Hooper & Co Diorama

[Anglia105E]

The new figure has arrived from Detailed Miniatures, which is the same company that does the mother and pram figure. I see this chap as the Hooper factory foreman, and he is a white metal figure. The seated gentleman on the bench is a Shapeways 3d printed figure that I painted myself.

Abandoned the idea of creating the gate posts out of plaster or clay, and instead I've chosen wooden posts which will have some art deco features and will be painted clotted cream. There will be a brass rail running the full length of the low wall, mounted into drilled holes at the posts.

 

David

[Anglia105E]

The Art Deco gate posts are under construction, and these structures are quite a complex shape to assemble. I still need to add the curved part of each post that sweeps down to the railing. Using a brass rod painted black for the cast iron railing, and as the reference photo of the Hooper factory building is 1935 the railing would have been cast iron, and not steel. The sides of the foamcore are a bit rough, so these will need to be smoother. I would have liked to sculpt the gate posts using Plaster of Paris..... which I might still attempt?

David

[Anglia105E]

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

[Anglia105E]

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

[DonW]

Fantastically evocative, although dare I suggest the stone pillars need 'rooting' to the pavement? At the moment they appear reminiscent of the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey, complete in themselves but not integrated with the rest of the scene.

If this is still WIP I apologise - 'Fools and children...'

Cheers,

-Don.

[Anglia105E]

16 minutes ago, DonW said:

Fantastically evocative, although dare I suggest the stone pillars need 'rooting' to the pavement? At the moment they appear reminiscent of the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey, complete in themselves but not integrated with the rest of the scene.

If this is still WIP I apologise - 'Fools and children...'

Cheers,

-Don.

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

[DonW]

Maybe some of the artificial grass is your friend with this problem, but you're the expert.

Here's the monolith from a scene in the film in all it's glory:

It's a great film.

All the best,

-Don.

[Anglia105E]

5 hours ago, DonW said:

Maybe some of the artificial grass is your friend with this problem, but you're the expert.

Here's the monolith from a scene in the film in all it's glory:

It's a great film.

All the best,

-Don.

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

[Anglia105E]

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

[Anglia105E]

2 minutes ago, Anglia105E said:

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

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

[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

[Anglia105E]

Today, I set up a scene for a photo shoot........ this is nearing the end of a working day at the Hooper & Co factory and the factory manager is making sure that the last Rolls-Royce motor car parked outside is put away for the night. I used a small LED torch, which I placed inside the factory building, and pointing towards the doorway. The model car is a 1:43 TrueScale Miniatures 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I in silver over black. This model is more accurate and also more realistic than the Oxford Diecast version of the Silver Cloud.

David

[landman]

Nice mood.

[Anglia105E]

53 minutes ago, landman said:

Nice mood.

Thanks, Pat....... but I have just noticed, after I had taken these photos, the factory windows are all blacked out. Really, I should have at least some of the windows able to show light from an interior source. The top opening windows could look particularly interesting, and I should be able to cut a few out carefully.

Here are a few photos of the TrueScale version of the Silver Cloud...... and the address on the box was Chino, California USA.

David

[tbill]

Coming along fantastically! 

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, tbill said:

Coming along fantastically! 

Thank you for your words of encouragement, Tom....... and  here is a photo of one of the opening top windows of the factory frontage, along with a photo of the size difference between the driver's side window of the TrueScale Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, and the Oxford Diecast version of the model car..... the height of the side window is 8.5 mm on the TrueScale version, while it is only 8.0 mm on the Oxford Diecast, which makes a considerable difference to the overall body shape and roof line of the car. In my view, the TrueScale Silver Cloud looks much more realistic and accurate.

David

[Anglia105E]

These few black & white photographs show the 1:43 scale Rolls-Royce 25 / 30 Thrupp and Maberly, and this motor car is parked outside some Victorian terraced houses. The driver can be seen keeping a watchful eye on the motor car from an alley that runs around the properties. His boss is visiting a client who lives in one of these houses. Possibly, the driver should have given some thought to his choice of parking place, which appears to be obstructing the bus stop..........

David

[DonW]

Billie J Kramer...!

And that other no-hope beat combo. Didn't they know guitar bands are on their way out?

My sisters used to go to gigs like that.

Cheers,

-Don.

[Anglia105E]

17 minutes ago, DonW said:

Billie J Kramer...!

And that other no-hope beat combo. Didn't they know guitar bands are on their way out?

My sisters used to go to gigs like that.

Cheers,

-Don.

Maybe also, the Shadows, The Searchers, The Hollies....... they all sounded alright in their day, but now we look back and view them somewhat differently.

David

[Anglia105E]

Rolling out of the Hooper & Co factory we have this 1949 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn in silver, which has been undergoing some routine servicing by the factory engineers. This is the 1:43 scale version of the car, by TrueScale Miniatures, and as can be seen from one of the following photos, the Oxford Diecast version of the same car is a full 5 mm shorter in overall length.

David

[Anglia105E]

I have assembled and hand painted this 1:43 scale greenhouse, which is a white metal kit by S&D Models....... I made all the glass panes myself, which were not included in the kit, and as you can see, I fabricated a small wooden jig to make sure that the first two sides of the greenhouse were lined up nice and straight. Two part epoxy was used for the white metal parts, and Crystal Clear adhesive was used for the clear acetate parts. There is still some ' pointing ' to add with the mortar between the bricks.

There is an area behind the Victorian terraced houses that is bare MDF at the moment, but this will have a short extension to the road, along with a white five bar gate, a short section of red brick wall, a small car parking area of grey tarmac and a grassy area around the greenhouse.

David

[Gramps46]

This is going to be a really nice addition.  Anxious to see what plants you will be adding.

[landman]

I am liking this David.

 

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, Gramps46 said:

This is going to be a really nice addition.  Anxious to see what plants you will be adding.

Thanks, Gary....... I thought about a wooden shelf that goes around three sides of the greenhouse inside, and as you suggested, a few plants would be in order...... possibly tomatoes? The roof does not come off, so I would have to push the shelves and tomato plants up from the base, which is still open.

David

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, landman said:

I am liking this David.

 

Thank you, Pat...... and I thought the terraced houses part of the diorama needed a greenhouse, along with a white five bar gate that leads into a small car park, with some more of the static grass where the greenhouse will be located.

David