GTMust

I love street scene dios! Tony

If the new kit is too much (both in size and cash) how about the Airfix 1/32 scale London "Old Bill Bus"..... or is this not what you had in mind Doc? I've already built it, so I won't be joining in, but thought others may like to know if it would qualify. Or did you intend this to be a "One kit only" build? Tony

Verry yummee! One of the nicest II's I seen. Both the model and the real thing..... Tony

I really like the realistic looking construction of the building. A lot of time and material to achieve it, but the end result is really worth the effort! Looking forward to following this as it progresses...... Tony

Ed... that defies the theory of supply and demand...... I think? Ha ha! Tony

Great work Ed. Glad you posted, so I can catch up on what you've been up to! Tony

Manny..... you have hidden talent. Where have you been? This dio has incredible character and feeling! It's difficult to achieve this...... but you get major credit for doing so! Excellent work, and hopefully we'll see more diaramas from you, including the progress photos. Seeing it come together is the interesting part for me. Tony

Terry (ARTEMIS)..... Thanks for the nice comment. I like the old British sports cars, even if they were a nightmare to actually own! Terry (Vaughan)... all the walls on all my buildings are started with 3/16" foamcore board and then either covered with styrene sheet, prefinished 3D styrene sheet or a thin coat of spackling for plaster and basswood trim and then painted.... depending on what finish I want. The start of this thread, the "Thomasville" thread and the "modern street scene" should show the start of the process. You could also refer to an older thread I posted on my 1/24 scale double car garage, which goes into a lot of my construction methods (maybe too many!). Hadi... the roof is 3 dimensional styrene sheet which I get from "Model Builders Supply", and comes in all kinds of sizes and textures, just applied over the foamcore board with double sided tape. I believe that Evergreen and maybe Plastrut have similar products. My local LHS also carries some unknown brand products of the same type. Tony

At 1/43 scale your models (and photographs) are excellent! Well done! Let's see more..... Tony

Add my wide eyed stare of amazement to all the other comments here!!!!!!! Tony

Lovin' it! Great work.... full of character. I love the 60's style stereo and TV.... plus all the other little details. Tony

Thanks for all the nice comments. I really appreciate the feedback. Tony

Magnificent Randy......! You're doing us Canucks proud! Tony

Should be on "Search and Restore". Great work and excellent paint. Tony

This is the era of autos I love, so I'm looking forward to watching this. I believe this was originally an MPC kit sold by Airfix in the UK (or vice versa). I have the roadster version built (like you) many moons ago and another to build... hopefully to a better standard than the first one! Great period style colors Geoff.... kinda yucky but nice! If it's anything like your Moggie, it'll be a knockout! Tony

Definitely unusual, interesting, a little weird, innovative, impressive, strange, and well executed! I'm liking it! Tony

Another afternoon and a little more progress. I've completed the display windows and started to add some detail to the storefront walls.

It's really coming together nicely. One trick I used with HO scale buildings... that you may want to consider(?)... is a way to get mortar lines in brickwork when the plastic is brick color. Give the whole surface a coat of off white or light gray acrylic paint. When it's dry, scrape the surface of the sheet, the bricks will be exposed and the mortar will stay in the joints. I used either coarse sandpaper or blunt exacto knife. Experiment on a spare piece first to get the texture you want. Probably something you already knew, but maybe it might help other diarama builders? Tony

I've started on the storefronts and the signboards above each store using different thicknesses of styrene sheet. I have installed a back wall to each of the display areas.... which means I have to make the "glass" windows removeable to get at the displays themselves.... which I shall design later. First I framed up the floor of each display and then added some glass "stops" for the windows: Then I cut a piece of front "glass" for each display window: Starting with the right side store, I installed a ceiling, more "glass" stops... and the angled side "glass". A piece of 1/8" x 1/8" basswood strip holds the "glass" in place:

Yes Dave.... I did some model railroads a while back... both in HO and N scale, but I lost interest in them after they were built. And they took up so much space! Now they've all been dismantled and a lot of the buildings, etc. sold off. I've been building aircraft, cars and motorbikes, etc. since the early fifties, but cars are, and have always been, my main passion. These diaramas came into being when I got involved in forums and needed some backgrounds to pose my models against for photos. Now they've become a whole new branch of modelling for me... especially during the winter, when I can't spray paint the cars outdoors. I'm even getting more interested in photography, something I was never into before. But still a lot to learn and a limited budget to work with. I'm getting a lot of great inspiration from guys like yourself on the forum. Tony

Thanks for posting this Ed. Hoping to see more of your work. Tony

Glad to see you now on this forum Dannyl. How's the rebuilding of this dio coming along after the accident? I haven't been watching the "other" forum. Maybe these are updated photos... you had the second floor already finished? Tony

Is this a project your working on.... or just a computer design excercise? It would certainly make a great (but huge) diarama. I would love to see it being built. I'm a little confused about your intention. Maybe I'm just missing something? Tony

Wow Ed... that is praise indeed...... But Ken and the Doc are way out of my league. I've not seen any of Custom Creator's work and only a little of yours... but what I have seen has inspired me with my projects. Terry..... yes.... we need you to get some progress made on the barn..... and some more photos posted! Tony

I've got the porch roof on...... and installed a door and frame..... on the Wells Fargo office. The town is starting to shape up.....