The starting point.
Last time I had finished the frame for my row of cottages
I intended to build the front of the cottages. But after some thoughts I decided to start with the roof, because there were some parts that needed some extra attention. I wanted separate roof sections but no separate fronts as in the Scalescene kit.
The tiles are printed on a high quality drawing paper, of course on the best possible settings. I tried to create some old roofs, because these cottages will
The starting point.
Last time I have made the final design for my row of cottages.
Now I had to build the frame of the cottages using Scalescenes kit 022 Small Cottages.
In an article which compares the living circumstances in working class cottages in the 1950’s and the 1970’s is the following description about a working class house in the 1950’s:
“Along with the strong imposition of categories and relationships in a working-class house, there is strong insulation of rooms from e
How to find back my information.
Since I started building Northall diorama’s I collected a lot of information. But one way or another I wasn’t always able to find it back as soon as I wished. I hadn’t built up a system for collecting my information. Searching again takes sometimes away time for modelling. Last week I came upon a website created by another Dutch man. He has an interesting website about a fictive land somewhere in an ocean.
See his website here: http://www.spocania.com/archief/
The starting point.
RESEARCH. I found some interesting information about cottages build around 1900. One of the things I have never released that from the same type of cottages several sub-types were build. To get something different then the standard card kit model size I used the Scalescenes small terraced cottages as my starting point.
The information told me the following: there were 12 three-room; 548 four-room; 967 five-room and 116 six-room cottages build.
A drawing of a three-ro
The last couple of weeks nothing did go as planned and hoped. My wife has serious problems with the flu, I had a little accident with my bike and a friend of yours needs some personal coaching en help. And luckily I found still some time to do some modelling. About the result you can read below.
As I tried out in the design stage I tried Scalescenes brown stretcher bond at the building behind the cottages.
Before building the final background building I printed the texture of the co
The starting point.
I hope I have not tested your patience to much.
Because I wanted to use the textures of the new low relief factory from Scalescenes I had to try out it first in scrap seeing of it would work out.
Let’s start with a picture of the design I made at first:
Here I used just the sign and windows from the new kit. The factory will have a totally different appearance. I started with the underside of the building.
But I was not happy with the dimensions
Pavement and road are in place. So I can start with the factory.
I started with the wall at the end of the diorama and the factory chimney.
The wall is build straight forward using TX24 Dark Brown Brick and the coping from RO11 Arched Bridge from Scalescenes.
The wall is weathered after building using in the Schminke pastels mentioned in the previous entry. To give you an impression I made a picture with the finished wall on a piece of clean printing on Fine Art paper.
Then I
Pavement and road are in place. But although the printed version is very good, I prefer to give it a personal touch.
Another problem I had to solve was my way of weathering. When I started using my pastel pencil I noticed some scratching on the surface of printed pavement. So I re-read an article about colouring black and white photographs. In this article the recommended the use of soft pastels. I decided to give that a try. In an art shop I asked some advice and I went home with a sma
No not a new diorama, but all about paper.
This time I’m working with Fine Art Inkjet Paper from Hahnemühle.
I received kindky from them some sheet to try out and there my first problem started. Both papers were 310 gsm and my HP printer had problem to print them. But with a little help from my (friends) hands I managed the printing of this papers. And I love the result.
For my background sky I used William Turner 310 gms paper / 100% cotton. In my opion this couldn’t be a better choice
After I finished my first basic design, I wanted to answer the next two questions
- what balanced color choice could be used ?
- what is the right choice of textures ?
I will start with the answer on the second question.
I bought and tried out several textures from Model Railway Scenery, Clever Models and Scalescenes. I have laid several type of pavement and tried several brick options. Although all mentioned suppliers have excellent textures, I came to the conclusion that for my way
I started with the design of Caroline Street when I finished Station Road.
I had made my wish list for this one before I started with the first drawings:
- a row of Victorian 2up 2down cottages
- a factory
- a just a few people ( I had the idea of just one)
- a balanced colour choice
- the right choice of textures
The first attempts did go to the recycle bin. I tried to add some track into the diorama, but that didn’t work out. So you have to imagine that the goods line is in front
This little diorama deserves a proper presentation.
Just as for my previous diorama I used an APA-box. In an APA-box I can display two A4 diorama’s.
My main concern was the lighting. I followed in this case in main lines the way a shadow box is lightened.
I started with the front of the APA-box. I cut a piece of black demenstration board to size.
Then I bought two black photo frames, with a opening of 14 x 10 cm. I had to make sure that the edges on the inside were black.
When I started building the yard I got a problem. I couldn’t find a fitting texture from Scalescenes for the yard ground.
After some try outs I decided to build the yard with a part of the shop from the corner shop kit.
As you can see I had to use just a part of my Odeon movie board.
I just my preferred methods to build the building and the yard.
Now the scene is finished it is time to show the final step from black & white to color.
Next step was to put the fig
The Record shop has a limited interior.
But let’s start with an interview from the Northall Gazette from 24 July 1959.
And if you like you can listen to the Quarrymen here. Just as a tribute to John Lennon who was born on 9 October 1940.
After a lot of thoughts I decided to create a tribute to one of the great rock and roll artist of that time. I used original movie posters and record covers from Elvis Presley to create my shop window.
With Publisher I created the basic ele
I designed the record shop using the Scalescenes textures and following the related building description.
But I liked to give this shop a more 1950’s appearance. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much pictures. So I had to improvise here. As far as I know there were not much regulations about shop front appearances. So shop owners had a lot of freedom to create a shop front to their own design.
I decide to use a brick surrounding for the record shop. Embossing the stones. With this jo
The bookshop has its interior.
For the interior I used the pub interior from Scalescenes as a base and the bookcases are from a free download of Clever Models.
The used illustrations and book covers I selected from internet. This was a job I liked to do. Unfortunately when you resize them to 4 mm scale the sometimes beautiful designs get lost. Therefor I selected the fronts more on colour them on design.
Books are very tiny in 4 mm scale and hard to work with in card and paper.
In t
I designed both shop using the Scalescenes textures and following the related building description.
Although the overall appearance is convincing I thought it must be possible to create a shop front I saw on several websites.
I found a picture that has a lot of resemblance to the shop front design of Scalescenes.
If you compare the shop front in the picture with the shop front in the drawing below you will notice a lot of differences.
For my it would be a challenge to create a sho
The railway arches are really a challenge for me. I want to try to give them some more relief then just the texture that was printed out on the art paper I’m using for this project.
So after gluing the base layers in place I started with embossing the stones.
Progress did go slowly, because I did this job with hay fever eyes. But time is the only thing that I can get for free creating a diorama. After trying an embossing pen I took my empty ballpoint again. I followed the texture of Scalesc
Progress on the arches is going slowly. But I make progress.
There were some other things I had to do for Station Road.
For instance the movie poster on the side wall of the yard.
By accident I came along this ODEON board
This one is more 1940’s than the end of the 1950’s.
So I started for a search for correct time based movie posters.
I selected the following:
With Publisher I created my own 1959 ODEON announcement board.
Then I saved it as a picture and re-si
Finally I started yesterday with some card modelling again.
In the mean time I was designing Northall.
Creating a believable story for the small Northall diorama’s is more difficult than I thought.
After some struggling I remembered a chapter in “Light Railway layout design” by Ian Rice. In the chapter about Orford he described how detailed this layout was designed with maps, Acts of Parliament etc.
This could also be the right approach for me. So I created a map for Northall. I used a
It is still too hot for modelling for me. I looking forward to somewhat less warmer and oppressive (?) weather.
So I worked a little further with my story telling idea.
I have made an appointment with the hotel where I can expose my diorama’s. He have to do a small change at the front of the diorama. This gave me the opportunity to make a picture of a delivery scene in Nice Street.
So a new chapter from “A week in Northall”
Nice Street on Tuesday
Today Arthur has to do some del
Try out …
It is too hot for modelling and I also suffer again with hay fever eyes.
So I did some research and thinking about my story telling idea.
I found a wonderful description of a 1950’s week in the UK. So much similar the way I grew up in Utrecht in the 1950’s. This would give me the opportunity to create a serial of diorama’s that could give a good picture of daily live in Northall in the late 1950’s.
To try this idea out I used one of my old diorama’s and made a story to it. So
Real modelling is still going slowly. This has several reasons. I hope I can show some progress in a short time.
I spend some time on reading inspector Wexford novels and made some thoughts about how to use them into my diorama’s.
I realized I was making two type of diorama’s:
More or less railway based:
Northall Dock – track out of use
Bridge Street – siding with track; station, arches with track
Nice Street – arches
Station Road - arches
and British Railways van delivery serv
Last week we were married for forty years.
To celebrate this I had arranged a short stay in a local city hotel just over the border in Germany.
We have enjoyed our trip and could combine our both interests.
The owner of the hotel has the same breed of dogs we have: Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers. A bread that doesn’t affect my allergic constitution to much, with the right approach.
So we took the dogs with us on our walks. My wife could work with them. She is a coach of dog owners
I have trouble with my hay fever eyes. Modelling is a real challenge with cloudy sight every 5 minutes. Fortunately for my I don’t suffer from other hay fever problems any more due my medication.
After trying for some while I stopped. I have to wait till sight is not cloudy anymore.
Did some paperwork modelling instead. Trying to get my Northall story fitting to the design of my modules. Searching for background information to create stories for Northall based firms, companies and shops.
So
