[EY UP ! Somewhere in Deepest Devon a 7mm adventure]

Speedy return to health, BG!   Recovery from any kind of surgery isn't just physical, your morale is also very important, so keep your spirits up and start plotting the next instalment!

 

Best wishes,  Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

Got round to glueing the cardboard facade to the core yesterday. Maybe you can just see them, there are pieces of scrap MDF between the clamps and the card face to spread the load and stop the clamps marking the work.  It's always best to do this with softer materials like card or balsa, and it's standard practice in good quality joinery and cabinet work anyway.

 

 

 

Once the base was complete I glued on the trackbed, made from 1mm cardstock which was given two generous coats of shellac before glueing on the paper covers for the parapet edge. This is to waterproof the card and stop it distorting when the dilute PVA is dribbled over the ballast.  The parapet walls are also from 1mm thick card and would be a bit fragile if attached just by glueing their lower edges, so I epoxied a couple of lengths of 8x8mm aluminium angle to give a bit more support.

 

Cheers,  Mike

 

 

 

 

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

So far, so good - with the facade complete, I can turn to the "viaduct" itself. I will make it from 3mm MDF with 6mm MDF formers,  and I want to be able to access the void space behind the arches for detailing the shop later, and perhaps for some electrics.   Although it would be perfectly possible to cut these apertures in the sheet, the result would be very fragile and difficult to glue up, and it is often easier to assemble the whole thing first, then deal with the cutting out after.

 

Here I'm boring out a corner with a 25mm Forstner bit; the work slides against a fixed fence so I don’t have to mess about too much marking things out!  (I was apprenticed in a jig and toolroom!).  The waste is cut out on the bandsaw.

 

 

 

  Rear view of the viaduct core finished. The end aperture is taller than the others because it will have a brick arch  lining, complete with the shop detailing, fitted from behind, but that's a long way away!  It is in roughly it's final position, and the idea is to make it removable for detailing in future, if this is possible.

 

Cheers, Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

9 hours ago, Kevin Johnson said:

Lovely modelling Mike, looks great.

Thanks again for your kind words, Kevin

 

9 hours ago, brossard said:

So good to see Scalescenes models being produced so well.

 

 

Thanks, John, appreciated!  Scalescenes were the first building downloads I ever used, I loved them then, and I still do!

 

9 hours ago, MyRule1 said:

Looks great - excellent work in what I feel is an ideal scale - 1:100 . I missed viewing Grays Maltings but have now taken a look at that.

 

Many thanks!   Yes, small enough to have a certain charm, but big enough to have reasonable detail!  I must admit I am a recent convert though!

 

Cheers,  Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

Thanks for your encouragement, Kevin!

 

 

The facade for the newsagents is complete, as this cruel, three times lifesize close up shows!  The base of the arch is only 72mm wide, so any errors are greatly magnified here!

 

 

 

Here's the other two. The adverts are downloaded from the internet and then  re-sized in Inkscape, and the signs are also drawn in Inkscape,  which I use for all graphic related work.

 

Cheers,  Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

 

Now the basic case has come together, I can start on the facade of the viaduct. These are almost  pure unaltered Scalescenes OO downloads, but  printed at 76% to produce a 1:100 scale model. I have built these before in 1:76 scale and they make up into a very nice way of creating an elevated railway or road, with some additional scenic interest underneath. No connection to Scalescenes, just saying.  

 

In 3mm scale they are a bit more fiddly, and you need a sharp scalpel, used carefully,  to cut the arch curves because errors are more obvious the smaller the scale.   You don't need to ask how I know this!  This is an early stage of building.

 

 

Bit more progress, the buttresses are made from wood rather than the layers of card suggested, simply because it's easier and quicker for me, and I also made them tapered instead of flat 'cos I think it looks nicer!  All the printing is done on a Canon Pixma iP7250 - brilliant toy, dirt cheap, and amazing print quality - €52 in a local supermarket!  I had an HP Deskjet 990CXi for years - super quality professional printer, built like a tank, but when the price of the three colour cartridge got to €72 a time, and the black one to €26, I thought it was time to move on!  The "glazing" is printed on overhead transparency film.

 

 

This is the arch facade almost complete, I'll leave the ledge strips at the top until the trackbed, which will also form the ledge, is glued in place.This involves three downloads to complete, the arches and viaduct facade, the shops under arches, and the workshops under arches  -  I have only used one of each of the under arches, but there's more to choose from each set.  And don't think I did this yesterday, in real time it took me well over a week to build this!

 

More later, Cheers,

Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

Thanks, Rod, much appreciated. Been a fan of Naples Street since the beginning!

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

I thought it best to try out some ideas for this upper corner before going any further, and this is what I finally came up with.

 

A piece of the same quadrant moulding as the base has had a 6x6mm rebate cut in both faces, 3mm in from the outer face, then 6mm MDF  "wings" were cut to fit, recessed below the top edge to provide support for the top lighting panel, and glued into the rebates.  Shown with a couple of mock sides I used to check the fit of things;   sorry about the lousy pic with the reflections from the surface plate, but it shows the idea more clearly than the description!

 

 

I next went ahead with the side panels, a bit different again because I wanted to have a more "Victorian" flavour to the case sides. All from 3mm MDF cut out on the bandsaw, the internal radii were cut out using a holesaw first then blended in by hand. The transverse rail at the back is curved in two planes, purely for aesthetic reasons,  and allows the rear panel to be removed without the rest falling apart; made from some sort of tropical hardwood, it was also cut on the bandsaw.

 

Of course, if you are not fussed about being able to take things apart in the future, this kind of enclosure for a small diorama could be just as well made from several laminations of 1.5mm or 2mm card glued up with PVA, which if given a good coat of shellac after assembly, would be almost as strong as MDF,  and you only need a sharp knife and a steady hand to make it!

 

Cheers,  Mike

 

 

 

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

Hi Luke, thanks for your kind words! As I said in the preamble, I would never have got into this if hadn't been for the competition you and Oliver organised!

 

Cheers, Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

 

 

I next made the base, very similar to Grays Maltings, but this time using 30mm thick high density foam framed in 6mm MDF, but I want to have a radius on  the open corner, rather than the "sharp corner" effort before!  Here it is, still with a slightly altered simple card frame held together with sellotape ! 

 

 

Fairly easy to do the radius on the base, the corner is just a piece of quadrant moulding set into a right angle recess in the foam, but the upper one will not be so easy, because, as always, I want to be able to remove any of the four side panels without the rest collapsing!  As with Gray's Maltings, all assembly work is done using carpenters white PVA.

 

 

Dolls houses for blokes!   Well not quite, but I do enjoy getting a glimpse of what the finished thing might look like!  I only ever buy un-painted figures because although they take more time to finish, you avoid the garish colours which are so out of place in a 50's setting. I'll paint them in batches as I go along.

 

Cheers, Mike
 

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

Kevin, many thanks for your encouragement!   Gray's Maltings was the first time I had really tried to do anything in 1/100 scale, and it was a bit of a shock, because although the difference between 1/76 and 1/100 doesn't sound a lot, it makes a big difference in how you do things!

 

 

Two similar wagons for comparison.

Cheers, Mike

[A southwestern german Micro Layout]

Hello Thomas, how nice to see your trains moving at such a sensible speed in the yard!  Bravo!   

Mike

[Alma Terrace, an A4 diorama]

I'm not sure if this is quite the right place for this thread - it might be more approriate in the card buildings forum, or the 3mm scale forum, but since it was inspired by a thread on this one, and it is a diorama, here goes!  I apologise  in advance to the pure railway enthusiasts, because this is more about devising and building a complete display, rather than a complex railway layout.

 

I liked the idea of the competition devised by Oliver Rowley and Luke the Trainspotter on here,  to produce an A4 diorama in less than 6 weeks, and without spending loads of money.    I had already made a few 3mm scale buildings, mostly from paper and card, but also insulation foam and MDF, - in fact anything that seemed suitable, just to play my hand in.

 

 My earlier effort, "Gray's Malting's" was built against the clock, so the descriptions and explanations were inevitably fairly brief, and because of the restricted postal service here at the time, I was unable to get several bits I would have liked, so I have decided to build a similar sized model, but hopefully this time in a more leisurely manner!

 

So,  the diorama will be in 3mm= 1 Ft scale (1:100, or British TT),  and again a base size of  A4 paper (297mmx210mm), and will have both overall lighting and some illuminated buildings. It will comprise a single track railway on a brick arched viaduct, with workshops and a shop infilling the arches, a factory of some sort  into which the railway will enter, and in the foreground a row of terraced houses with a fish and chip shop at the end.   At least, that's what I hope!

 

 

I like making these quick mock ups, small models like this often have only a simple track plan, commonly just a single track, so it's possible to get straight into a three dimensional impression and see what looks best, without doing a lot of drawings. Although I used the houses and shop I'd already built, it's just as easy to use simple card or paper outlines, blocks of wood or foam, in fact anything that will suggest the finished project.  Like my previous effort this one will be open on two sides.

 

Cheers, Mike

[A 2nd micro.]

Hi Alex, interesting!   I can speak tolerable French, (I have lived here for 16 years!),  but Dutch is much harder for me,  Many years ago I worked on a contract in Scheveningen and Den Haag, but only for a few months, and all my Dutch collegues spoke perfect English!   Yes, SNCF do have a huge range of motive power, but many of the older types are disappearing, and many rural lines  are being closed!     Keep on with Models!

 

Grtz Mike

[A 2nd micro.]

Hallo Alex,
Ik kan niet echt Nederlands spreken,  maar ik heb veel Nederlandse vriend hier in Frankrijk!  
Bravo, your model looks very nice, and you are absolutely correct about the lighting, and also about being able to alter the intensity, it brings the display to life!

Grtz from France,
Mike

[Crossing Keepers Cottage]

 

This one is in Limousin, PO in origin, might help?

Mike

[Paper Cutting - a OO "Book Nook"]

This is very imaginative modelling,   and the mirror is inspired,  well done!  

 

As for overall lighting, you might consider a short length of self adhesive LED's.   They are available online, can be cut in multiples of three, are either white or warm white, and although they are nominally 12V, they will run quite happily at 9V from a PP3 battery, easily hidden.

 

Something like this, which is A4 paper size:

 

Good Luck,  Mike

 

[Scalescenes Arches Shop in 3mm]

Thanks for the likes and support!   Perhaps I should now explain the origin of Newton's "Verso" Flake, so prominently advertised beneath the window of Carpenter's shop in the pic above.

The Newton Tobacco Company (1943) Ltd occupied large premises in Newton Saint Aldwyn, a fictional town in an OO gauge layout I started some years ago, but never finished.  Here it is:

 

 

In truth, it's pupose was to diguise a fiddle yard below, from which wagons could be shunted and stored  in hidden sidings under both the roadway on which Pickfords are delivering a new transformer, and the road behind the wall on the opposite side of the cutting.   

The whole thing was lift-off, located on metal dowels, and two of the rooflights were made from perspex, so I could see what was going on!  It worked surprisingly well, but came to involve things like proximity sensors inside the storage sidings, and both the roadways had to be lift-off (and accurately dowelled) also, to deal with the odd derailment.

I eventually abandoned it because it became too complex - I enjoy a challenge - but modelling is supposed to be relaxing, not an endurance test!  Oh, and Verso is an anagram of my surname - and it isn't Servo!

 

Cheers, Mike

[Scalescenes Arches Shop in 3mm]

Been playing around with tiny dioramas based on a sheet of A4 paper recently, and here is a little detail,  one of the Scalescenes "shops under arches" reduced by 76%, and tarted up with a bit of interior detail, lights, and a few 18mm figures.   All printed on ordinary inkjet paper on a cheap Canon Pixma  - the figures are from China, £3.75 for one hundred un-painted little people!

 

 

Rather a cruel close up, the base of the arch is only 75mm wide.   I've made these before in 4mm scale, and they are a nice way of adding some interest beneath an arched  viaduct or brick retaining wall,   but for me quite challenging in 3mm scale!

Cheers, Mike

[how to add a link to my threads]

Thanks for your replies, Rab and Killybegs, I'll give it a go!

 

Cheers, Mike

[how to add a link to my threads]

I feel quite stupid about asking this, but I see most people have a link to their threads at the bottom of their posts, which I'd like to do also, but I can't find any info about how to do it!

[A4 Diorama Competition 2020]

Hi Tom, congratulations on winning this fascinating little challenge - you would have been my choice as well, so, Hats Off! 

 

 I'd also like to thank Oliver and Luke for dreaming up the idea of a diorama on a sheet of A4  - it isn't something that would ever have occurred to me before, but I enjoyed doing this so much that I immediately started on the successor to Gray's Maltings, which will have it's own thread in due course, -  and will perhaps be built in a more leisurely manner!

 

Best, Mike

[John Ahern's Model Building Plans]

Terry, many thanks for your kind words!

Bert's Garage has truly been transformed by the new owners - really lovely work Terry,  Bravo !  

[Gray's Maltings]

Kevin, many thanks for your kind words!  

As for future efforts, I must say that I am completely converted to the idea of these little dioramas - much easier to try out any new ideas - and not too much lost if it all goes pear shaped!   3mm is a beautiful scale to work with, but not so common - compared to 4mm there are very few road vehicles for example, but it does come into it's own for these small displays, and I suppose this is why it is almost invariably used by commercial architects.

 

Cheers, Mike

[Gray's Maltings]

Here are a few more pics that I took while I was building this diorama.

 

I mentioned at the beginning that all sides of the enclosure could be removed at will, and this shows how easy it is to work on the model, or make alterations to it if this can be done, here with the back panel removed.

 

This shows the installation of one of the trees and the card facing for the wall - not impossible from the front, but far easier done like this!
 

Google Earth view.  Just for fun, what it looks like from above!  A couple of the buildings were intended for another project, so I had to compromise some of the positioning to stop them from masking one another.

 

Cheers, Mike