1900's dio

[GTMust]

I've been building a lot of 1/32 scale vehicles of all eras over the years and finally decided they needed a location for photo ops.

This (incomplete) dio in 1/32 scale is intended to represent a small general store and a service facility for those "new fangled auti-mobeels" of the early 1900's up to the 1920's. It was the first one I built and still needs a lot of work to complete. I started it last winter. The location is somewhere in the US or Canada. This one has been on hold for a while but I will get back to it

The red 1903 Ford Model A is an original Highway Pioneers plastic kit, the white roadster is a diecast 1907 Ford model A, and the big red tourer is a Pyro 1911 Stevens-Duryea.

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, a base like this will always make all your models and pictures stand out. Nice display base too. Love it!

[GTMust]

Thank you Doc. I kneel at the feet of the "Master".

[Dr. Cranky]

You known that porch could use a couple of those Cracker Barrel style rocking chairs!

[GTMust]

Something like this, maybe? Or perhaps cleaned up just a little!

[Chuck Doan]

That is a great concept and time period! Look forward to seeing how it comes out.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Chuck Doan

[Dr. Cranky]

Man, I love that picture . . . Shorpy is a great site!

[Eshaver]

Tony , you are a very prolific diorama builder . Always nice to see the old Gowland and Goland kits ! My father built a Ford Model T back I guess about 1955. I still have it from where it sat for years displayed in a glass case in a antique Grandfather Clock. Ed Shaver

[GTMust]

Thanks Ed.

I have a whole collection of the old Gowland/Highway Pioneers... then Revell.... in 1/32 scale. They're really neat, everything from the 1895 Duryea, Curved Dash Olds, Studebaker Electric, through Stutz, Mercers, Fords and you name it from the early automobile pioneering days. They were pretty basic, almost toy like, but with patience could be made into fairly accurate little models. And Pyro/Life Like had some beautiful 1/32 scale early brass cars that were extrememly accurate right out of the box. Lindberg now has a couple of them available from the original molds.

Here's a couple more from my collection of Highway Pioneers:

A 1904 Rambler and an Sears high wheeler:

And a Mercer racer (pretty much scratchbuilt using a warped Gowland Mercer kit as the base) and the Rambler again.

But that's enough cars here... back to the diaramas.....

[Harry P.]

I like the diorama... but I love the cars! Beautiful!

[GTMust]

Thanks Harry,

Not many people seem to be building in 1/32 scale any more (if they are they're not talking about it!). That's a shame as there are still a lot of old kits out there, even though most of them are becoming collector's items and the asking prices on Ebay are getting silly. But they take up a lot less space than the bigger scales on the display shelves..... Unfortunately there's very little, if anything, available in the way of accessories for period diaramas. Slot car fans can still get a lot of 1/32 scale more modern and specific, race oriented "stuff" though.

Maybe we'll see a few more 1/32 scale models show up on the forum?

Tony

[dannyi]

Great looking dio Tony, and what a nice collection of turn of the century cars! Keep us posted, not too many people modeling this scale and time period.

[GTMust]

Thanks Daniel.

It's interesting that the 1/32 scale diecasts of antique and vintage cars sell like crazy. Some of them are pretty accurate (Signature series for example), yet plastic model manufacturer's gave up on this scale years ago. I guess the market just isn't... or wasn't... there.

But I guess the world, and people's interests have changed. Pity.

[charlie8575]

Nice job so far.

I have most of the Minicraft-issue Highway Pioneers I built when I was in 5th and 6th grade, and I'd like to rebuild them someday. Or perhaps get some new, unbuilt ones and try 'em again.

I do have most, if not all, of the Pyro 1/32 brass cars and a fair number of the Life-Like ones, many of which were simply re-issued Pyros. I'd love to get them built and make some kind of nice display, and you're giving me an idea as to how to do it.

Thanks for that.

Charlie Larkin

[vaughn]

Like the Dio idea of the time period. The autos and lack of scale models is interesting.

[GTMust]

If you do decide to go ahead with a 1/32 scale dio, you will keep us posted.... won't you?

I'd love to see your ideas in this time period.

[unclescott58]

I'm working on the Pyro 1911 Stevens-Duryea Touring right now. Doing a general web search lead me to this thread. Very cool. I love some of those early horseless carriages. It's fun to build something different from time to time. Just finished MPC's Stutz Bearcat a couple of weeks ago.