Anglia105E

Those figures are 1910's Sam, but absolutely period correct for your diorama, and somehow they do seem to work for my 1950's diorama too. There is one set from ICM that has the three figures only, and a further set that also includes a Model T Ford motor car. David

We are inside the showrooms of Hooper & Co and Osmond Rivers is talking to a distinguished gentleman customer regarding the Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville that is being offered for sale. The Managing Director of Hoopers is confident that the gentleman will surely be impressed with the smooth and powerful V12 engine and also the generous size of the motor car. He mentions the service history of this particular Rolls-Royce, which dates back to 1938 and of course, twenty years of low mileage motoring will not have caused any undue wear and tear on this fine motor car. This gentleman finds the Phantom most desirable and presently he accompanies Mr Rivers upstairs to his office, where they can discuss purchase arrangements. Mr Rivers apologises for the untidy state of his office, explaining that a new carpet has recently been laid and there is a delay before the walls can be decorated. The single item of furniture in the large office is the polished desk upon which Mr Rivers has taken the liberty of preparing the necessary documents for the proposed sale. David

Impressive work on your building Sam, and this project has clearly gone down well at the show. I noticed three of the figures are from the ICM Henry Ford set, which I have used in my diorama because these figures are so good.... the engineer, the businessman and Henry Ford himself. You look proud of your achievement, and rightly so too. David

The real building itself is very interesting from an architectural point of view, and your rendition of it as a scale model is really good Ellen. This should be a particularly successful exhibit at the venues that you have lined up. David

The two Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville cars are very close to completion now, so here they are photographed as part of the diorama setting, and also together as three Danbury Mint Phantom III's. The black car is a 1937 model finished in gloss acrylic by Revell, and the light blue over dark grey car is a 1937 model finished in matt acrylic by Revell with yacht varnish applied on top. The 1938 burgundy model is original Danbury Mint, unpainted. The black model had no windscreen, no headlamps, no bumpers, no fog lamps, and only one air horn, so these parts have been fitted from a Phantom II donor kit by Italeri. David

Many thanks Gary, and you mentioned previously that were planning on building the two seater version of the Talbot Lago that raced at Le Mans in 1950.... here is a photo and a drawing of that car, and something occurred to me.... I don't know if the Heller kit is the same, but the SMER kit has the body in two halves that you have to glue together. Does this make your idea to widen the body easier? David

Here are the black and white versions of the photographs, which would be more appropriate for 1958. David

Across the street from Hoopers a number 76 bus is just pulling away from the bus stop. A lady in a beige three quarter length coat who is carrying a black bag has got off the bus. She is standing at the edge of the pavement, but she doesn't cross the street yet. Observing a tall man in a bowler hat and a long black coat on the other side of the street, the lady waits for an agreed sign.... a gesture in fact. The man appears to be a city gent and he is standing outside the telephone kiosk next to Hooper and Company. He has seen the lady step off the departing bus and he raises his right hand, takes off his bowler hat, which he holds close to his chest for a moment before putting the hat back on. Recognising the prearranged signal, the lady waits for the man to approach her, as instructed. He is an officer working for MI6, while she is a KGB agent. They are discreet, as spies must be when exchanging confidential and highly sensitive information. Crossing the street, the man escorts her along St James's Street a short distance to White's gentleman's club, halting outside the entrance to the club where he apologises for not being able to conduct this clandestine meeting inside White's, as they do not permit ladies to enter the premises. David

I agree with both Gary and Richard,, in that Welly do offer a good range of cars, covering European and American models. The quality and scale seems consistently good and as you say the prices are hard to beat. For anyone who does collect diecast rather than plastic built kits the Welly's can give the Danbury Mint's and the Franklin Mint's a run for their money. My collection tends to be about 50 percent plastic built kits and 50 percent diecast, so although I favour the plastic I do use diecasts quite a lot in diorama photography. The one Welly model I have is an Austin FX4 London Taxi and it is a real shame that Welly don't do the FX3 taxi of the older type. Recently I have been transforming diecasts into specific cars that I need for my diorama setting from the '50's, so this has included Fred Astaire's 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Sedanca de Ville, converted from the Franklin Mint version, and two Rolls-Royce Phantom III's from 1937 and 1938 which have changed from the standard burgundy red paint finish David

Gary.... The white car behind the Ford GT40 appears to be a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and not a Bentley S-Type, because you can just make out the Spirit of Ecstasy on top of the radiator surround. From a side view like this you cannot determine if the Silver Cloud is a I, II or III because only the double twin headlamps would tell you it was a Silver Cloud III, and the body is the same for Silver Cloud I and II, only the engine is different.... 6 cylinder for the series I and V8 for the series II. This means the Rolls-Royce is either 1955 to 1959 for a series I, or 1959 to 1962 for series II and 1963 to 1966 for series III. Usually you would only see Silver Clouds in white if they were intended for use as wedding cars, and also I notice the car in the photo seems to have a sun roof, which is highly unusual, I haven't seen a Silver Cloud with a sun roof before. Lastly, it's not very clear in the photo but the radio aerial is not roof mounted, but appears to be just in front of the windscreen at the rear of the wing ( fender ), this is also unusual. David

Funnily enough, it was the grinder on the bench that caught my eye too....... so it has to be an important feature of your diorama. David

Gary...... It was pure luck that I found the photograph, because all I was doing was one of my many Google image searches for anything to do with Hooper & Co. and suddenly this one popped up. Since finding the photo I have arranged for an A2 size poster print to be mounted on foam board, which will be set up as one of the two background panels of the diorama. During the photo sessions featuring the model cars and the figures I can substitute blank white panels in place of the A2 photo panels, which are more to do with the exhibition presentation side of things. David

The stairs look just right Rob, and you've done some good work on the frames for the upper floor. This is going to be a great shadow box diorama. David

You mentioned the foam core, and not being able to recommend it...... I myself have experienced some issues with foamboard, and I do prefer the plywood parts of my diorama building. Warping seems to be the main issue, and like you I am not sure what to use in place of this material which does have some advantages. Good luck with the lighting, the wiring and soldering. David

Absolutely brilliant Charles.... I shall have to sit down and look through these images one by one and take in all the incredible detail. Just when I was thinking you couldn't top the MAN burnt out cab diorama..... here you go with the Weigh Station diorama !!!! Wow ! David

I have managed to source a photograph from 1951 of a Hooper and Company advertisement, which is taken from Country Life magazine. This shows the building in much more detail than a previous photo that I have, in which most of the image is blacked out. You can see the Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Daimler motor cars in the ground floor showrooms, with the horse drawn Daimler carriages in the first floor showrooms. David

I like the shadow box idea Rob, and your interior work so far is excellent. Interesting use of foam board to provide depth for doors and windows. I shall follow your progress with this project ! ( plenty of wood is good.... you can't have too much wood ) David

Very nice Tamiya kit of this car Justin, and you don't see many of these about. I like the green paintwork..... excellent choice. Very tidy application of the Molotow Liquid Chrome which adds to the car's realistic look. David

Actually, you are quite right Gary.... the Heller kit is recognised as being better than the Merit / SMER equivalent, and the greater detail provided by the Heller kit is what was needed. I did read an article about a scale model builder who heavily modified the SMER Talbot Lago GP, and he was able to add all the missing detail. What I have decided to do, is to build this one out of the box, with no modifications and then see if I could put together a second one, but with much more attention to detail. Now that I have studied all the research material it makes me want to build a really accurate version of this car, in exactly the same way that I did with the Rolls-Royce Silver Clouds, using the basic Minicraft kit ( also by Revell ). David

Thank you Gary and Bill, and here is a reply for each of you separately..... Gary: - I believe the tool for this model is now owned by SMER, please correct me if I am wrong, and was previously manufactured by Merit and Heller. Your plan to build the two seater Le Mans version sounds very interesting, and I am sure you can turn out a good car, with plenty of reference material available as you say. SMER label their box art as a Lago Talbot, but I think the correct name is Talbot Lago, although Lago was the important brains behind the Talbot project at that time. I do appreciate your comments about the figures and I have been careful to use my best figures for these shots. I did scratch build the vintage camera on the tripod, which came out fairly well Bill: - I am constantly striving for greater realism with this diorama and certainly the figures are the most challenging aspect of the scenarios. The Policeman is a diecast Corgi Icon figure, the businessman and the photographer are from the ICM Henry Ford 1910 kit which I assembled and painted, while the Osmond Rivers figure, the MD of Hoopers, is a Shapeways 3D printed figure. I converted the colour photos by removing all the colour to produce the black and white effect, and there are two sources of lighting, one of which is a 100 Watt daylight bulb. I do like to play around with the shadows and the reflections. There are not many 1:24 scale figures that are suitable for this 1950's setting and I am always on the lookout for better ones. Shapeways seem to be the best source overall. David

Just outside the showroom window on St James's Street, a bowler hatted photographer is lining up his camera on a tripod.... but what is he hoping to capture on film? The managing director of Hoopers is standing in the shadow of the large bay window, taking in the air on a hot day in August. He seems to be unaware of the furtive photographer who is positioned a few paces to his left. A businessman in a light coloured suit is tucked in close to the wall near the corner of the building, as though he is attempting to peer round the edge of the wall without being seen himself. Around the corner, on Bennet Street there is a Police constable standing motionless, staring straight ahead at something across the street. Both the constable and the hidden businessman are not aware of nearby witnesses. Could there be a lot going on here.... or maybe there is nothing going on? David

Thanks Tulio, I will remember to get the AMT kit of the '40 Ford and not the Lindberg, but the Lindberg '53 kit is good. Good luck with your build ! David

Thanks for your comment Bill. and certainly it is a good idea to apply the Liquid Createx to protect the finish. I've seen mixed reports about how some model builders say you can't handle the Liquid Chrome pen finish even after 24 hours, while others say that as long as you leave it for 24 hours you can handle the model car with care, and the liquid chrome does not rub off. Myself, I like this product very much, and although I still use Bare Metal Foil which is also a wonderful product, I do find myself using the Molotow Liquid Chrome pen much more for chrome work recently. The Yacht Varnish, by the way, is also brilliant when applied over Revell Aqua Color matt acrylic paint, as my 1927 Fred Astaire Rolls-Royce Phantom I will testify! David

The cars from this period have such fine lines, and your scale model build has captured this perfectly, with paintwork to be proud of. So far I have not built a Lindberg kit myself, but seeing this one of yours Tulio has made me think I would like to build one soon! David

Hi Roy..... the Molotow Liquid Chrome pen is an excellent tool for this type of work, and I have had some good results with it. As one member mentioned, you need to clean off release agent from resin or 3D printed parts, which I am sure you would do anyway but there is one point I would like to make which should help you get the best result. The liquid chrome likes to flow over a glossy surface, so the shinier the better. What I do, and nobody told me this, is to coat the part or parts with Yacht Varnish before applying the liquid chrome. You have to wait 24 hours for the Yacht Varnish to dry completely and this leaves a high gloss finish that the liquid chrome pen really does like. Hope this makes sense! David