Anglia105E

All good builds Bart, and don't beat yourself up too much about the paint job on that Mustang. There's a good range of models that show your skills off nicely. I always wonder how people can do this kind of scale modelling work in N-scale, as I find 1:24 scale challenging enough at times, but those buildings and the cars in N-scale... Wow! David

Thanks for your kind words of ecouragement, David Mitchell. Today I was allowed to drive a 1957 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I by the owner. For only 20 minutes I drove around the grounds of Burghley House in Stamford and I did not want the wonderful experience to end. The car is an absolute dream to drive and you could not hear the engine running..... no vibration, no sound.... The sheer quality of the interior is something to behold. The car feels huge, and it is indeed huge. Five photos below show me sitting at the wheel of this Rolls-Royce... a once in a lifetime experience for sure. Lots of interest in my diorama exhibit and many interesting people, mostly Rolls-Royce owners, including one man that had done even more research on Hooper & Co than I have, plus a man who had worked for the company building London buses. Another man who looked at my model was a person friend of John Blatchley, who was responsible for designing the Silver Cloud. There was a young boy on his own, two young girls in their twenties, elderly men and women, people from France, Australia, Germany, Holland as well as all over the UK, all showing genuine interest in the Hooper & Co diorama 1958. David

Second day of the RREC show and lots of visitors all day to the Hooper & Co diorama table. Sold one Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud 1 scale model motor car to the owner of the real 1:1 car. Tomorrow, Sunday 24th June the owner has kindly offered to let me drive his Silver Cloud, most probably on grass, around the grounds of Burghley House. I am of course extremely overwhelmed by this opportunity, to drive the best motor car ever produced in the world. David ( thanks Pat from Ontario )

The Hooper & Co diorama is now on display at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Annual Rally at Burghley House, Stamford. Thursday 21st June was the longest day, setting up everything before the show. Friday 22nd June was the first day of the three event days. Here are a few photos of progress so far. David

Absolutely brilliant detail Charles, and what a perfect way to make use of parts that would just sit in boxes and probably never get used. Good luck with the GGG exhibition in Sweden when you go there. David

Nice bit of 3D printing there Janne, and that is something that I find interesting for creating scale model parts. That Marshall guitar amp is photographed very close up, so from a distance when someone views your diorama the finer detail will not be so obvious, including any minor painting errors! David

Thank you Jay.... pleased to hear that you like my diorama and the scale model motor cars. I just have time for a few finishing touches to the Fred Astaire Phantom I and then the entire project gets transported to the big show in a few days time. Although I do have several kits that I would like to build and these would have looked great in the exhibition, time has run out and what's done is done! David

The Fred Astaire Phantom I is seen here alongside the 1886 Daimler-Benz carriage, resplendent in the first floor showroom of Hooper & Co. There are also a couple of shots of the brown steering wheel having been changed to the correct black finish. Apologies for the scale of the Daimler-Benz carriage, because I have to admit that this is actually a 1:16 scale model from Minicraft. Despite extensive searches I could not find a 1:24 scale carriage of any sort to fit my diorama. David

Thanks Pat..... oh yes, Mr Astaire certainly had the financial resources to do things in style! Every part of this 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I shows his attention to detail, even down to the flowers inside the passenger compartment and the contents of the Louis Vuitton luggage trunk. I am hoping my scale model of this famous motor car will do it justice, once it is completed with the fine detailing. David

Here are some photographs of the Fred Astaire Phantom I, which is very close to completion. The only work remaining is further detailing and this may have to wait until after the show at Burghley House in Stamford, which is now only 6 days away. The bulk of the modification work on this build has been the Louis Vuitton luggage trunk, which is entirely scratch built by myself, using a G-scale Preiser luggage case as the starting point. The LV pattern material is printed to scale and the case is painted in yellow ochre acrylic over the existing brown paint. I removed the original black and chrome plastic trunk that was attached to the Franklin Mint diecast model car, made up a balsa wood base for the trunk and fitted the LV trunk on top. The paintwork of this Rolls-Royce is Revell Aqua Color Dark Green and this matt finish is coated with yacht varnish. The wheel covers are from an Italeri Phantom II and at the moment these are standing proud from the wheel rims, when they should be flush. This will be corrected later, but not until after the show. The real car as owned by Fred Astaire does not have bumpers ( fenders ) at the front or the rear, so I have removed both from the model. The rear licence plate is shown in some photos as being on the offside ( RHD ) and some show it on the nearside. I decided to go with YE 9080 and mounted on the left-hand side, nearside. The car had the bodywork crafted by Hooper & Co in London, before being shipped to the United States, where Fred Astaire owned this car from 1927 to 1950 so it is entirely authentic for my diorama setting as part of the Hooper theme. This is the first time that I have dared to modify a Franklin Mint diecast model car and the process has shown me what can be done with these excellent models. I like to think that you can't tell the difference between the Franklin Mint diecast conversion and the built kit in polystyrene of the Phantom II from Italeri also in 1:24 scale. Thanks for looking guys. David

Clean, well turned out build of this Buick, Tom.... really nice colour choice and I do like the design of this car. You must be very proud of this one. David

Thank you Anders in Denmark and Eric in Michigan....... All the positive comments from the friendly folks here on these forums keep me motivated when the pressure is on. Lots of good advice from scale model builders who really know their stuff is most encouraging, so I do appreciate your interest and your opinions too. Nearly ready to post some photos of the second Fred Astaire motor car when it is completed, which is a 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Cabriolet de Ville. This car was ordered in England by Fred Astaire when he was performing in London so it is right hand drive, and also the bodywork was by Hooper & Co Ltd as featured in my diorama. The Silver Cloud he owned in 1956 is the one I have built shown below. David

That is one helluva blue, Jim....... such a rich paint colour.... Wow ! David

What a splendid building Ellen..... I keep coming back to the photographs of your work and seeing even more detail. I love it ! David

I believe you are right Eric.... that scenario could work, whereby Hooper's staff would arrange for their client's luggage to be taken to the nearby hotel. Brilliant! You could use a set of Preiser luggage like this for your '30 Ford station wagon and I'm sure it would be just fine. Here are a few more photos, showing the new tree in place, some brickwork around two sides of the roof area, a new signage panel at the top of the A2 photo to the left of the Hooper & Co building. Also, there is a woman walking a German Shepherd dog crossing the street near the Keep Left bollards. This is the final phase of the exhibition preparation with only eleven days to go. David

Glad you like the luggage Eric, and it was a small box of Preiser luggage in G-scale which as you know is 1:22.5 scale, so slightly too large for 1:24 scale. There is a large suitcase inside the boot of the Franklin Mint 1955 Bentley S-Type which is finished in Burgundy over Gold. I selected the other two items of luggage to match the colour of the suitcase. I agree that Henry does look very distinguished, as indeed he must have been in his day. Previously, this mini-diorama within the bigger scene had included the lady in the long evening dress, and one of the five Rolls-Royce Silver Clouds that I have built. I tend to move models around a bit when I am taking photos to establish where things are going to be placed. Although I like the idea of the Bentley or Rolls-Royce pulling up outside the Hooper & Co building where a chauffeur appears to be loading or unloading some baggage for a distinguished owner, I have to keep in mind that this is not a hotel ! Why would a Bentley owner like Henry Ford be arriving at Hoopers with a boot full of luggage? Surely he is not intending to stay overnight at the coach builder's premises? Mr Osmond Rivers, the managing director and chief draughtsman of Hooper & Co would suggest that Mr Ford should seek to book into a high class hotel nearby, of which there are several well known establishments in the Piccadilly and St James's area. Thanks Pat, and I think most of us have fond memories of travelling aboard an old London bus. This is such a traditional element of the whole diorama, along with the London black taxi cab and the Policeman on the beat, the red telephone kiosk and the old Bedford lorry that I had to include these elements within the setting. David

Hello Eric.... I posted a comment on Pat St-Martin's topic concerning the Rolls-Royce Phantom II engine that he has built so wonderfully. I noticed that you have an interest in this topic of course. Yes, the size of the diorama is trying to grow, but I need to work to the confines of whatever size table the event organisers give me on the day. They did ask me what my requirements are, so I asked for a table that has a minimum size of 5 feet by 4 feet. This would accommodate the diorama that is 36 inches deep by 31 inches wide and 23 inches high, with a space to one side of the diorama that hopefully will be 2 feet 5 inches by 4 feet. Will need a fair amount of space to display the five Rolls-Royce Silver Clouds along with their display cards explaining what each model motor car is about. Shortly, a further diecast model will be arriving, which I am hoping to find time to prepare as Fred Astaire's 1927 Phantom I Cabriolet de Ville in Brewster Green with Black wings ( fenders ? ). This would be alongside Fred Astaire's 1956 Silver Cloud I in Velvet Green over Sage Green. David

What an excellent topic to post Pat..... this is of special interest to me, as indeed it is to Eric MacLeod. During the early days of building 1:24 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud's, mostly from Minicraft and Revell kits, I removed the later V8 6.2 litre engine as supplied ny Minicraft / Revell and instead used the 6 cylinder inline engine from the Italeri Rolls-Royce Phantom II. The Phantom II engine is actually 7.6 litre and the Silver Cloud had a 4.9 litre engine, so the Italeri kit engine is too tall by comparison. This did not stop me fitting the converted engines to my Silver Cloud builds, usually by cutting away the engine bay floor drastically or even cutting the engine down to size ( not good I know ). Later, I designed my own 4,9 litre 6-cylinder straight six engine using FreeCAD software and uploaded the design to Shapeways. So far I have ordered two of these engines which are available from Shapeways to anyone. Your detailing is of course far superior to my converted Phantom II engines and also much more accurate than my 3D printed engine. I shall follow your topic with great interest and I shall pay attention as though it were a tutorial, as your work is an inspiration to me Pat. This Phantom II engine is well worth the time and effort to reproduce an accurate Rolls-Royce engine and it is unfortunate that the engine does not quite fit under the bonnet /hood of the Silver Cloud. The Franklin Mint diecast Silver Cloud does have quite a nice engine but nowhere near the quality of your build of the Phantom II unit. David

These few photos show the continued work in progress with the background perspective painting, which is not quite finished yet. Also. there is now a new tree for the diorama..... this one is a plastic Bonsai tree and I have grafted a heavy clay base onto the tree trunk, after removing the tree from its ceramic pot. There will be four strips of aluminium channel at the edges of the baseboard, two of which will support the foamboard panels and the other two will act as finishing strips. I only have fifteen days preparation before the big event, and I have a checklist of sixteen tasks to complete ( more than one task per day ! ) Don't panic ! David

That's the one! This motor car would look wonderful in my diorama showroom, but not in 1:43 scale unfortunately. Hope you manage to find a nice one at the right price. David

Nice collection of models Glenn..... I wish these motor cars were available in 1:24 scale, especially the Bentley Mark VI I believe Oxford Diecasts do a Hooper Empress, which would really get me interested ! David

Something that was missing from the diorama, and a common sight during the 1950's in London of course, was the ' bobby on the beat '. In other words, the Policeman. This is a diecast 1:24 scale figure by Corgi Icon models and measures 8 centimetres tall without the base. This Policeman figure can be placed anywhere within the Hooper & Co diorama setting and will not look out of place, and I believe will enhance the entire London city scene. David

Superb photos, and another glue bomb is saved! Liking the paint colour and also the hood. David

Okay Chuck, so I understand the earthquake wasn't a 1:1 real world earthquake, but you ' cut and shaped these scale humans ' ? You mean scratch built figures? I wish I could scuplt figures from any material, but it's never gonna happen.... I have to buy ready made humans, and Shapeways 3D printed seem to be the best. I do like the story that's forming around the cars , the figures, the building and I found myself doing just the same with Hooper & Co, even beginning to imagine Osmond Rivers the Managing Director and Chief Draughtsman keeping a close eye on work in progress as I built the diorama. Withdrawing into a 1:24 scale world is probably my escape from reality..... David

Wow Ellen ! - your building is bigger than my entire diorama, which is 3 feet by 2 feet 7 inches and under 2 feet tall. Also, you have the basement level below the base board...... maybe I should add the basement level of my building now that I have seen this build of yours? David