Bar Side

Cheers - from my original photos I didn't even know the points were there. It was fun putting them in though.

Couple of final pictures taken in the sunshine today. From above: and a couple of close ups that are a bit better than the previous ones: Must admit its been fun to make - lots i'd do differently with more time, but have learned a lot. Hope i've done it justice. Ivan

Cheers Simon - always wanted to do a quay side line. Had always thought this one was a tramway until I started this thread, but its simply a buried standard line. Something is niggling at the back of my mind about making and extension..... Just and excuse to see what the seven story warehouses that sit around the corner would look like in 1:76 scale.... I have done a couple of the remaining jobs - 'plumbed in' the cyclone, added another drain pipe and put in the dock side handrails. Plus I have used a couple of the original photos to make up a back scene on two sides - can't handle the idea of the perspective to extend the roof across the back scene, but I have done the 'round the corner' view and the higher background building at the other end: Amazing what you can do with a colour printer, MS Word and a few old cereal boxes. All a bit Blue Peter really... Ivan

Cheers David & Lynda Got me thinking about a backboard - having a go at one today, but its very tricky to get the perspective right. Might work, might not! Thats the trouble with continuing a 3D roof line in to a 2D background. Ivan

OK, I really don't know how much more I will get done before the deadline, so this could be it. Have fixed the building to the base and added some more details & some protruding grass. Taking advantage of the sunshine & badly showing up the limitations of my modelling, here is the latest: With the 04 shunter posed (guess it should be a Colchester, Ipswich or Harwich shunter, possibly with tramway skirts) & a LNER grain wagon: And without - I have added a photo to the 'hole' in the back to give it a bit of depth: Jobs left: well, at least one drainpipe, plumbing in the 'cyclone', fence down the quay side, adding some pallets, sacks etc, 1:76 scale seagulls. etc. Might try to do a bit more pipework, but the rest is beyond 1st October, so I guess this is going to be about as good as it gets. Thanks for watching & reading!

Finally finished off the inside - somewhat of a guess, but I wanted a hopper & some detail in there: And am now working on outside detail - drain pipes, window shutters, roof edging etc: Not sure whether to mask off some areas of the concrete floor & spray on black to represent tarmac patches or whether that will damage to overall look.

Cheers Terry & Stu Terry - if I had done the stretch round the corner the warehouses are 7 stories high, would have been a bit dramatic. The port is built against a steep incline which to me makes it fascinating. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/39403-mistley/

OK here are a couple of pics of the latest progress: First laying out the track. An old Hornby short point that was already beyond repair gave some bits for the turnout. I thought I would model is as it is seen now - still in situ but not complete or operatable. Next the track was glued directly on to the base & card used to make the surrounding ground level. So now this is it with the building placed on & the ground painted up. Now need to finish off the building, start deciding what else is needed , etc

Hi David School holidays ave put the brakes on - only just getting back to it now. Base board is cut & track should go down shortly & then be buried up to the top. Then the ground can be painted & the buildings put on. Can you get 1/76 pigeons? Hope so! Ivan

You can still see mk3 loco hauled on the London - Norwich line every day. We never had blue/grey mk3's, still running mk2's at the time. Not sure if these are massively different from the Virgin formations on the wcml??

Simon In Cattawade? I used to work on the Wardle Storey site - not much left to see now but I see Britannia House is still standing. Don't know how, it was falling down 10+ years ago. I did fancy making the diorama of the bridge beyond the factory entrance. Nice brick bridge appearing above the internal factory road, carrying the GER main line. I think originally there was a tramway around the site & under the bridge which would have looked great. The old tram shed is till there but I could never get pictures of it as it looked when running. Ivan

When i took the original photos that started my idea off it was 2007 & the fencing hadn't yet gone up. I assume its still there & will be for the foreseeable future.

Ian - know what you mean, i'm putting together a 3m long embankment at the moment and doing it to the same level of detail would be very challenging. I guess you also rarely have the photo detail across a larger space that you do for a chosen diorama space. As a result you tend back to available pre-built or kit buildings & accessories rather than trying to model the real thing. I guess that is what attracted me to the idea of this challenge. I also love the dioramas used to pose models - such as the Swindon Works model frequently used in magazines to frame GWR locos. I can see this diorama being used to pose any future wagon models. Ivan

Thanks for you kind comments David - part of the attraction is that the site hasn't really changed much since the 70's, something that seems to be becoming increasingly rare. Hopefully it will look about right to anyone who has been there in the last 30-40 years. Must spend some time this week getting on with it now!

Phil - it wasn't built but the cuttings / embankments & even a bridge were started & its always been shown on the OS maps as (I think) a dismantled railway. Back to the modelling. I have done a bit more with the 'cyclone' - the frame is a little over size compared to the real think but looks ok to me: