Anglia105E

Here we see the latest addition to the collection of 1:43 scale model cars....... which is a Minichamps 1960 Bentley S2 Standard Saloon in blue over silver. This car has the V8 engine rather than the earlier straight-6 engine...... bringing the collection of Bentley's to a total of four, and there will be a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I arriving during the next couple of days, bring the collection of Rolls-Royce motor cars to a total of ten. David

Impressive

That's a really nice find, Tim..... and I haven't seen this Danbury Mint Willys Mail Truck before. All those special features, such as the letters in the trays and the mail sacks make this a very interesting scale model. Thanks for bringing this one to our attention! David

Charles...... you are able to see something in a model that appears to be just an accurate toy, and then you go to work transforming the ' toy ' into a scale model. This Vespa scooter is one such project, but I also remember your excavator build, which was brilliant. David

Well done, Dave.........!

Sorry guys......... I seem to have uploaded these video files incorrectly, and when you click on each one they are downloaded, instead of running the video. Not done this before, so wasn't expecting this result..... apologies folks! David

An interesting idea came to me, out of nowhere really...... I was setting up a scenario for a photo shoot tonight, and I placed the double decker London bus at the far right end of Western Avenue........ I let go of the bus model, and it rolled all the way to the centre of the two baseboards. The baseboard on the right is not level. This gave me the idea...... Switching the camera into video mode, I began to play around with short runs of 28 second video footage. Once the camera was ready, I released the bus by removing a table knife that was preventing the rear wheel from moving. Having placed the model of a black London taxi as though it was parked along the edge of the road, I watched the bus appearing to drive down the road and seeming to pass the parked taxi. Tried this out a few times and it set me thinking about the possibilities of animation and movement, within the static display of the diorama setting. Even a short 28 second video file is more than 30 MB in size, so here are just three of them, but there might be something here to develop further? David 100_4409.MOV 100_4415.MOV 100_4417.MOV

Well done with the rescued Scooby, Patrick..... in fact, all of them look really good. My brother owns a 1:1 Subaru Impreza WRC Turbo, in blue with the gold wheels, and I keep thinking about surprising him with a 1:24 built kit of his car...... which kit manufacturer produces the best version of the Impreza, in your opinion? David

Picked up two very nice cars on Ebay...... one is a 1:43 scale Minichamps 1960 Bentley S2 Standard Saloon in blue over silver, and the other is a 1:43 scale TrueScale 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I in silver over black..... both winning bids for me. David

I am getting ' Site Cannot be Reached ' type screen, and I am using the Opera browser with Windows 10....... will try Clearing the browser Cache / History. David

Oops sorry...... missed your line at the bottom...... They became a specialized engine stand. David

It's a big cooling FAN to keep the workshop cool ? David

You have done a nice job on this build so far, Steve....... and I was also wondering where you got hold of a 1960 Peterbilt model truck..... looks like 1:25 or 1:24 scale to me? David

I was reading your very interesting article about the 1993 Rolls-Royce Corniche IV, Tim...... but I didn't see any mention of which company produced this diecast model car of yours? This is not the Franklin Mint version of the car, by the looks of it, and I presume this is 1:24 scale? Among my collection of both Rolls-Royce and Bentley scale model cars, I do have a damaged Corniche in a sort of Ivory cream colour, although I tend to concentrate on earlier cars, up to 1960. David

1:24 scale is quite a nice scale in which to work, Michelle........ but of course, the diorama takes up lots more space than the same diorama in 1:72 scale. The 3D-printed SS Minnow boat is a large model at 19 inches in length, and it is very realistic too. Nice work you've done on the 1:24 figures, which are so much easier to work on than say 1:43 scale........ the two dioramas that I am currently working on, are both in 1:43 scale, but my previous diorama was in 1:24 scale, and there are some really good figures available..... such as those from ICM, which is a Ukraine company, and they are easily assembled from around 12 pieces. David

Yes, Don...... the static grass is probably the best way to disguise the slight gap between the pillars and the pavement, and I did use the static grass to hide the gap between the Hooper factory building and the baseboard. I must see the 2001 A Space Odyssey film...... can't think how I missed it all those years ago! David

I like the plans on the table, Pat....... and the two guys discussing the next project. As regards the photo of the Ferrari engine, I did not notice the front cover was not the same colour as your model engine..... I thought you might like it as a reference photo. David

Many thanks for your kind words, Don..... and you are absolutely right, those stone pillars do need to be secured properly to the pavement below. I have to admit that I was going to leave them as they are, but I agree with you in thinking they must appear to be ' grounded '. ( I have not seen the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey that you mention, but it does sound like the same scenario ). The pillar you see on the right hand side could be glued or cemented to the ground, but the two pillars over to the left have the brass rod railing slotted into them, and they fit very precisely onto the ends of the low wall. What makes this tricky, is that the end of the wall to the centre of the diorama extends onto the terraced house diorama baseboard, so is not quite on the factory diorama baseboard. David

Here is some further photography, showing the two 1:43 scale dioramas joined up together, and this time using the 100 watt daylight bulb for lighting. You can see that Duke's Road, which is where the bus is waiting at the bus shelter, is not perceived as being part of the terraced houses diorama, but has now become the road that runs between the factory building and the houses. The main entrance to the factory site, with the two stone posts creates a way of leading the eye of the viewer into both the forecourt of the factory frontage, as well as the road ahead. David

Those modelalice.com backgrounds look really impressive, Gary..... ( couple of nice Ford GT40's too, I notice! ). David

Extremely realistic, Bruce...... and if we had not been told this was a model car, it could easily be mistaken for the real 1:1 car...... your build, the paint and the decals all brilliant ! David

Assembly of the wall, the iron railing and the gate posts is now completed....... the fully painted wall is super glued to the baseboard, while the railing and posts assembly is removable, because the join between the two diorama baseboards is actually to the left of the left gate post. This means that the last 5 mm of the wall is super glued to the terraced house diorama baseboard, and not the factory diorama baseboard..... oops ! ( unexpected modification required methinks ). I managed to draw a template for the curved portion of the outer post and fabricate this out of two pieces of foamcore. The brass rod passes all the way through the layers of foamcore into a pre-drilled hole in the wooden post. David

My guess, is that it is an engine...... but not just ANY engine....... David

What's in the crate, Pat?..... What's in the crate? David