PHPaul

The rumors of my passing are premature...? Busy Summer, converted a 20x24 toolshed into a heated shop. Hung a ceiling, insulated ceiling and walls with as much as I could fit in, covered everything with sheetrock, wired it, plumbed the air drops, installed a hot air furnace and moved all my 1:1 toys down there. A LOT of work and put a heck of a dent in my toy fund, but I was tired of working in an unheated garage. Now that it's late Fall, it's time to get back to modeling and working on the diorama. Still adding details here and there as they occur (or are suggested) to me. One suggestion was to add power lines. I had considered it earlier but was wary of the delicate nature of scale overhead wires. I finally settled on one 3 phase line and service drop to the shop and we'll assume everything else is fed via underground cables. I have the poles "planted" on the layout and am working on stringing the lines. More pix when it's finished. Someone mentioned that with all the tractors on the diorama, the occasional flat tire would be inevitable and adding a guy working on a tire would be appropriate. I found a suitable figure on a 3D printing website and resized to fit. Several suggestions were made about my grain handling options and some are under construction. A dump truck with a grain body on it was one, so I whipped the box and up on TinkerCAD and printed it out. The cylinder is just telescoping bits of Plastruct tubing. Also realized I needed a gas pump for all the farm vehicles, so designed and printed a 50's-style globe top pump. I've designed and printed out several items for a "grain leg". Basically, this is a conveyor/auger system for moving grain from bins to the dryer and back to storage bins, as well as unloading bins when grain is marketed. I'll post some pictures when that part of the project is a little further along.

Stunning work!

My approach to organization sort of evolves as my stash grows. At the moment, this set of cubby holes handles my plastic and brass shapes and the stand on top handles most of my paint. . I find that some PVC pipe glued to a square of plastic works well for storing brushes, pens, pipettes and such. I also made a couple to hold my glue bottles upside down so they're ready when I am.

Thank you, Roy. As/If/When I add more details and scenes, I'll update this post.

Nice! Major flashback for me, I had a 1:1 '69 Nova SS, 350/350. Green with a black interior. The green was a couple of shades darker than that, but it's close. Only "performance" car I've ever owned, wish I had it back!

Thanks, David. I know what you mean but for me it's not 'work' , it's therapy! I

Thank you!

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

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.

"Assembling" or "building from scratch"? Assembling my Creality took less than an hour with really, REALLY cryptic instructions. Building is a whole other story.

Thanks, Gregory! I've been having way too much fun working on it. I add details here and there as they occur to me. I

Thank you, Bill. The resin printer explains a lot of it, I just have a PLA/ABS filament printer.

Gorgeous! Can you tell us about the printer, material, software and post-print processes you used to get those magnificent prints?

Thanks so much for all the kind comments! Gives me the courage to try something requiring a little more modification. '66 Nova this time, I'll post in WIP when there's something worth posting.

If you have access to a 3d printer, there are some on Thingiverse that look pretty good, tho I haven't actually printed one. Also, the open-mesh sandpaper used for sanding drywall joints might make a convincing radiator, depending on the scale.

1/16 would be the biggest I could use. Among other things, I want to file fishmouths into round stock for building frames and roll cages.

Yup, I have several but that's too big for my intended use.

Back in March of 2020, a poster mentioned finding some straight round files in sizes appropriate to modeling: See this post I PM'd him, but he hasn't posted in a long time. I've looked all over - McMaster-Carr, Amazon, Micromark, Ebay - and can't find any straight files. Tapered Swiss-pattern, yes. Straight - no. I'd REALLY like to have a set. Does anyone have a source?

This appears to have wound up under the wrong heading somehow... Edit 2: Oops. Misread the thread title. Mods please delete.

Works for me!

Version 2 got some scale issues fixed, some details removed and others added, and a better paint job. The original was gloss black and it looked overdone. This one is flat gunmetal, much more realistic IMHO. Still not perfect, but plenty good enough for a diorama viewed from 3 or 4 feet away.

The metal roofing is from Northeastern Scale Lumber. HO scale is close enough for the diorama which is actually S scale. Corrugated Metal Roofing in various scales.

After looking at Version 1 of the steamer for a few days, I decided to start from scratch and build V2 using more 3D printed parts. I redesigned some pieces and tweaked others to correct scale issues. It's assembled and in paint now, I'll post pictures in a day or two. Meanwhile, I'm adding details here and there on the diorama. I added an abandoned cellar hole near the sawmill. My thinking is it was the original cabin on the farm from back in the 1800's. As such holes often do, it's collected some random junk. I built a dilapidated shed to park the steamer under and added a coal bin next to the shed, using Black Diamond Coal Slag blasting media as the coal.

Black Diamond Coal Slag blasting media makes excellent scale coal. Probably best for S (1:64) and HO scales.

World-class weathering! I've owned a few Chevy/GMC pickups of that era and you nailed it. I saved a couple of those pictures to give me a goal for my next build.