nother pic

I am planning a flat roof and a dirt floor.The walls will be insulated with newspaper and the windows will have shutters only.I will install a chimney on the roof with piping leading into the inner garage.
At this point I can cut the whole thing in half and finish the interior walls,later they can be re-joined using a gusset plate behind the beams.The doors and windows will give lots of opportunity for the viewer to look inside.
At this point the structure has been lacquered both inside and out and black gesso has been applied.The exterior will be a gray barn wood slats.

In years gone by old newspaper was often used as an insulating material.I wanted to see what my version would look like on an interior wall.The process is easy but time consuming.

I know,I know it says Truman on the newspaper,good thing it can't be read at scale distance.The young kids would say "Who's Truman,anyway."

It also says "EZ".

Hey your right !

This will be a "summer" garage.I remember that years ago houses were built with what they used to call "summer kitchens"that were basically extensions of your normal kitchen but was unheated in winter.
Somebody at one time tried to insulate it with newspaper on the walls but it has since fallen into disrepair.The interior garage used to be a stable for horses with a hay loft above which is now used for storage of auto parts and pieces.

When our hero left for war years ago he was also heavily involved with auto racing and repair.Things have fallen into a little disrepair since he left which will be reflected in this diorama.

This is one of the model racers that I plan to use.It fits very well into the "summer garage".It is actually a very nice kit and the parts fit together better than most.It lacks rubber tires but I will try to find some "O" rings of the proper size.

I really didn't like the cockpit of this racer so I decided to cover it with a tarp.I installed the seats and steering underneath to get the tarp to fall properly.Next up will be the weathering and getting the wheels on.

In the pic above the model is pretty much out of the box except for the tarp.


When it comes to modification and weathering of metal or plastic the methodology is quite similar in most cases.This is an example that I happen to be working on right now for a diorama that I am presently building.There is nothing very difficult about it and in fact it can be loads of fun.It is one of my favorite things to do when working with any genre of modeling.I have worked in wood,plastic and metal over the years and really have no preference.Mostly I work with simple hand tools,acrylic paint and pastels for shading.All of my stuff is weathered and worn,I don't do shiny cars anymore as it is not a personal preference of mine.However I do enjoy taking pics of my shiny diecast collection using my dioramas as backdrops.Here are some in progress and finished examples.
I have already done tutorials about my methods in the past but if you guys have any questions please feel free to ask.

Not quite finished as the rad and tires still need some work.

When I picked the Mercedes frame out of the box it was bent.That got me to thinking why not build a bent frame racer waiting to be repaired.It was in the way where it had been left and so someone dragged it out of the way and half over the wall.

While building the racers I have been planning the mods that I will be making to this piece.I am planning now to cut the neighbors backyard in half with a new fence and scrubs.(it is his grandmother so she doesn't mind).I will probably keep her pleased by building her a nice garden shed in her half of what used to be her backyard.
The front half will be replaced by a salvage yard with a truck loaded with old car parts.There will also be other parts laying about on the ground.This should add lots of detail and more interesting things to look at.
I want to keep the salvage yard and the auto/aircraft club areas separate with different activities (or a suggestion of activities) going on.
So far I am not planning to add any more figures except maybe a head peaking out from behind a curtain in one of the windows.Everyone else has finished for the day and are in eating dinner.

On burnout and other things;
A modeling bud of mine recently wrote.


"I have experienced that burnt out feeling recently myself. That's why I built a bunch of airplanes just to do something different and faster. These cars take a lot of time; months to build. Each little part has got to be thought out and then built. I'm back at it again now and to tell you the truth, I feel more passionate and driven about building cars than ever before. I hope the candle stays lite for both of us. "


It is pretty much the same with large dioramas.Every little part has to be thought out and in my case may take years to build.
I recently ran into a problem with my present diorama.I got a little bored with it and lost sight of what my stuff really is about.The original storyline called for a minimalists approach whereby it was centered around one aspect of what could be a much larger storyline.I thought that I was finished and when I approached Shep Paine(one of the appraisers of my previous work), for an appraisal on this piece he obviously was not happy as his evaluation was much lower than on a similar sized piece that he had appraised earlier.I was surprised and asked him for a critique.He had many suggestions but his most important ones were,not enough detail and a too obscure storyline.After I got over it I realized that he was absolutely right.The detail was way too sparse and the storyline was about something that only a few would understand,not exactly something that would be of interest in a public museum.So it has been back to the drawing board and 6 to 8 more months of work to bring this piece up to snuff and a more rewarding appraisal I hope.

I will put this one away for now and do the weathering later.I am anxious to start a new "tin lissy" as a company scrapyard truck hauling the aircraft tarp cart off the backyard.
I have always wanted to do a wood cab old Ford so this is the perfect opportunity.A lot of the techniques that I will be using would also apply to aircraft as well.
The sub-storyline for this piece will be the racers,the aero club and the scrap parts company operation.It will feature only one out of the box build which will be the car parked near the back porch,the early Ford roadster with the "mother in law " seat. This one I may modify only slightly but I definitely will do a little weathering here as well.
I like this old car for its ridiculous rumble seat which has to be one of Ford's more crazy ideas right up there with the famous "Edsel."A roadster also implies a younger crowd living there and operating a business while the older couple,our hero's grandparents ,are living next door.Why grandparent's ? because who else would put up with all this disruption in their lives ? Grand kids can do no wrong,right?

duplipost

Somewhere between the moonshiners truck and the one I did before will lie the one I am doing now.

Went to the dollar store today and picked up this assortment of wood and plywood shapes.
Once reduced(or increased) to scale and the hardware has bee removed ,I can see a nice gazebo,garden shed,woodpile shelter,lean to ,gardener's grow shed , small sun room etc..etc..I also picked up some nice straight wood dowels and Popsicle stiks as well as a couple of wood Kleenex boxes made of birch wood and very thin birch plywood.Something that you can pay a fortune for in the hobby stores.All in all a good days picking.