Hooper & Co Diorama

[Anglia105E]

Gary McNutt..... You have identified the crucial point there, as there is an obvious problem with the background. I can find open countryside, with narrow country lanes and generally rural settings, but what would be needed of course would be a busy London city street.

This might need some thought....... !!!

Pat St-Martin...... On the same point, and I appreciate your dry humour..... That would be the perfect solution but realistically, not possible. How to stop the traffic on St James's Street London SW1 in the middle of rush hour while a guy from a village in Derbyshire takes a few photos of model cars...... answers on a postcard please Head of the British Government.

Certainly, I have Michael Paul Smith ( R.I.P. ) very much in mind for this method of forced perspective photography at that level. ( get it.... at that LEVEL )

David

[Gramps46]

David,

One of the posters here awhile back showed how he had taken a photograph of a garage building to a local fast print sign shop and had them blow it up and print it to a scale size for his diorama.  That got me thinking about doing the same thing with a photo of the Dunlop bridge at Le Mans, but haven't done it yet.  Anyway, I thought it might be a way to get at least some urban background for either side of Hooper & Company.

Gary

Edited January 21, 2019 by Gramps46
spelling

[landman]

Back to London and take a photo of the actual street from the same corner with the idea of merging where the two images meet.

[Anglia105E]

Gary and Pat.... Your ideas and suggestions are sound enough, but the only images that I can get hold of, whether they are my own photography or others, always have modern vehicles filling the streets. I have not been able to find any images on the Internet that show St James's Street or Bennet Street  as they were in the 1950's..... complete with 1950's cars, buses, taxis and people. Google Street View is marvellous, but the images always contain 21st century vehicles. I have already had photos blown up to A2 size, which do look really good when placed either side of the Hooper & Co building and it's a shame the subject matter does not fit.

This is probably the one aspect of the diorama project that I do struggle with. It is something that troubles me when I think about it, almost on a daily basis. The plain white foam board backgrounds don't quite work for me and the perspective painting idea did kind of work, but only when you view the diorama from one unique position. Apart from bringing the centre of London to a complete standstill, I can't think of a way of providing an interesting and realistic background for the diorama setting.  All clever suggestions welcome of course!

David

[crazyjim]

Could you Photoshop the newer vehicles out of the picture(s)?

[Anglia105E]

Thanks for your suggestion Jim....... Two problems there. One is, I don't have Adobe Photoshop on my computer ( too expensive for me.... retired ), and the second problem is that the number of vehicles in a typical London city photo is so great that it would be too complicated to remove all traces from the image. Also, the vehicles overlap parts of the buildings that I do want. Even the people in the photograph have 21st century clothing that would not work with 1958 outside Hooper's.

There must be a way....... ?

David

[Red318]

David, this is a difficult one given the location.  I've been building a small street diorama just to photograph completed kits and decided to run a brick wall across the back and rely on forced perspective for backdrops.

Your problem is there is no brick wall.  Try searching "london street scene backdrop" and see the images that come up,  You could print these at various sizes and try positioning them a yard or so behind the diorama and taking an eye level shot with the depth of field adjusted to knock the background just out of focus enough to blend in.

Fine detail wouldn't matter on the backscene but I think a lot of trial and error with various f-stop/aperture settings, lens lengths and distances between backscene, diorama and camera may work.  I think it would also be best done out of doors in cloudy bright conditions without direct sunlight so you could move each element around.

 

[crazyjim]

Any movies from the era you want in the area you want?  Maybe do a screen grab or whatever it's called.

[Anglia105E]

Thanks a lot David and Jim...... based upon your excellent suggestions, I shall have a good look at not only static photo images from 1950's London street scenes but also film footage from that era. Pathé News footage in black and white is available, and very appropriate, so as Jim suggested I could do a screen grab from a moving image and use it as a static backdrop image. As I just mentioned, the images will more than likely be in black and white, which I do prefer anyway, but of course the diorama is in colour normally. The way I like to produce the best photography is to shoot in black and white and this allows me to make use of the black and white images of the '50's. My trusty Kodak M340 digital compact camera is quite happy to do black and white and I also have an old Russian Zenit SLR camera that can produce incredible photographs, in either colour or black and white, but of course you have to do it the ' old ' way and you only get 24 or 36 shots, after the prints have come back from Boots the chemist !

I have taken note of your comments regarding camera settings, lighting, distance and camera position David, and this is the interesting part of the diorama project once the building stage has been completed.

David

[Red318]

I had forgotten all about the Zenit! Back in the day I had an East German Praktika L,  my first SLR which I got second hand for £19 and a friend had a Zenit-B, although I think it was a rangefinder rather than an SLR.  Both were solidly built and quite primitive but really good for learning the fundamentals of photography.  No programmed AE back then and I remember using a Russian made "Leningrad" light meter for every shot.

I look forward to seeing your results.

 

[Anglia105E]

Ah yes, the light meter, David Mitchell....... Just to explain how good the Zenit ' E ' SLR camera can be, when I was in Hong Kong as a visitor I took a photograph from a high point on Hong Kong Island, across the stretch of water all the way over in the direction of Kai Tak airport which was the old and very dangerous airport on the China mainland ( Hong Kong was British then ). I was using quite a bulky zoom lens and lots of lucky good fortune. What I got as a printed photograph, was the clear image of a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet taking off or landing ( can't remember which ) at the Kai Tak main runway, and you could see the lettering markings on the fuselage of the aircraft . I thought I could make out a passenger at one of the cabin windows..... but that is just me showing off. That is quite some distance in miles and the light must have been BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH near perfect.

David

[Anglia105E]

This is a 1933 MG K3 Magnette sports racing motor car being brought to Hooper & Co on the back of a Bedford lorry, to be displayed in their ground floor showroom, in recognition of past success in numerous motor sport events during the early 1930's. The 1:24 scale white metal model car has been assembled and painted from the kit by Wills Finecast Auto Kits and this particular kit is at least 46 years old, possibly older. There is some further work to be carried out on the MG so the car will be taken to Hooper's nearby Acton factory where skilled motor engineers will complete the work to a high standard.

David

[landman]

David, does that truck tilt" Ot is there an uloading dock & ramp "behind" the building.

[Anglia105E]

Pat...... I am thinking there are two long ramps that are placed against the rear edge of the lorry's flat bed, and the car is driven, hauled, man-handled up the ramps for loading. Well before the days of powered winches and tilting flat beds of course., this being 1958. As you say, these ramps would be behind the building or maybe they should be laid along one side of the flat bed, next to the car?

David

[Gramps46]

The K3 is looking great David. 

[Anglia105E]

Thank you Gary..... You can see from the photos above that the wire-spoked wheels are chrome plated, but I am in the process of putting grey primer on those wheels, so that they can be hand painted in the grey body colour. The rims and hubs that came with the Wills Finecast Auto Kit were dunked in the white pond ( paint stripper ) to remove some dark green paint from the previous builder, but unfortunately two of the hubs dissolved in the solution and are never to be seen again. Plan B was to make use of some excellent wheels and tyres from an old Heller Alfa Romeo Zagato kit  that are the same size and design as those of the MG.

This did save me from having to manually do the winding of the wire across the white metal rims and hubs, but I would have liked to use those original wheels, rather than these plastic Heller wheels. I think they should look okay once painted and the twin eared knock-off hub caps are in place.

David

[landman]

4 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Pat...... I am thinking there are two long ramps that are placed against the rear edge of the lorry's flat bed, and the car is driven, hauled, man-handled up the ramps for loading. Well before the days of powered winches and tilting flat beds of course., this being 1958. As you say, these ramps would be behind the building or maybe they should be laid along one side of the flat bed, next to the car?

David

If they are going to ship cars all the time they need one of there on their back lot.

http://www.blairline.com/ramp/

Edited January 25, 2019 by landman

[Anglia105E]

Now that's a serious loading ramp, Pat....... not sure the MD of Hooper's would find the money for that piece of kit. Laser cut?  Perhaps not in 1958, but I appreciate your good humour!  - When they transported the Rolls-Royce motor cars they used low-loaders, and the car was inside a wooden crate and not visible. Indeed, the car was not open to the elements. The little Bedford drop-side lorry is doing well to carry these cars, albeit smaller and lighter than the mighty Silver Cloud.

David

[landman]

2 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Now that's a serious loading ramp, Pat....... not sure the MD of Hooper's would find the money for that piece of kit. Laser cut?  Perhaps not in 1958, but I appreciate your good humour!  - When they transported the Rolls-Royce motor cars they used low-loaders, and the car was inside a wooden crate and not visible. Indeed, the car was not open to the elements. The little Bedford drop-side lorry is doing well to carry these cars, albeit smaller and lighter than the mighty Silver Cloud.

David

Those are made to load railroad flatcars. But a smaller version which matches the height of the Bedford's bed would work fine. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by landman

[Anglia105E]

Pat..... Haulage contractors in this country use low loaders to transport very heavy plant machinery, agricultural machinery and industrial loads. I have a DVD film called ' The Yellow Rolls-Royce ' which shows a Rolls-Royce Phantom I being delivered to Hooper & Co by low-loader lorry in London during the 1950's, and the car is hidden inside a large wooden crate. I understand that in Canada and the United States you would expect to see low loaders being used for railroad equipment. Interesting, thanks.

David

 

[landman]

2 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Pat..... Haulage contractors in this country use low loaders to transport very heavy plant machinery, agricultural machinery and industrial loads. I have a DVD film called ' The Yellow Rolls-Royce ' which shows a Rolls-Royce Phantom I being delivered to Hooper & Co by low-loader lorry in London during the 1950's, and the car is hidden inside a large wooden crate. I understand that in Canada and the United States you would expect to see low loaders being used for railroad equipment. Interesting, thanks.

David

 

What I meant is the ramp I showed is usually found alongside the tracks. They drive stuff up the ramp and over onto the flatcar.

[Anglia105E]

Oh I see what you mean Pat..... yes, that makes perfect sense.

David

[Anglia105E]

Here we see the 1933 MG K3 Magnette sports racing car outside Hooper & Co., along with it's famous lady owner, Kitty Brunell.

The 1:24 scale figure of Kitty Brunell is not yet finished, but I have added some face detail and a piece of light blue string around the waist of her overalls. Dressed in a dark brown woolly hat, blue overalls and brown lace-up shoes, Kitty was often seen maintaining and repairing her MG cars, as well as her Singer, Talbot and Aston Martin cars. Here are a few photos of the car and owner, including one photo of the lady herself.

David

[Anglia105E]

This photo shows Kitty Brunell with her MG sports racing car, and she is having a conversation with a pioneer motorist called S.F. Edge, who was famous for setting motor sport records at Brooklands in the early 1900's. The large photograph behind the models shows the actual scene in the early 1930's, which inspired the build of the scale model MG car and the Kitty Brunell figure.

David

[Anglia105E]

Trying out a composition on the Bennet Street area of the diorama, which includes two figures, one car, one motor scooter and one motorcycle, with a tree positioned at the end of the street, and in the background can be seen the telephone kiosk and the pillar box. There are two elements of this photo shoot that are slightly unusual, one of course being the gentleman figure that is unpainted in white plastic, and also there is no special lighting being used. For this composition, which was not set up intentionally, there is only one overhead light source and it is a low energy light bulb. The result is partly accidental and spontaneous.

The white unpainted gentleman figure was kindly sent to me by Gary McNutt ( Gramps46 ), the car is a Citroen 15.Six Traction Avant, the motor scooter is a Vespa. the motorcycle is a Vincent Black Shadow and the lady figure is a Shapeways 3D printed figure with no face detail.

Thanks for looking......

David