Dr. Cranky

Since this is going to be one of those industrial warehouse, I wanted to be able to also get trucks inside . . . so I made the entrance doors taller . . . I don't model big rigs, but you never know . . . Tommy May (who built the model pictured here) drove by to say hello . . . Plenty of room indeed . . .

I want the place to give me both high angle and low angle shots without having to worry about framing . . . so I made the side walls a bit taller in order to get plenty of room for working with the camera . . . Later, I can crop out stuff I don't need in the frame . . . Notice the base of the floor looks weird and striped, that's because I sprayed a bit of dark paint to get the cracks and groves on the plaster a bit darker . . . again, more on the base later . . .

I put the base aside in order for it to cure and dry properly, and turned my attention to the side walls of this photo-op structure . . . and since I am math impaired, I brought out my handy dandy helpers . . . a 1/24th scale figure and a scale card which has seen me through several projects now . . . The side panels are Gatorboard sections running lengthwise on two sides of the base . . . as you can see I've started to sketch out the dimensions of the door and windows . . . and a few other details . . .

When mixing up a batch of plaster or hydrocal I like to use cold water because it slows down the setting, but this stuff sets in about 20 minutes which gives you plenty of time to smooth the surface and get read of all the air bubbles . . . in this case I got everything just right in one try . . .. With a ruler and a hobby knife I scored some lines on the surface of the plaster (you'll see why later) . . . and brushed the still-soft surface to create a bit of texture.

The first thing I did was run to Home Depot and get a piece of 3/4" plywood cut to 24"x14" dimensions . . . After sanding and smoothing out the edges (this thing is going to be handled quite a bit so the last thing I want are splinters), I screwed in 3/4" wood screws to give the impending plaster something to hold on to. I took 2-sided type and built a frame all around the base to hold in the plaster when I poured it . . . Which looked like this: In this instance, I am using dentist grade hydrocal with acrylic paint from Woodland Scenes mixed in to get as close to concrete as possible.

We've all seen these great jalopies and customs photographed inside abandoned (and not so abandoned) warehouses and industrial looking buildings . . . in magazines. There's something about bright, fresh-painted hot rods set against a background of gunk and decomposing metal. Now that the economy has tanked and all the jobs have gone elsewhere, these places are becoming more prevalent in our cities. I've always wanted to be able to photograph my models against such a background, so short of shooting on location, I decided to build my own photo-op base and background for the next round of models being build in Dr. Cranky's Laboratory, so join in the journey of this build in progress. I hope it will turn out to be fun and a worthwhile project.

It's close, it's close. Thanks.

Wonderful details throughout!

Excellent execution. Love the turn table idea . . . love the finish too.

That IS very cool. Wonderful job, buddy.

Donald, it sounds like you have a solid plan. I am 48 and I've been buying up models for exactly that reason and now I have a garage full of kits, but they are only the kits that I truly care to build . . . yes, you guess it, they are mostly Revell kits with a few Tamiya thrown in. My only concern is that politicians keep talking about raising the retirement age. There's talk of raising it to 70, and that just will not do.

Smooth, clean finish, can't beat that! Congrats.

Oh my, my jaw has fallen to the floor . . . amazing!!!! This is going to be one of those kits where a dozen will just not be enough!

Yes, please I'm already drooling and I haven't seen any pictures of the kit . . . .PLEASE.

Chuck, are there people smoking on the inside--the windows are fogged up? :lol:

Thanks, Skip, those look pretty interesting choices.

I started buying Tamiya Model Magazine when I dropped my subscription to the OTHER model car magazine.

I get mine at the magazine stands at Books-A-Million.

Jim, it's been around since the 70s, I think, and it focuses mostly on military vehicles, although they try to do a car every so often. Mr. Kustov writes for them periodically.

Tamiya Model Magazine has an color guide insert in the latest issue . . . they will publish four in total which gives you the paint system number for every manufacturer, at a glance. Can't get any easier than that.

Yes, yes, that's it. That's the blue I am talking about . . . I love those pictures of the vehicles out on the flats. Perfect. Thank you.

Yeah, in the coming year . . . that would be cool. Who knows what Tommy May is up to these days . . . he used to hang out on the forums a bit more than he does now. Maybe the TZH came for him finally and took him away.

Wow, it delights DOCTOR CRANKY to no end to see so many wonderful (rusty, dusty, and gunky) rides on your workbenches! Congrats to youse all!

Gee, I can't believe I just stuck to one year ford!

Dave, the colors is a bit brighter and darker than that! You can't confuse it for any other blue.