Steve H

Thanks Craig! Much appreciated.

Hi Scott, BC Hobbies, (formerly BC Shaver And Hobby) is a great hobby shop. They have new ownership (2years ago) and a new location in Hillside mall. They have started carrying some high quality tools, paints, etc., definitely worth a look. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Phil !! I was thinking if we do the “three of a kind” theme at our local show again, this would be a perfect place to park them. I’ve got three ‘62’s, and three El Camino’s. Thanks for having a look, always nice to here from you.

Hi Greg! Yes sir, and to keep them from backing into the wall!! If you look at the sketch they are on there. Haven’t made them yet, but I plan on using some slightly modified carpenters pencils. I will drill them and use wire, (probably from a paper clip), as the “rebar” to hold them in place. You sir, are always sharp as a tack when it comes to details. Thanks for the input, and for taking the time to have a look. It’s kinda lonely over here in the dio section…. I will be back on the Blazer soon, but it will likely be a drawn out build for me. Yours is looking fantastic. Cheers, Steve

Sheeesh Bob, this is amazing fabrication. I love Elky’s and Rancheros, I will be following with great interest. The bed looks perfect. This is one of those builds that I will look back on for reference as I will be doing another phantom Elky at some point. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Bill. So far it’s been fun, I’m enjoying the “eyeball engineering” as I go. There is a balance of doing enough, but not too much. Of course everyone’s eye sees that balance differently. My goal is to add SOME visual interest, but once a model is introduced, that this just becomes background. Thanks for checking in again. Cheers, Steve

Hi Jim, nice details as always. I really like how you approached the rear axle. Keeping it somewhat simple, but also adding some much needed detail and filling in the big voids. These are big beautiful cars, the trunk could sleep six! I’ll be following along sir. Cheers, Steve

Hi Luke! The Lambo paint is amazing…. Well, actually all your paint jobs are pretty spectacular. Nice mock up of the micro truck, wheels/tires/and stance look spot on mate.

Got a bit more done on the landscaping. After playing with some grass in the pavement cracks, I liked it and applied it in a few areas. I may add a bit more, but I don’t want to overdo it. It’s a combination of some moss from my yard, and some scale grass from the LHS. Ground cover is scale railway ballast, the “river rock” border is pea gravel from my yard. The bushes are moss. Lots of cleanup and fine tuning to do yet. Above the boulder wall, I “planted” some grasses and some synthetic shrubs from the LHS. Next up will be finishing the rest of the ground cover, then planting some grass. More soon!

Hi Francis, very sorry for your loss. Stay well my friend. Steve

Great idea for a diorama Scott. I really enjoy watching what people are able to print for projects now. Not sure I’m savy enough to try it. I’m along for the ride. By the way “ twokidsnosleep” absolutely cracked me up first time I read it, gave my wife a good chuckle too. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Scott! Ya, last year when cleaning out a kitchen drawer came across the garlic press (never used, we have a much better one) and thought hmmmmm….could be a drain for a diorama, scales almost perfect for a 2’ casting. It was fun foraging in the yard for the rocks etc. I will share a photo or two of my 1:1 landscaping here when closer to complete. Yes! we are FINALLY getting some sun and heat!! Feels good. We are crossing the straight tomorrow, my wife is going to Thunderbird in Langley to show her horse for the next 2 weeks. I’m going for the day to help set up. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Tony! It’s been a fun project so far. I appreciate your kind words.

Thanks Bruce, grass in the cracks is on my “maybe” list. I’m definitely going to try it, and if it looks good I will keep it. A little around the edge of the drain would be appropriate. Thanks for the input!

Hi Bill, your shop diorama is fantastic, I have admired it several times. Hopefully you will find something useful here, but I am sort of winging it, and learning as I go. Thanks for having a look.

Very nice build of this kit. I recently bought one and look forward to building this kit again. My first effort was a bit rough…

Awesome stuff Glen. Very nice slicing and dicing indeed.

Got a bit of the landscaping started today. The boulder wall is complete. I have had the pleasure of working with a fantastic machine operator over the years who builds amazing 1:1 boulder walls. He and I (mostly him) have built some really nice walls together. The “boulders” scale as roughly 18”-30” in size. The shiny resin will be covered by grass. The “boulders are 1” stones from my property, tried to find some interesting stones with some character. Still haven’t made final decision on ground cover above wall. Raised beds are MDF shaped with drum sander. More soon

Thanks Jim! IIRC you have a nice photo backdrop. One of several on this forum that inspired this. Thank you sir!

Hi Grant, I appreciate your input. You’re thinking like an engineer, I love it! I have 2 options for the grass, haven’t made a final decision yet. The edge will be clean, but not too crisp. You did just give me the idea of some runoff stains… hmmm. Thanks!

Hi guys, I have been wanting to create a base for photographing my cars. Some of you on here have some amazing backdrops and shop dioramas. I intend to try a building backdrop at some point, but for now this is better than nothing. The plan is to combine my career (civil construction/road building), my passion for landscaping, my enjoyment from from creating things from wood, and our wonderful hobby. This is my first diorama, so I’m keeping it fairly simple. This will be built to look like the corner of a parking lot. I started with a quick, close to scale, and slightly crude sketch. I love drafting and always like to have a visual reference. A walk around the yard to appropriate some supplies. The small driftwood twigs were from a local beach collected years ago for use on birdhouses. The base is 1/2” plywood which is 19” by 24”, the hole in it will make sense later… For the “asphalt” I chose 220 sandpaper. Parking lots and driveways typically use a smaller aggregate in the mix compared to roads and highways, which would typically be a coarser aggregate, for a highway 120 would probably be a better choice. Instead of gluing the sandpaper down with square edge’s butted together, I had the idea of creating “cracks” in the pavement as would likely occur naturally over time. So I overlapped the paper and cut a random edge. The results after cutting… After gluing these in place, I added a few more random “cracks” with the back side of an old #11 blade. I intensionally had the joints “not perfect” to try and help the realism of cracking. These joints got various treatments of white glue, and semi gloss acrylic house paint left over from painting the house trim last year. The intent being that some of the cracks look like they had crack sealer applied. The sandpaper was misted with several different shades of grey, flat black, tan, and white. Pavement isn’t usually black! In my area the aggregate has lots of granite in it, thus the white flecks. I know some areas the roads are almost brown, areas in Washington State the roads are quite green. All this depends on the stone in the mix. So after some paint it looks like this… Now about that hole… All parking lots need proper drainage! So when I prepared the plywood base, I actually took some time with my palm sander to create a “slope” to the hole. The drain cover is part of an old garlic press painted with some red oxide primer and flat black. I still have some “finessing” to do on the cracks, but overall I’m pleased with it so far. In the background you will notice I have started some landscaping, including raised beds and a boulder stack wall. More on those once I progress a bit further. Oh ya, the white lines were simply masked off and painted with white primer, 4mm wide which is scale for a typical 4” road marking. As always any comments, tips are welcome. This is a new avenue for me but it’s fun blending all my favourite things into one creation. Thanks for having a look! Cheers, Steve

Wow! Very nice work Greg. Lots of great scratch building. The heater core looks good ?, I wasn’t sure about doing a cage in mine, but you got me thinking now?. Curious how warped your roof was? It looks like yours sits level across the windshield when square on the body, mine isn’t. It won’t matter, as I will be gluing mine in place. I like the idea of pins tho, and may do that on my future Jimmy build. The tires look fantastic after being blasted, big difference.

The rear spoiler on the Baldwin Motion car is also a bit chunky. I removed the extra “meat” below the spoiler when I did my pro touring build.

Oh ya, looking good in blue. The colour really brings all the bodywork together Roger. Looks fantastic as is, but….. If you can sneak the rear down a couple inches it’s a definite home run. Cheers, Steve

Another beauty Roger, love your builds. Probably my favourite colour on these, including the white stripes. I need a Phantom Vicky!! or 2 or 3. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Steve