Hooper & Co Diorama

[Anglia105E]

The industrial chimney that I had ordered, arrived in the post yesterday. This is a 1:43 scale solid resin cast chimney that is supplied unpainted. During today I measured and cut out the hole in the factory roof, where the chimney has to be lowered through. The chimney stands on the baseboard, or on the factory floor to be more accurate. Tomorrow, I need to paint the chimney, which will be aerosol red primer with grey detailing applied with a brush. Measurements of the resin chimney are 380 mm in total height, while the diameter is 46 mm at the base, and 28 mm at the cap. All of the old reference photographs for the Hooper & Co. Acton factory on Western Avenue in London around 1959 show an industrial chimney behind the factory units, and over to the left. This is the sort of detail that I wanted to recreate as accurately as possible.

As always, thanks for looking, guys...... 

David

[Anglia105E]

While the factory chimney is having the brickwork attended to, there was some further progress made with the scene in the office of Osmond Rivers...... the man himself is standing at the window, where he can enjoy the early morning sunshine, before he begins the day's work. On the desk behind him there is a large black telephone, an elegant Tiffany desk lamp, a blue book and some papers. I have now added an ashtray, in which a lighted cigarette emits a thin wisp of smoke. Also, there is a fine Hepplewhite chair, waiting for Mr Rivers to take up his position at the desk in order to deal with the important business matters of the day ahead. Here in the calm sanctity of his private office, Mr Rivers can observe the subtle blend of the warm sunlight streaming in through the Georgian windows, and the soft amber glow from the desk lamp, as his cigarette smoke drifts slowly upwards........ casting long dark shadows over the wall behind.

David

[Eric Macleod]

Your work on this office is sublime as always.  Your thread remains my favorite place to visit,  even as I gradually exit the hobby.  

[Anglia105E]

33 minutes ago, Eric Macleod said:

Your work on this office is sublime as always.  Your thread remains my favorite place to visit,  even as I gradually exit the hobby.  

Many thanks, Eric...... and your valued comments are much appreciated, as always. Hope you are keeping well and don't be in too much of a hurry to leave this wonderful hobby of ours..... I am sure your exit will be a very gradual process...... a natural progression, as life unfolds. The diorama project is my way of ' Finding My Smaller World '

David

[Anglia105E]

The upper photograph shows two Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith motor cars, leaving the forecourt of the Hooper & Co. factory on Western Avenue, Acton during 1959.

The lower photograph shows a 1:43 scale 1951 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, which is followed by a 1:43 scale 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, also leaving the forecourt of the Hooper & Co. factory.

The factory building in the lower photograph is a 1:43 scale scratch built model, and the petrol pump stand has also been scratch built.

I have tried to recreate the original photograph of the real motor cars, by using careful composition and by paying close attention to the camera position, settings and of course the lighting setup. I don't have two black Silver Wraith's in my collection, so this composition utilises a dark blue Phantom IV and a Silver Wraith in bronze and gold. Both of these model cars are Hooper bodied cars. A mix of water and dishwashing fluid has been applied to the surface of the forecourt to reproduce the wet surface as this appears in the original photograph.

David

[peteski]

I love it, especially how you recreated the photo in 3D!

[Anglia105E]

4 hours ago, peteski said:

I love it, especially how you recreated the photo in 3D!

Thanks very much, Peter......... This is one of the reference photos that I have been using to build this diorama, and there are not that many available. This particular angle caught my eye, and I saw the potential to capture the composition. Within the limits of my camera lens, this was quite tricky to set up, but I did manage to get reasonably close I think.

David

[peteski]

9 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Within the limits of my camera lens, this was quite tricky to set up, but I did manage to get reasonably close I think.

You sure did David!

[Anglia105E]

Currently, I am working on a 3D printed model of a 1950's Land Rover Series I, which I downloaded as several STL files, while at the same time I have designed and 3D printed a trailer using FreeCAD software. The Brockhouse is a steel single axle trailer that was supplied as a genuine Land Rover accessory during the 1950's, and it has the same size wheels and tyres as the Land Rover itself.  The wheels have already been 3D printed, so once the axles are assembled and fenders are added, the trailer can be painted.

Meanwhile, I have also purchased a 1:43 scale 1957 Land Rover Series I SWB by Oxford Diecast Commercials, finished in Bronze Green....... both of these Land Rovers will form part of the 1:43 scale diorama, within the Imperial Motors garage, which is just across the road from the Hooper & Co. factory. These Land Rovers are ideal for towing the Lansdowne Willerby Vogue caravan, and also the Brockhouse trailer.

David

[lordairgtar]

I really liked the Rolls Royce collection you built up with the Hooper diorama. Have you ever considered building one of those cars into the long wheel base version?  My boss bought a Rolls from Europe and it belonged to a Gabor sister's husband. I think she was named Magda Gabor, not Eva or Zsazsa. It's a long wheel base car and I'm doing a build of it. I took a Hubley kit and cut it in the rear door area and added a 1/4 inch section from a MiniCraft kit. Also reshaped the rear side window section. I have to learn how to put pics on here to show it off so far.

[Anglia105E]

4 hours ago, lordairgtar said:

I really liked the Rolls Royce collection you built up with the Hooper diorama. Have you ever considered building one of those cars into the long wheel base version?  My boss bought a Rolls from Europe and it belonged to a Gabor sister's husband. I think she was named Magda Gabor, not Eva or Zsazsa. It's a long wheel base car and I'm doing a build of it. I took a Hubley kit and cut it in the rear door area and added a 1/4 inch section from a MiniCraft kit. Also reshaped the rear side window section. I have to learn how to put pics on here to show it off so far.

Many thanks for your recent post, Gregory...... I haven't considered the long wheelbase version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, but your project build sounds just like the sort of thing that I would find very interesting. Most of my Silver Cloud model cars are from the Minicraft / Revell kit, and I have a Hubley promo model that was shipped over from the United States, so I didn't build that one from a kit. As well as the plastic version, I also have the Franklin Mint Silver Cloud, as well as the Franklin Mint Bentley S-type. Several of my Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I cars have a straight-6 cylinder engine, instead of the V8 engine out of the box, and at least two of the 6-cylinder engines are my own 3D-printed design. Previously, I had these engines printed by Shapeways from Holland, but I now have my own 3D printer which I assembled from a kit, so that I could print my own engines. Some of the Silver Cloud cars have been converted from LHD to RHD, and one of them has been moulded and cast from resin, so I produced the two-part mould for this one. One diorama is 1:24 scale, and three further dioramas have been 1:43 scale. I like the way you are using both the Minicraft kit and also the Hubley kit to create your LWB version of this wonderful motor car model.

As regards uploading photos to the MCM forum website, this is very easy to do, Greg..... You simply type your post as I am doing now, and then at the bottom left you will see ' Choose Files '...... click once on choose files, and this will allow you to select any photo image files that are stored in folders on your computer hard drive. When you submit your reply, the attached photos will display in larger size, below the text of your post, like this one below........

David

[lordairgtar]

Thanks for the reply and help. Your six looks beautiful. As my boss really doesn't feel the need to display the engine with bonnet open, I will probably just use the thing that passes for an engine in the kit...although I might get ambitious and create one for my own version of the long wheel base car. I will get close and personal with the interior as that seems to be seen easier. Nice to have the actual automobile handy to look at. It seems I will need to learn to assemble my own 3D printer but that could be easy as my boss' son has a 3D printer and has been experimenting with it as well. I liked the Hubley (I think mine was a kit judging from the really sloppy glueing that went on) because it did not have the badly aligned body tooling at the point where the front wing meets the door. I have never seen the Revell version.

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, lordairgtar said:

Thanks for the reply and help. Your six looks beautiful. As my boss really doesn't feel the need to display the engine with bonnet open, I will probably just use the thing that passes for an engine in the kit...although I might get ambitious and create one for my own version of the long wheel base car. I will get close and personal with the interior as that seems to be seen easier. Nice to have the actual automobile handy to look at. It seems I will need to learn to assemble my own 3D printer but that could be easy as my boss' son has a 3D printer and has been experimenting with it as well. I liked the Hubley (I think mine was a kit judging from the really sloppy glueing that went on) because it did not have the badly aligned body tooling at the point where the front wing meets the door. I have never seen the Revell version.

Sorry, Greg...... The photo that I attached as an example, is not my 6-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine...... the gold engine that you see is from the Moebius 1953 Hudson Hornet kit, which is my current WIP. ( this is also a straight - 6 engine as it happens. Didn't intend to mislead you ! )

Oh, by the way.... assembling a 3D printer is not something to be taken lightly, as it took me 8 days and many hours to build. This is a much cheaper way of getting into 3D-printing, but not for faint hearted, I would say !

David

[PHPaul]

"Assembling" or "building from scratch"?

Assembling my Creality took less than an hour with really, REALLY cryptic instructions.

Building is a whole other story.

[Anglia105E]

10 minutes ago, PHPaul said:

"Assembling" or "building from scratch"?

Assembling my Creality took less than an hour with really, REALLY cryptic instructions.

Building is a whole other story.

Hi Paul..... Assembling my Anet A8 3D printer from a DIY kit, took me 32 hours over an 8 day period. The printer is a cheap Chinese knock-off of the Original Prusa i3.

I am a Technical Support Engineer, and I have been working in the computer industry for 39 years now. I started with ICL mainframes in 1981, and then progressed through all the versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems, right from the very first version. My experience has covered most types of hardware and software problem solving. I used to enjoy building computers ' from scratch ' , so that is from the case and motherboard upwards. 

There are people on the Internet who are claiming to have assembled a 3D printer from a DIY kit in around 2 hours...... Are you telling me that you can do it in less than ONE hour?

Why would I spend 32 hours of my life doing something that I could have done in ONE hour?

Yes, I did take my time, and I am the sort of person who slowly and methodically puts things together, very carefully, usually making notes as I go along. This applies to scale model cars and dioramas, as well as 3D printers.

What do mean ' building from scratch ' ? What is the difference between assembling a 3D printer and building one from scratch? You have a huge box of parts and components, which you have to ' assemble ' in the correct order, according to some very CRYPTIC instructions. In fact I had to do many hours of research and Googling to find any instructions that I could use properly. The instructions supplied with the kit were no help whatsoever, and the CD-ROM disk in the box could not be read from any computer device.

As I understand it, Paul, a Creality 3D printer is actually better than an Anet A8 3D printer, and consequently requires more ' Assembly ' time.

Oh, and by the way Paul....... this conversation in my topic is between Gregory and myself. 

David Watson  M.C.I.T.P.

[PHPaul]

Apologies for interjecting.  

By way of clarification - The Creality was a kit only in the sense that the beams for the z axis needed to be attached and aligned, the cog belts installed  and some cables plugged in.

I'll go away and mind my own business now.  

 

[Anglia105E]

4 minutes ago, PHPaul said:

Apologies for interjecting.  

By way of clarification - The Creality was a kit only in the sense that the beams for the z axis needed to be attached and aligned, the cog belts installed  and some cables plugged in.

I'll go away and mind my own business now.  

 

Okay, fair enough........ My misunderstanding..... and yes, I am having a bad day !!

It did take me more than one hour, just to take all the parts out of the huge box. I should not have reacted that way.... SORRY.

David

[PHPaul]

Misunderstanding on both ends, I should have been clearer in my comments.

All good.

[Anglia105E]

7 hours ago, PHPaul said:

Misunderstanding on both ends, I should have been clearer in my comments.

All good.

Thank you, Paul...... and enjoy your diorama project during these difficult times.

David

[Anglia105E]

The 1:43 scale trailer for the Land Rover Series I, which is 3D printed and scratch built, is completed and becomes part of the 1:43 scale Hooper & Co. dioramas.

Meanwhile, I am building a 1:25 scale 1953 Hudson Hornet by Moebius, and I am finding this kit an absolute joy to build. This Moebius kit number 1200 is by far the most satisfying product that I have ever assembled...... The quality of the kit is considerably better than anything else on the market, and the assembly instructions are a lesson to other kit manufacturers as to how it should be done. As other model builders on MCM forums have stated, the fit of the parts is that good, it is very often not necessary to apply any glue !

This Hudson motor car will not be part of the 1:24 scale Hooper & Co. diorama, but I do have an idea forming in my head that features a border post between the United States and Canada, such as the Peace Arch for example. I thought it might be nice to show the 1953 Hudson Hornet from Detroit, Michigan, the 1968 Pontiac Parisienne from Oshawa, Ontario and then a 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud from Crewe, England.... the Rolls-Royce was exported to Victoria, British Columbia, so I could see all three cars coming together at the US / Canada border around 1969 or early 1970's.

I have chosen the paint colours for the Hudson, and these are Honey Cream for the roof and sun visor, with Meadow Green (Opalescent) for the body colour. Here in England, these paint colours are not available, so I am using Rolls-Royce Balmoral Green (metallic) and the roof colour will be either Rustoleum Antique White, or Halfords Ford Ivory.

David

[Anglia105E]

I am using a 1970 Pontiac Bonneville convertible body and hood, from the kit by AMT, for testing the different paint finishes. The photo below shows the Pontiac body with Rolls-Royce Balmoral Green applied, and the hood has Ford Ivory applied on one half, so that I can apply Rustoleum Antique White on the other half of the hood. The Balmoral Green is a cellulose opalescent lacquer paint, applied over Halfords white primer, which has been applied over Halfords grey primer.

I am using aerosol spray cans rather than my airbrush for this 1953 Hudson Hornet by Moebius.

Having picked up some orange fine line masking tape (6 mm), this has been applied in two strips on the rear wing of the Pontiac, so that I can brush on some Yacht Varnish..... the Molotow Liquid Chrome Pen will be applied over the Yacht Varnish, along the moulding strip. I have decided to use the chrome pen for all the chrome work on this build, rather than Bare Metal Foil...... and both the varnish and the chrome pen need to be tested on the cellulose paint finish.

BMF is almost impossible to source in the UK right now, and I am hoping to get good results with the chrome pen method.

David

[DonW]

Lovely green, it matches the lower half of the walls of my study! 

Do you plan to build the Peace Arch? It would be 2.68 feet high by my reckoning....

Cheers,

-Don.

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, DonW said:

Lovely green, it matches the lower half of the walls of my study! 

Do you plan to build the Peace Arch? It would be 2.68 feet high by my reckoning....

Cheers,

-Don.

Thanks, Don.......... Yes, I had planned to build the Peace Arch, and you are absolutely correct, it would be precisely 2.68 feet high as a 1:25 scale model. To be honest, I hadn't realised the structure would be that high ! ( should have checked by now ). Still think it would be a nice idea, and I stumbled upon these two photos of a Hudson Hornet, and a Rolls-Royce, and the car in the middle is possibly a Chevrolet ?

David

[landman]

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air.

[landman]

Here's my grandson with one. He had recognized "Doc Hudson".