could finish it more quickly. I told myself not to make any interiors as I always struggle with them. In the end, however, the temptation proved too strong and I made interiors for my gift shop, farm shop and ice cream shop. I had the first two done during the early stages but I finished the ice cream shop this week. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, given interiors aren't my strong suit and it's my own original design.

I always struggle with interiors but I'm quite happy with how this one turned out.

Finally, I finished working on the tractor ride. This was super tedious as it involved placing lots of grass, trees and custom fencing. It would've taken even longer if the Steam Workshop hadn't provided the tractor (credit to CaptainCallum). I got the idea for a tractor ride from a local farm that's also slowly expanding into exotic animals. You basically sit in the trailer whilst the tractor drags it around. I tried to make mine a bit more exciting by adding bumps and dips along the route.

Part of the tractor ride — the planting here was really tedious! 

So, with the park area done, what's left? There's still a few areas of the zoo I need to finish and then the entire farm needs to be built. I'd say that's a month's work at the very least since I only get to play a few hours a week.

The apple orchard, one of the few farm parts that's been built.

Going forward, I'm going to try and post a progress update every two weeks, so keep an eye out for that!