For Northall Dock I try for the first time to create the scene inside out.
I asked myself the following questions:
- What is the story behind Northall Dock ?
- What will be the mean scene ?
The answer to the first question will be answered in another entry.
The answer on the second question is: a loading scene by a warehouse.
First some background information about the used model:
In the late 1940s production of the 'Jen-Tug' began. It was a 3 ton articulated vehicle, available
Today I finished the painting and weathering of my first British Railway Road Service wagon.
Used just for 4 acrylic paint colors for painting the loading: raw sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine and lemon yellow .
Also used some metal gun and black paint and fineliners for detailing the load.
Further weathering was done through dry brushing with: dirt grey paint and a chalk pastel mixture of: black, brown and white (my general weathering mixture)
Below some picture of the result
Hope you l
After I decided to place Northall as postcode borough W16 in Greater London. I wanted to use also a personalized street name sign, approved by the Northall Council.
I found a good article on internet how street name signs have to be used and designed.
The most important design advices I have copied below:
“Street nameplates shall be of uniform design throughout the Administrative County of London and shall be constructed as follows:
(i) Of durable, non-absorbent material.
(ii)
For the building of Fanshawe Ltd I needed a rain pipe to hid the join in the alley.
I already made a rain pipe using a 1,2 mm rod from Evergreen for a house on Nice Street. A texture is glued around this.
For the warehouse I wanted to use a square Victorian rain pipe.
I wanted to create it myself using a self-made texture. My journey on the internet began.
I learned a lot of new English words connected to rain drainage. Finally I found a picture by CG textures that was usable.
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
Planning an urban diorama
When I decided to build diorama’s I tried to find as much information as possible.
With this information I made my one reference card. My reference card (without the pictures) contains the following elements:
Think of the acronym PICS:
• Plausible scenes
• Independent / isolated vignette(s)
• Contours in the scenery
• Staging
Planning ahead
To avoid frustration on your project, plan ahead. Look if you can create your scene with available scenery produc
The first job I had to do now was adding the windows behind the weathered factory wall. In the past I use a solvent free glue from Pattex. This time I used double sided tape from 3M, as David Neat advices in his excellent articles.
I had re-size the windows from Scalescenes first. I used window c form his excellent Arches and Windows TX00 kit.
After adding the windows I tried out how to create the final look. I had several possibilities that were usable.
I decided to build an inner wall wi
I started Nice Street (Urban Scene) as a diorama.
With a new build model and some models from Bridge Street I made a muck up in the APA Box
Non of these models was used on Nice Street.
During building the diorama I start to do more research about how to build a diorama. I already accepted the rule of thirds for the planning.
Also read some interesting things about how to design an urban scene.
Most information about building a diorama is to be found in other modeling dicipl
I decided to finish the cottage in the front of the diorama first.
Added the street name sign on the building and a drain pipe.
For the roof I had a look at several slate and red clay tile options. In the front of the diorama I try to use whenever possible light colours. The grey slate tiles I found didn’t look right to me so I choose the red clay tiles from Wordsworth Models (free download).
I also first searched for some background information and read it.
I wanted to give the roof a
For the pavement I also use the sheets from In the Greenwood. Made the pavement to the right size using a craft knife. Then I cleaned them first with an MDF cleaning pad. I gave it a coat with Gesso. Next step was painting the granite kerbs. As base colour I used AK Dry Light Mud. I gave it several layers. The side used a lot of paint. After that I took a little piece of natural sponge with some Petite properties ‘Mucky’ paint. With just a little paint on the sponge I dabbed the granite kerbs
In one of my entries the next question was asked:
“Job, a serious question - do you plan these dioramas over time or just see a scene in your mind's eye in an instant?”
To be honest there was no planning when I started with the building of Bridge Street. I just wanted to build a layout on which I could shuffle around with a shunting loco and some wagons. A single line from a “fiddle stage” to an industry using wagon cards and wagon bills. Because me lack of knowledge about the shunting p
For the building of my diorama’s I do a lot of research on internet. For railway modellers there is a lot of information available.
My main interest in railway modelling is freight traffic and the social history of the period that I’m building, the late 1950’s. To give a right impression the use of daily live pictures is most important. Luckily I have found a lot of beautiful websites with a lot of pictures.
But what about social media you could ask now. The most frequently social medium
This blog records the development of diorama’s of Northall a fictional neighbourhood in a large industrial city in England.
The time setting is in the late 1950’s. The switching point to the modern society with live in now.
The diorama’s will all have a relation to British Railway practice in Northall .
All diorama's will be build in APA boxes as a black box.
The idea of building Northall came when I build Bridge Street. Unfortunately not build in a APA box and the victim of the cleara
I have done some further work on J. Peterson Ltd on Grove Road.
But let me repeat my starting points: - Using my favorite method for design - Balanced colors - Just low relief
For the building I took the garage from Scalescenes using a texture from Clever Models and a self-made sign. I did choice the brick wall from Model Railway Scenery
Brick wall ((Railway Model Scenery)
But making photographs I noticed another problem. The solution was to create the complete workshop. In this
I have almost finished the terraced house. Before I show you the result first my personal review of the kit from In the Greenwood. I have enjoyed building it, but just for this diorama. The 3 mm MDF I personally find too thick for the terraced house. 2 mm would have been better, but I don’t know if it possible to do the laser cut. The kit is easy to build. There are no windows supplied, so you have to make your own choice here. Painting The doors I have painted using just a black wash from
Back from my holidays. I walked a lot in the fields and woods in the early morning and late evening ( before sunset). Made some useful grey sky pictures. Because of the sunny weather I did a lot of reading ( inspector Wexford), searching on Internet and following the blogs and forums on the RMweb.
Last week it was to hot for modeling in Holland for me.
So here is the entry of my result of my internet research on roads.
For my Nice Street diorama I didn’t much research for the road surfa
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
After I tried out several water texture possibilities I was looking for the quay wall texture I want to use.
I had bought the dock edge pdf’ s from Scalescenes in the past. This has two options a concrete one and a stone one. I found the concrete one to modern for my diorama.
CGtextures.com has a lot of nice textures. They have also some useful dock textures in their collection. I tried several but tried out the concrete one: ConcreteBare0280 (Texture: #35243)
I decided to try out the stone w
For the interior of the warehouse I wanted some (whiskey) barrels and crates.
Basic information I found on the very useful http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/common.htm
After reading this basic information my research on the internet began.
Then I discoverd that whiskey also was shippen in whiskey boxes. Mostly with the name of the distelery on top of it.
With the pictures I found there were also sizes metioned.
17 x 14¾ x8½ inch is in 4mm : 5,6 x 4,9 x 2,8 mm.
22½ x 15
Before I started I read some articles about brick painting. I have read the chapter of brick painting in that excellent book “Cottage Modelling for Pendon”, some chapters in a book called “Create exterior finishes” from Bea Broadwood. Is also very useful for railway modellers, especially for those who do 7mm. And last but not least an article from Emmanuel Nouaillier in an Eisenbahn Journal. I will mostly follow the steps described in the last article. For my colour choice I used all three.
Thinking..
After I put the poem to the entry last I week I started to think about the ….. (dots)
So here is the answer in a nutshell. The inspiration came when I traveled by train with my wife over the new line through the Flevopolder to Groningen.
Holliday …
As a boy in the late 1950’s I got on vacation with my parents to a place in the north of the Netherlands in the province of Groningen. After going from Utrecht to Groningen with the electric express train
In one of the replies on my entry Street Scene Design was written: “Also bear in mind that in the 'fifties' these areas would still have 'flagstone' paving rather than the later concrete types - and they would be rutted & disrupted by vehicles. Road surfaces would often be of cobblestone or granite setts.”
For the road surfaces I already choose for granite setts. For the pavement I didn’t make an decision. So after the reply I liked to see if I could create a flagstone paving with granit
After Nice Street my wife asked my to design something with water again.
I had done that before on my first attempt with the Scalescene factory and an Inglenook shunting puzzle.
So I decided to build Northall Dock.
Quit a challange in an APA box. I want to build something more than just a quay and a ware house.
My starting point for the design were two pictures.
One from John Atkinson from 1890 and one from Edward Hopper (not published here)
The information on Northall Dock I fo
Some days ago, a received my order from “In the Greenwood”. Some laser cut products to create a Christmas diorama for my wife. Of coarse I tried to give it a place between my Northall diorama’s. The diorama is situated in High Street. The Northall Society helped me out to find some more information. We are going back in time. Prior’s tailor shop is established in the beginning of the Edwardian times, when the shop and terraced houses were built. I have bought the following items: A kit with two
I still have to finish the Hansom cab…. But I think I will use something else on the diorama. Believe that the Hansom cab will be to large for this diorama. Thinking of using a handcart and a boy delivering a Christmas gift. In that time, it was already possible to buy things from a mail order company, for instance from the Empire Stores, which then were send to the costumer by rail as a parcel. Only the way we order, and deliver is changed ….
But first there must be a cobbled road to put th
