A Corner of a Yard (Diorama)

[Mick Bonwick]

In 2014 I was a member of a now defunct railway modelling forum, and a challenge was issued to create a diorama in a small space. I came up with an idea that was eventually abandoned but still have (I think) all of the components that were to be used. A story was developed that would explain each of the people in the scene and how they came to be there, and that story has been retold over the last few weeks:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/163738-a-story-from-a-yard/

 

I am currently engaged in ballasting, a rather boring task, and wanted something to be an occasional diversion, so I thought that I'd resurrect this exercise. If you'd like the background story then you can read it by following the link above but, if not, then you can see what I had in mind from the following:

 

The Scene

 

 

 

 

The limit of the diorama scene is the ruled black lines and the top and left edges of the board. Starting from the back and working forwards, on the left hand side stands the tree on ground rising towards the back, with a couple of newly fallen branches lying on the ground beneath. From behind the tree a hedge grows across the scene from left to right, slightly angled into the scene. The hedge stops at a gate, which is standing crookedly open against the hedge, only just supported by its hinges. The gatepost on the other side of the gate is attached to a fence which then turns forward past the front of the pub and then off the scene front right. On the right at the back the lane passes the corner of the pub, the wall of which forms the right hand side of the scene. In the centre of the area is the small hut outside which Arthur and Jack are supping their tea, Jack sitting on an old bench and Arthur supporting the wall of the hut. Ernie is sitting in his old Landrover outside the gate, and Percy is standing beside his bread delivery van outside the front door of the pub. Eric stands in the pub doorway talking to Percy, while Brenda stands at the pub window looking down onto the scene. Erasmus Hecklethorpe is standing looking at his new tractor on a low loader wagon against the buffer stop at the end of the siding. The loading ramp, newly uncovered, runs from the buffer stop away towards the pub fence and backwards into the scene. The siding comes from the front left hand side of the scene, terminating at the buffer stop.

 

The Characters in the Scene

 

Jack – Railway worker (Senior)

Arthur – Railway worker (Junior)

Ernie - Villager

Eric - Landlord

Brenda - Barmaid

Percy – Delivery van driver

Erasmus Hecklethorpe – Farmer and tractor driver

Samuel Johnstone – Stationmaster

 

Vehicles

 

New BR Landrover (Oxford Diecast)

Old ‘truck’ for Ernie (Oxford Diecast Landrover)

Bread delivery van (Classix Ford E83W Van ‘Mothers Pride’)

New tractor (Oxford Ferguson) for farm

Lowmac (Dapol kit) carrying tractor

 

Buildings

 

Hut for yard (York Modelmaking timber linesman’s hut)

Pub wall (Scalescenes Country Pub)

 

Other

 

Tree with fallen branches, made from florists’ wire, postiche and various scatter materials

Gate to roadway from plastic strip

Hedge from corner behind tree to gate, from rubberised horsehair and scatter

Fence from gate to front of scene, with a small gap near to pub door, from plastic strip

Siding end, a piece of Peco track

Loading ramp

Remains of log pile

Weeds

[Sweet pea]

Mick it will be interesting to watch this build of your progress. You have plenty of items to make a lovely diorama.

[Stubby47]

Ah, it all becomes much clearer now.

 

Looking forwards to how this develops.

[Mick Bonwick]

I'm hoping that I can remember how I did things, starting with the tree.

 

I had previously made trees from Bowden cable acquired from bicycle brake cable breakages. A painful process followed by much degreasing before any bark could be applied. I then read Gordon Gravett's book, many years later, and decided that his method of using florists' wire was going to be far better. It was and still is.

 

 

The armature was created around a brass rod that was set in a substantial wooden block. The block was covered with masking tape in the hope that the tree would not stick irretrievably to the top of the block. I am happy to report that it didn't stick, and the tree was eventually removed to its living quarters without incident.

 

The bark was made from a fairly thick mixture of Polyfilla and PVA, the idea being that the PVA would impart some flexibility to the dried result. It worked up to a point, I did get some cracks around the base of the tree, but that was more likely to have been because I applied one layer far too thickly.

 

 

 

Tamiya acrylics were used to paint the bark, but I have never been satisfied with the colour, even after several tries. This was how the first effort turned out.

 

 

 

The twisted wire that formed the structure was clumped together at the base to form roots that would show above the ground, and the bark covering was added to these as well as the trunk and branches. The story behind the scene included reference to old fallen branches, so a feature of this was included in the model.

 

 

 

Foliage was added using a Woodland Scenics foliage mat, but I've never been too happy with the outcome. I managed to find a more suitable colour for the trunk and branches, and added some 'ivy' to the base. The tree is now fixed into the scene, measuring a scale 55' tall. Not very large in the tree world, but rather overpowering in the small space modelled.

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

The new tractor for Erasmus Hecklethorpe is being delivered on a Lowmac and my intention was to represent this by building a Dapol kit. It was many years since I had touched any of the ex-Airfix kits and it was somewhat nostalgic opening it and sorting the components.

 

My plan was to build the kit as supplied except for the couplings and wheels, but using a liquid glue rather than the dries-up-in-the-tube type previously employed.

 

 

 

 

I had obtained some Lifecolor acrylic paints in wood shades and decided to use these to represent the planking of the Lowmac deck. At first I didn't think that they would be suitable - just look how bright they are!

 

 

 

After some tidying up and washes to delineate plank lines, followed by some dirt wash, it ended up looking a little less garish.

 

 

 

A final coat of airbrushed wood shade (I can't remember which one) applied through a cut paper mask produced something a liitle more acceptable.

 

 

It is still without couplings and the sides and ends need transfers, painting and weathering.

 

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

The tractor being dekivered on the Lowmac is an Oxford Diecast Ferguson T20 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1nrQfBLlsU 

) and is depicted as brand new, partially uncovered after its journey. The tarpaulin was represented by a single ply of Kleenex tissue (the real thing, not a cheap Xxxxese copy) that was folded into shape over the model and then had superglue dripped onto it to harden it up. Once dry it was treated to some green/grey/brown shades to make it look old. The photographs were taken before the paint had dried.

 

 

 

 

[Stubby47]

Might I venture to suggest your planks look a little too uniform?

There are no signs of wear, and I whilst I have no actual examples, I would estimate the ends of the planks would have years of accumulated dirt, whereas the centres would be cleaner and perhaps more bleached.

[Mick Bonwick]

Your observations are perfectly correct. There is still a lot more work to be done on this vehicle. These BR built Lowmac EKs were introduced in the early 50s and would, therefore, have not had all that much use during the period that I am modelling. The brand new Ferguson T20 would be a clue - they ceased production in 1956.

 

The story around this diorama is based in the 50s/60s period; Austin A30, Rover P4, Ferguson T20, newly introduced ABS telephones, sandwiches in the pub at lunch time, Mothers Pride bread deliveries and so on.

 

Some fading of the planks is needed, some dirt accumulation in corners and baulks of timber that had been used to chock the load. Ropes. Planks. Other stuff that I haven't thought of yet.

 

Paul Bartlett has many photographs that can (and will) be used for reference when the time comes.

[Stubby47]

I think then we have a fundamental difference in approaches to weathering newly made items.

 

My preference is to paint it 'weathered', rather than pristine first and weather after.

 

Not saying you're wrong though.

[Mick Bonwick]

There's a simple reason for my approach. When I started weathering I only ever had RTR stock to work on, so everything was pristine at the beginning. I have not, so far, had cause to completely paint something from scratch, although I have done a few repaints. I do have a High Level Hawthorn Leslie that has been started, but it is likely to be a few years before that needs any paint going near it, and there won't be room on this diorama for it.

[Mick Bonwick]

The characters in the diorama will be centred around a hut. The original plan was to use a ready-to-plant one, but then I saw this one on York Modelmaking's website:

 

https://yorkmodelrail.com/shop/00-scale-ho-scale/building-kits-00-scale-ho-scale/00-smbkit-1-timber-linesmans-hut/

 

The die was set.

 

Instructions are good and it didn't take long to reach this stage:

 

 

 

 

Then it came to painting it. I had already used the Lifecolor wood shades on the Lowmac with some success, so decided to use them on the hut as well.

 

 

It didn't look anywhere near as good as I expected so I started to fiddle about, trying to remove the acrylic paint after it had dried hard. It still doesn't look right, but I will return to it soon, having had 6 years to think about it. The brick chimney was covered with some Scalecsenes texture, cut to fit. The roof is yet to be tackled.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Mick Bonwick

[Mick Bonwick]

The base for the diorama was a piece of plywood left over from layout construction. Landform was created from shaped pieces of expanded polystyrene - I thought that because it was quite a small area that there wouldn't be too much mess when shaping it. Wrong!

 

 

The track is a piece of Peco code 75 laid on PVA and then Woodland Scenics ballast sprinkled on while the glue was still wet. The ballast edging was marked with masking tape which was then removed before the glue dried. The scene depicted is the end of an almost-disused siding, so more work will need to be done there.

 

 

The base was then covered with a layer of plaster-impregnated bandage and painted with a red-brown household emulsion bought cheapy as an end-of-line 'bargain', and also used as a basis for Pendon workshop scenic details.

 

 

A layer of PVA was brushed on to the flat area of the groundform and then wood ash was sprinkled on and left to dry.

 

 

In order to alleviate the smoothness of the rising ground, a few pieces on Woodland Scenics clump material were scattered about and glued down where they landed.

 

 

The whole 'lump' was then given a couple of layers of static grass of different lengths and colours, the idea being to make it look untended.

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

There was a plan to include several road vehicles in the scene, and these included a Ferguson T20 (depicted above, under a tarpaulin), two Land Rovers, an Austin A30/35, a Fordson van and, possibly, a Rover P4.

 

One of the Land Rovers was to be a brand new one in British Rail colours, and the other a somewhat used one, both seen at the beginning of this topic. The older one is seen here deployed elsewhere, temporarily.

 

 

 

The bread van also shown there was given a coat of Testor's Dullcote to get rid of the high gloss finish, but otherwise left clean.

 

 

 

The Austin A30 was the subject of a weathering exercise to see how it could be made progressively dirty using just a few cheap materials.

 

 

The Rover P4 was never bought or otherwise obtained, but I think that it would have seemed a bit contrived (!) if at had been squeezed in somewhere. I think that the A30 might be left out as well, in the fullness of time..

[Stubby47]

7 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

The Rover P4 was never bought or otherwise obtained

 

I was looking forward to you adding the lingerie....

[Mick Bonwick]

3 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

 

I was looking forward to you adding the lingerie....

 

Sorry to disappoint you. Brenda remains fully clothed throughout.