Cruise night diorama

[Sixties Sam]

I was messing around with my car show diorama and decided to set up a Cruise Night scene. Here are some pics with cars cruising and others parked in the parking spaces along Main Street in a typical small town.

The ice cream man even showed up!

The 32 Ford is my latest build. Curbside resin body finished with parts box stuff. The spot on its top is a 6" long bug! We grow 'em big in PA!

Comments welcome.

Sam

[slusher]

That is awsume Sam. Some really sharp models displayed...

[High octane]

Nice dio and nice builds as well. I just returned from a "cruise night" 'bout an hour ago.

[Ramfins59]

Sam that looks really great. The people really add a lot to the scenes and bring it all to life. The cars look great. Good job.

[GTMust]

Beautiful! But how do you keep the dust off?

Tony

[dptydawg]

_{Great looking diorama. Cars with drivers and other figures doing realistic activities really set up the scene. Your main street buildings look very realistic also. Excellent attention to detail. very impressive.}

_Carl

Edited August 22, 2013 by dptydawg

[Sixties Sam]

Beautiful! But how do you keep the dust off?

Tony

Tony, after taking photos, the models go back on the shelves in a china cabinet, and the diorama base stores in the basement. It does get dust down there, but I clean it off for photos. Actually, a little dust adds to the realism. Real buildings don't stay clean and bright for long in the weather.

Sam

[Eshaver]

Sam, yer not alone . I do the same with my dioramas myself . In my case , it's a box ..................

[george 53]

A BIG box! Nice job Sam, it REALLY adds life to an otherwise static model!

[PappyD340]

FANTASTIC job Sam, great looking dio!!

[crazyrichard]

nice !! looks awsome ..

btw maybe something for the future ? > if you want to change stuff later on i would try to use medium grey sandpaper for tarmac and with a black wash .. that almost looks like the real deal ..

still like your road surface as it is but you kind of see its painted wood ...like said does look great ..

ment nice ^^

[Sixties Sam]

nice !! looks awsome ..

btw maybe something for the future ? > if you want to change stuff later on i would try to use medium grey sandpaper for tarmac and with a black wash .. that almost looks like the real deal ..

still like your road surface as it is but you kind of see its painted wood ...like said does look great ..

ment nice ^^

I originally used black foam board for the pavement, but when I displayed the dioramas in the sun at car shows, the foamboard warped and lifted up badly. I replaced it with plywood and painted it black, but you're right, it looks like painted plywood! I'm thinking the sandpaper might want to curl and lift up in the sun too. I might try some textured paint that I used on a different diorama a few years ago. It seems pretty stable.

[GTMust]

You could also consider a very thin skim coat of Spackle or drywall joint compound over the wood. Once dry you could introduce cracks, manhole covers, etc, and paint to suit.

Just a thought!

Tony

[lower99]

I love this Dio!!!!

But I would use sandpaper, the black one, for the streets.

Greetz from GER

[Dominik]

your streetscene is cool Sam!

How big is it? Can you show an overall view?

[Sixties Sam]

Dominik, here is a shot of the setup I used on my back porch. The diorama is about 6 feet long, and it has a second piece, which attaches to the left side in an "L" shaped configuration. I just used this section for the cruise night photos.

Sam

[crazyrichard]

awsome !!

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

Wow! That's awesome and inspiring. Thanks for showing it! I really like how all the cars that are 'moving' have drivers. Good stuff!

[hobbybobby]

A wonderful dio, Sam, and wow, very large, and when we are at it, you've got a bunch of great cars on it!

[charlie8575]

I have to admit Sam, that is pretty nice.

Another good solution to the road issue might be the black-painted plywood with some N-scale ballast, followed by a blackwash might also work nicely.

Charlie Larkin

[darthsideous]

Really cool. I love it

[Krazy Rick]

I originally used black foam board for the pavement, but when I displayed the dioramas in the sun at car shows, the foamboard warped and lifted up badly. I replaced it with plywood and painted it black, but you're right, it looks like painted plywood! I'm thinking the sandpaper might want to curl and lift up in the sun too. I might try some textured paint that I used on a different diorama a few years ago. It seems pretty stable.

Test a pice with rubberized undercoating spray, I think that might do the trick, your diorama looks fantastic by the way !!

[gbdolfans]

I take it that it is in 1/25 scale.GREAT job!!!!

Where did you find the figures???

[Sixties Sam]

George, it is 1/25. The figures are mostly G scale model train figures from eBay, but some are Fujimi mechanic figures. I'm glad you like it! Thanks,

Sam

[Rotorbolt73]

Awesome..I love stuff like this. How did you do the buildings? are those in a "kit" or did you scratchbuild them? I recognize the G scale train figures. I have some but not the ones sitting down. How well do the seated figures fit inside the cars?

A suggestion for the road pavement might be some of that spray textured paint followed with flat black and maybe weathered with a dark grey wash of some type. I've used painted sandpaper for a parking lot on my custom hot rod shop diorama years ago... It sorta works but is difficult to glue on. I used a thin layer of wood glue and it made the sandpaper want to roll up. Had to use some books to keep it held down until dry. But it still showed a bunch of imperfections from the gluing process when I painted it flat black. texture looks great but I would be more apt to try the textured paint next time. that or a better glue like a spray on 3M brand .

But I do like your excellent work here. If I had the space, I would build dioramas on this scale.