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Shadow Box Station Scene


PaternosterRow

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Gosh, it’s been well over a year since my last post. But it has been a crappy time and life has thrown my wife and I some right old spanners to contend with.

 

The worst of it was when my dear old Mom passed away in mid November after an 18 month long battle with Bladder Cancer. Thankfully she was in a care home for the last 6 months so she was extremely well looked after and had little pain to put up with in the end. Marvellous places.

 

Whilst all this went on modelling took a back seat, understandably, but I did manage to get a few hours in here and there. I’m thankful for the distraction it gave – immersing yourself in the unimportant is a great stress reliever. I really feel for those who have to juggle work and life with the needs of a very sick parent – it’s quite a strain. Watching her suffer from this dreadful disease was unbearable at times.

 

It was around early June last year that the late Bob Barlow, another victim of this savage illness, contacted me about doing an article on my Shadow Box Roundhouse for his new magazine – Finescale Railway Modelling Review. It was just the right sort of ‘pick me up’ I needed at the time. In fact, Mom was so delighted that she insisted on showing her copy to all of the other residents when it arrived. She rallied just a little and it provided her a much welcome, although all too brief, distraction - for this alone I shall be ever grateful to Bob and the Greystar team.

 

After her passing I threw myself back into modelling which helped enormously in the aftermath. So I thought I’d push the Shadow Box concept further and have a go at modest station scene. Here are the results.

 

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Waterloo Sunset. XP64 with its new livery pulls in to the station. The station scene rough covers the BR period and therefore reflects the dilapidation of these Victorian super structures at that time.

 

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The following shots are taken under the Shadow Box lighting rig. This has been simply placed over the top of the roof and uses 12 v Halogens as the light source. I wanted to create a Cathedral like atmosphere with shafts of sunlight beaming down through broken skylights.

 

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The following are shots of the construction methods used.

 

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The simple baseboard set up.

 

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The plasterboard jig for the arches.

 

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Once complete the arches were transfered to a board with a detailed plan of the wall and curve of the baseboard.

 

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Completed wire roof structure before the covering went on.

 

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The Mirror trick. This doubles the length of the scene - it was crucial to get this exactly square on the end of the model in order for it to work.

 

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Last train at Platform 5 - the magnificent Bachmann Peak. The Mirror really comes in to its own here and perfectly reflects the curving sweep of the layout. There really are only 3 coaches in this scene.

  • Like 14
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This is a great entry.

Condolences with your lost.

I agree with you that modeling helps to get the mind empty, which helps us to cope with daily life problems and lost.

For my modelling helps me in this way to.

 

Your modeling is of an exceptional high quality.That counts also for your photo's.

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I wholeheartedly reiterate all of the above comments, true atmospheric modelling !

Whilst life does throw us some cr*p I've often found that coming back to modelling has somehow helped tremendously. Excellently modelled.

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The "Like" button seems a little inadequate for these pictures!

 

Totally agree !

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Hi Mike. It's great to see you back on here, although I do wish it had been with better news. Thanks God for the modelling, which as you say is quite unimportant, but exactly for that reason can be a huge help.

 

I'm left quite speechless by your photos - and by the modelling involved (that roof!). Your composition is brilliant. This one is my favourite. It's all there -even the figure is right. As we all know a bad figure can completely spoil a scene, but a good one can add tremendously to it.

 

blogentry-9175-0-65006800-1436010190_thu

 

You don't seem to mention how the arches and wood panelling was made from, or the glazed end. is there some creative use of Scalescenes in there?

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Good to see you back posting again Mike and I agree that modelling can be a good tonic to help us cope with all that life throws at us.

 

That first shot blew me away :O

 

And the ones that followed are awesome too...I love seeing the shots of the set up and the mirror trick works so well with the curve.

 

Looking forward to see more from you :good:

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This is a great entry.

Condolences with your lost.

I agree with you that modeling helps to get the mind empty, which helps us to cope with daily life problems and lost.

For my modelling helps me in this way to.

 

Your modeling is of an exceptional high quality.That counts also for your photo's.

Many thanks Job,

 

Although I've not been active on RMweb much I have been popping in to your blog from time to time which I find inspirational and fascinating.  As you know, I too am a big card building fan and find textures much more realistic than painted plasticard.  Keep up the great work with your dioramas.

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Sorry to hear of your loss, your modelling work is of the highest standard, I'm completely gobsmacked.

Thanks very much for your kind comments Brian and I'm glad you like the model.

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great photos Mike, and great modelling too. So realistic.

 

Alex.

High praise indeed from a master of Finescale modelling.  

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I wholeheartedly reiterate all of the above comments, true atmospheric modelling ! Whilst life does throw us some cr*p I've often found that coming back to modelling has somehow helped tremendously. Excellently modelled.

Thanks bgman.  I'm always trying to aim for atmospheric scenes rather than true finescale ones - simply because I don't have the patience that Finescale modelling needs.

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The "Like" button seems a little inadequate for these pictures!

Thank you very much for your comment.  I have found many other models here on RMweb that definately need a 'Wow' button.  Maybe AndyY will eventually give us the extra option!!

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Hi Mike. It's great to see you back on here, although I do wish it had been with better news. Thanks God for the modelling, which as you say is quite unimportant, but exactly for that reason can be a huge help.

 

I'm left quite speechless by your photos - and by the modelling involved (that roof!). Your composition is brilliant. This one is my favourite. It's all there -even the figure is right. As we all know a bad figure can completely spoil a scene, but a good one can add tremendously to it.

 

You don't seem to mention how the arches and wood panelling was made from, or the glazed end. is there some creative use of Scalescenes in there?

Thanks very much Mikkel.

 

The figure 'Fred' was from a Bachmann Station set I bought over 6 years ago.  He's been seen at Paternoster Row (my very first model) and also at Cheslyn and I've always found him so realistic.  Throwing light to the side of some of these figures really brings out their detail.  However, in the shot you like, he appears to float a little over the platform!! (down to a blob of glue under one of his feet).

 

Yes, the ceiling panels are good old Scalescenes and the wall is from the Smart Models Range - really great textures.  The acetate panels were downloaded from CG Textures and were simply stitched together in Excel.  I had to have these printed off professionally as my printer can't handle acetate - apart from the track and RTR stock it was most expensive part of the model!

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Good to see you back posting again Mike and I agree that modelling can be a good tonic to help us cope with all that life throws at us.

 

That first shot blew me away :O

 

And the ones that followed are awesome too...I love seeing the shots of the set up and the mirror trick works so well with the curve.

 

Looking forward to see more from you :good:

Cheers Pete,

 

Glad to be back posting too!  The trouble with mirrors is in getting them exactly square on to the model and it took a bit of fiddling with shims of card and paper to get the angle just right.  Will post a couple of more piccies soon.

 

Mike

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The others have said it all - inspirational :) and I admire the photography as much as the model itself.  The oily smoke look, in the shafts of light is brilliant.  Lots of food for thought.

 

Mike

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The others have said it all - inspirational :) and I admire the photography as much as the model itself.  The oily smoke look, in the shafts of light is brilliant.  Lots of food for thought.

 

Mike

Thanks very much Mike.

 

The photograhy is all long exposure under the light box.  It's done at night with the room lights off and ciggy smoke is blow in during the exposure - the smoke captures the beams.  If you were to just look at the effect with the naked eye then it's pretty crappy. I luckily took the decision to have the light box as a seperate and removable unit so I could also take shots under natural light conditions.  It's a very modest digital camera so nothing special and I'm trying to prove a point about not having to use specialist photo manipulation programs or equipment when it comes to taking snaps of your layout.  

 

Mike

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