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Comments
Guess who's back!! It's been a year since I last posted. Sorry, but I've been a bit busy. As you know, I decided to retire at the end of the year. That happened, but I also decided to move again to be closer to kids and grand kids. Therefore, I moved to Northwest Arkansas. Now that I am settled and staying at home due to the pandemic, it's time to start modeling again. I will be posting progress pictures soon.
BTW, I had to break down my layout. I'm super bummed about it and it was very hard to undo all the work I did over the past three years. I'm not going to have a layout in my new home, but I will concentrate, like a lot of you, on making dioramas. I will display the dioramas, but my goal is to give each diorama to a family member or friend. Like an oil painting, each diorama will be a part of my legacy and hopefully will live on well past my lifetime.
I plan to catch up on your postings soon. It's great to be back. Phil
Jerry
Terry
Retirement is awesome. After I retired I continually asked myself how I ever got anything done after work hours. I had one of those half day jobs, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, with weekends doing yard work.
Hope you get a few hours a day working on modeling. Like you, I gave up an HO scale layout before my retirement move from Chicago to Tucson. I also made the switch from HO scale to O-Scale Proto 48 modeling.
Later, Dave S. Tucson, AZ
Geezerbill
It's been awhile, so I need to build back up my crafting skills. However, as they say, practice makes perfect.
Phil
I used some of Ken's "grunge" techniques on each plank. Rounding the edges does bring out the contrast.
I darkened the final floor with mineral spirits. My thought was that floors in a hoist house would be very soiled, greasy and grimy.
Next will be determining the size of the final layout. Phil
I think I'm going to make my mine a gold mine. Most gold mines are located in more mountainous areas.
My mine will be located at the base of these mountains near the foothills, so the terrain will be rocky and the surface not anywhere close to level. Of course, I'm going to cheat a bit by making sure the central points of this build are on level ground so everything fits together.
I started by cutting a 3/4" piece of high quality plywood and put a 1/2" layer of foam on top. The plywood gives me stability while the foam give me the ability to contour a bit. However, most of my hilly terrain will be by means of casted rocks. More on that later.
Once I glued the plywood and foam together, I taped Brett's template where I wanted the mine to be located on the diorama. Even though the diorama will be bigger, I wanted to make sure the structures were closer to the front so observers will be able to see the amazing details these SW kits bring.
I then used a pushpin to locate the corners of every feature and mark the other very important lines. I then removed the template and literally connected the dots.
It was really easy. I then placed my finished structures on the base to make sure my drawing was accurate. As you can see, it was.
Thanks for following. Phil
Pretty cool to see and imagine the miners hauling their rare finds down switchback trails to town.
Later, Dave S. Tucson, AZ