The Playland Penny Arcade

[vaughn]

Ken..what scale is the brick wall or these buildings ? Is the brick scratch built or a sheet ? Looks awesome !!

[KHamilton]

Terry:

This is 1/25th-scale. The two apartment building brick walls were hand-scribed on sheets of Hydrocal I poured. The size of the bricks isn't correct (they're too short) but it's too late to change now.

[Dr. Cranky]

Beautiful work, Ken. Of course, the 1:1 research always pays off, doesn't it. You are moving this one further along. I can see it done for the NNL East! Eat more scrapple, take your vitamins, you are almost there.

[Romell R]

I love your stuff ken , can you write a book just for me? LOL! I would get my left.....um no I wont , Well Id pay alot of......um I dont have that stuff,... well looks like were back to the book Ken So how bout it? Great Job and I do want to be a good dio builder where do you suggest I get started? Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Danno]

As always, Ken .... unfreekin'believeable!!!!

Life's always good when there's a new Ken Hamilton project unfolding before your very eyes!

[Dr. Cranky]

Rommel, the book exists, but well . . . the prices are astronomical!

[KHamilton]

One of the things I like about building dioramas is that somewhere in the process

they develop a life of their own and details get added on the spur of the moment.

The hole in the bricked-up second floor window was going to be simply a hole,

but I thought maybe it could serve as a basis for an inconspicuous detail...

....so I made this quickie box with some general details for inside the "hole":

An LED behind the plastic curtain over the door creates this effect:

Here's the box placed inside the Arcade building behind the hole in the brick wall.

The LED at the top center of the door is on, but you can't really tell in this picture

Here's what all this is trying to achieve. When the viewer notices the light and peeks in

the "hole", a small and somewhat difficult to see interior room will present itself.

Not something you might notice the first time around, but something to keep you

interested during the second or third look......

[Austin T]

You......are........AMAZING!!

[gasser59]

Every inconspicuous detail is a masterpiece in itself. Thanks so much for sharing your amazing creations with us Ken.

Edited March 1, 2012 by gasser59

[Dr. Cranky]

Hamilton, this build is rising to be one of your very best. And the clock is ticking to the NNL East, but Ken Hamilton never breaks into a sweat.

[GTMust]

Ken..... you're driving me nuts!!!! Everytime I think one of my dios is finished, you come up with these little extra details... and suddenly mine are totally unfinished! Now I've got to start thinking about what to put behind my windows. As if I didn't already have enough unfinished projects!!!!

Tony

[KHamilton]

If you scroll up to the Arcade facade photo, you'll notice the other window opening on the right.

I decided to fill that space with the back side of a plaster lath wall that was installed during a previous renovation.

Those of us who have done work on old houses have seen plaster lath walls - thin

strips of wood nailed across the studs and covered with plaster. Viewed from the

back, the plaster that oozed through the space between the strips had lots of

visual interest. Building a plaster lath wall in scale is done the same way as the

old craftsmen used to do it. First, I framed a wall with scale 2'x 4" lumber. I squared

up this wall over graph paper:

The lath was done with thin, pre-stained strip stock:

From the back, the wall will look like this with the lath strips in place:

Next, I applied spackle to the front of the wall with a styrene trowel, squeezing a little

bit through the spaces between the lath strips:

From the front, the finished wall looks like this. Since this side of the wall won't be

seen, I'll leave it like this. If it were going to show, I'd sand this side and apply a finish

coat of spackle:

The INTERESTING side of the wall is the back:

In some spots, too much spackle oozed through, but that's easily chipped off

with a toothpick after everything dries:

Here's the back side of the wall in place in front of the former window opening.

I still need to dirty it up a little bit. Again, not a detail that will jump out, but it

adds a little more interest to the scene:

Thanks for looking........

[Sam Cates]

Insanity! One of these days Ken, I need to pick your brain to get a good idea of what I need to get my gas station and abandoned shed dioramas going. Frickin' AMAZING WORK!

[KHamilton]

Most old apartment buildings had stairway access to the roof. Here's the basic

Gatorboard form for the one in this diorama.:

The door is etched aluminum over model airplane plywood, surrounded by a wood frame

wood frame. The siding & roof material is painted sandpaper.

In place on the roof, with clotheslines running to a pole on the other side of the roof.

In the real world, the sloped stairway roof would extend all the way to the building's flat roof.

Since this is a "cut-away model", the back of the stairway is cut flush with where the back of

the building is cut. In retrospect, I should have made the stairway enclosure longer, with

more of the slope showing. As it is, the stairway just looks like a shed on the roof. I may

change it later, but for now there's too much other stuff to get done.

[gasser59]

Mind boggling, truely mind boggling Ken. I like the marks on the roof from the swing door.

[Mercman]

First, I framed a wall with scale 2'x 4" lumber.

So Ken what are the dimensions for a 1/25th scale 2X4? :D :D ( In memory of Lou).

Seriously though this is why you are the MASTER. Also this is why I took up 1/87th your work is inspiring. Hope to see this in person some day.

[charlie8575]

This is absolutely amazing, Ken.

Thank you for sharing it.

Charlie Larkin

[dannyi]

...truly a work of art Ken. Never get tired of looking at this! Looking forward to seeing it in person in April.

[Dr. Cranky]

Beautiful, Hamilton. Beautiful!

[KHamilton]

Started detailing the alley before the building-next-door went in,

but I ran out of daylight.....

[Romell R]

Unreal.......no foreal...I mean ...you know what I mean! Great Job Ken

[Dr. Cranky]

Beautiful, Hamilton. Love the "mood" pictures. This thing is going to kill everyone at the NNL East.

[Wagoneer81]

Unreal.......no foreal...I mean ...you know what I mean! Great Job Ken

Yeah, Romell, I'm pretty much speachless too... Outstanding doesn't even begin to cover it...

[KHamilton]

Thanks for all the nice comments.

Here's the just-finished entrance to the Arcade building......

[Dr. Cranky]

Nothing short of beautiful, Hamilton. And you got the graffiti to look just right too. The scene is coming together so well. Can't wait to see the truck loading up up front . . . the machines connecting the two parts of the diorama.