Paignton Zoo

[silverbrumbyfan]

So my local zoo is considered one of the best zoos in the UK and ever since I got the game I wanted to try and recreate it. I'm not the best builder but I do my best. While showing off what I'm doing I'm going to be talking about the history of the zoo and just things from my own personal experience.

Just last year Paignton Zoo finally managed to get over a horrendous outbreak of TB, lasting 2 years, that resulted in many animals being put into quarantine for long periods of time and several animals had to be put down including a female Asiatic lion which is a real tragedy.

The current situation hasn't helped matters but they reopened in June and lots of people are going back to visit so the future looks bright for the zoo.

I haven't actually been to the zoo for a long time so working from reference is a little bit tricky, I'll try and add a picture of the actual zoo so you can compare to my build wherever I can, unfortunately Google has not been very helpful

So firstly I started to work on the Flamingo pond you see outside the entrance, its very basic at the moment I still have a lot of work to do, I just wanted to put something down now

So here's the actual zoo image

And here's mine

I really need to work on the foliage as Paignton Zoo is just filled with green, I think the best way to do that is reduce the fencing so the trees are outside of their habitat as they don't like a lot of trees. I included the little land bridge for the keepers use. I rather like the little house I did for them. One thing I wish we had is panels for every type of wall piece so we're not stuck on the grids as to do the walls on this house, I turned the bamboo panels on their side and of course you wouldn't be able to do that with a wall piece. I just added the windows

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

Quick update, I've been working on the foliage a lot, the trees and bushes in the actual zoo are on a mud covered slope and I just covered it in various bushes and greenery. I've also added some more around where the entrance is going to be, Torbay has a lot of palm trees so I tried to add some of those in as well

Just thought I'd have a general look at what I've got so far

Do you see that pathing system on the right, I am dreading starting the entrance, unfortunately, that path looks just like the one in the zoo but of course I can't cover the entire area in the path without using the grid which doesn't quite work and I don't think there are any pieces that resemble it.

Anyway here's an image of the flamingos from the point of view of a guest, roughly

I need to consider adding some lighting I think

There is going to be another viewing point at the back from the bridge but thats going to be a while, first the entrance, I'm trying to find a single reference image but I'm going to be looking at this from various angles. I've actually found a site that has done 360 images for a zoo tour, here Zoo Tour, it also has done some shots of other parts of the zoo which is useful so I'm going to be using that a lot.

Now while I'm trying to recreate the zoo to the best of my ability due to the pathing system and terraforming limitations I'm not going to stress over the smallest details as long as it looks roughly like the zoo I'll be happy

 

[Jeminyne]

looks great so far!

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

Working on the entrance building, it looks loads better in comparison to an old attempt, I actually feel proud of what I've done, just a quick look at what I've got so far

You will see I have fixed the path, just about and I've started to lay out the wooden bridge on the left, I found the perfect path for it and it even comes with a great wooden railing so I've used that on the path by the flamingos and removed my 'custom' one

That glass wall is such a pain (Pun intended), I would use the glass wall pieces if I could but the design just doesn't quite fit.

Detailing the roof next, the real one has this bizarre fuzzy roof so i'm trying to figure out how to copy that, any ideas? I'm thinking about ignoring it and leaving the roof as is but doing the green outlines around it as i just put about 500 cowplants on the roof and it took a while to remove them again, I just can't see how I could make a roof like that without it being too green

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

I think I'm just about finished with the entrance building, might make a little tweaks here and there, I've added an outline around part of the path, seriously where would we be without the recolourable bamboo panels.

Gah the way water works is so frustrating, I wish it would just tell me where I'm going wrong, I've just been trying to readd the water to the flamingos habitat. I was just trying to lower the slope beside the wooden walkway to increase the view of the flamingos and now its not having it, I gave up and reloaded, I don't think I did any work on the building after my last save so I don't think I've lost much

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

Already wishing I had lowered the terrain first as things are getting a little trickier to match up, the pathing is driving me nuts

This is the first habitat you come across on entering the zoo, I think it houses some kind of small primate. Its just for show at the moment since its pretty small

Welcome to my nightmare, I need the path to go under the ceiling but NOPE, sigh, I'm not even doing this bit next and for some reason I keep getting drawn back to it

On the bright side its definitely high enough to get a decent view of the flamingos, this roof stretches out for ages and I like the way the barrier looks but the advanced move options isn't quite working out for me and I'm very wary of piece count

Telling myself to get away from the bridge and move onto the aviary, especially now we have cassowaries, and just remembered why i was dreading it, curse the hills here, going to have to do so much terraforming

 

[Indoraptor27]

Very nice! If you're having water troubles, try removing all the animals. I don't think it was always like this, but I have to now.

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

I'm not entirely satisfied with the bridge roof, its too neat and from underneath its just not right, and despite saying I would move away from it i've been playing around but can't figure out how to change it without losing my mind

Its going to be a while till I add another animal, so much nature trail. I kinda like how this looks

There are special effects to make it look like water is trickling down

I was just going through the different kinds of path to see if one came with a railing I could use as I'm really struggling to make my own, the problem is the fences are quite low in the actual zoo in this area and I just couldn't find a piece with the right thickness so it wouldn't lie on the ground, I wish we could recolour the railings

Shots in the rain, because England, we had some major rain today I wonder what the zoo looked like afterwards

A shot of one my little bird houses, I think its cute, probably too small for any bird in the game but I like it

Last shot of the nature trail with another birdhouse, this one would have been used by the ducks

I probably should add some more plants but its actually quite sparse on this side

There is a fence surrounding it, sort of, so it could be converted into a walkthrough habitat if I felt like doing that, Paignton Zoo lets their peacocks roam wild though so I don't feel right keeping them in one place, although there was a story about one mauling a little girl so maybe its for the best

Next up is the lions

 

[silverbrumbyfan]

I hate hills so so much, trying to get the right look for the lions is a nightmare, they just had to live on a slope didn't they and don't even get me started on the pathing. Its just a constant slope. The cassowary and tigers are going to live on a mountain by the end, I've got to go back down at some point, god knows how

Their enclosure is absolutely huge, I keep wondering if I made it too big but I can't imagine changing it now

I spent such a long time on the terraforming on this, it better work, I like my viewing shelters and the shelters I made for the lions, provided they can fit in them. I haven't added any lions yet so will probably have to make some changes once I do.

From the side

Second viewing shelter at the top

Theres a section for staff to the side which I'll probably decorate later, much much later

 

[Stupid_hippy]

My dad lives a couple hundred yards up the road from the zoo. Waking to the sound of lions roaring across the Devon countryside is a little weird tbh. lol

Looks pretty accurate to me.