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Comments
The Hoist House (HH) must reside in a specific spot that allows the cable hoist to pull watercraft out of the water and into dry dock for various repairs. The kit calls for the HH to sit on a wonderfully detailed resin brick, concrete and wood foundation with the hoist, not included in the kit, located inside the hoist house. Brett mentions in the manual that he originally had the HH as an open shed, but did not like the final look, so designed the structure closed with windows and door. I decided to do a combination of the two...A closed HH with the original designed door and windows and and open area where I would provide an actual 2 drum hoist. This arrangement would provide a great deal of detail modeling opportunities and visual interest.
I wanted to keep the wonderful resin foundation casting and came up with a two level configuration scheme. This required I cut down the size of the HH to allow over half the resin foundation to be visible, particularly the wonderfully conceived exposed brick under the missing and weathered concrete. As such, the HH looked almost square. So, to give it some additional length and volume, I added a covered open shed area in back and a roof over the front door. Also, placing the windows a bit off center of an almost square structure gives the impression of length. The resin foundation would be at ground level and the HH would be up on a stone foundation that I would construct. The 2 drum hoist would then be placed on the lower level concrete and brick pad fully visible and the HH would be the maintenance facility. Electrical service to the HH would come in from the line service in the rear and then to the hoist unit in front via underground electric line. The resin ground level foundation would require a cut out in the foam diorama base. I utilized a scrap piece of foam to trial this application and may actually use the entire piece and just splice the foam square into my dio base. This is illustrated below.
All this for a 3" x 1.5" scene! We do what we do cause we love what we do. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!
This is the Hoist House I came up with. I added several details to add visual interest to an otherwise small squarish structure. Stone foundation made from individual plaster stones, scratch built roof with rafters to allow natural looking rot and damage, wood roof cap with additional "metal cap" over that, stove pipe was made from an original SWSM straight resin casting heated with flame and then bent to form the right angle with simulated flex stove pipe at the angle by carving it in with a #11blade, wood floor just visible inside the cracked open door, rear covered area and electrical service connection (viewable in subsequent images). Also, the horizontal break in the siding at the start of the peak was done to break up the long height of the front and rear walls. This was done simply by adding a piece of stripwood to the framing before putting on the vertical siding.
Another shot taken indoors with a bit more saturated color and some scale. Went with an off yellow peeling paint effect using Pale Buckskin 00121 from the SWSM Reaper Paint Set.
Rear view showing the covered area. I made the incoming electrical service connection. Frame is from stripwood and the insulator is from carved styrene rod.
Here is the resin foundation supplied with the kit. This entire piece was installed level with the future ground level. The stone steps I added and are just staged at this point.
This is how the HH will sit on the base. The 2 drum hoist will be in the far upper right portion of the concrete slab. There will be a light pole just off the edge to provide area lighting and will have the electrical on/off junction box for the electric hoist mounted on it. More later...Ken
Appreciate that Art.
Looking forward to seeing this placed and functioning.
Thanks much Karl.
Thanks for the support Kevin.
Appreciate your thoughts Joel!
Thanks Bryan
Thanks Brett and working on placement of things now so coming along.
Well thanks so much Emery!
Jerry
Shelby's diorama base as of today. Those familiar with Shelby's will notice a few odd features compared to the traditional build of this kit. The most impactful thing that I decided to add was a land feature opposite Shelby's main structure. I wanted the track leading into the main structure to have the look as if coming from somewhere, rather than just ending a few inches outside the large open door over the water. The foam in the foreground of the image is this land feature. Other features and their relevance with become apparent as the work progresses. Note the pile of plaster rock castings ready to be integrated. More later...Ken
Jerry
yeah. i'll be keeping a close eye on this...
tip, glue some straws in those holes for the lighting wires, the wires will slide through easier and not snag.
Cant wait for the next update.
The extra piece of land is very interesting. Worthy of a name with an accompanying sign. Something like: Mutt's Jut. Grunge Aye Land. Spot's Spit. Finger's Point.
Right Kevin...me too!...This will be my first go at modeling a significant body of water.
I knew you'd get it Karl! I wanted to achieve a more gentle angle on the rail ramp for the boat winch set up. So decided on a ramp affair to make the angle more manageable. It will also add some visual interest...and a lot of work for me, but in the end I think it will look OK. Thanks for the steer on the lighting as I have had that problem before with those ultra thin wires for the lights.
Right Bryan, the extra land area will give the diorama a whole different look. I like the idea of naming it...hmmm.
It's working out so far Tom. Next big thing is the shoreline rock formation placement. Haven't done much of that either!
Sounds good Art. The lighthouse is a nifty detail and look forward to seeing that come together for you. I like the little guy also...thanks for mentioning it.
Metal sea wall made from raised rib metal roof material with large styrene "T" metal pieces as supports.
Resin stone wall is included in the kit. The height of my base required that I add on about the lower 1/3 of the wall with plaster and then I carved in matching sone detail.
Boat haul ramp scratch built from strip wood and NBWs.
The trestle didn't want to photograph very well, but you get the idea. Taking the rail across the water to the adjacent land form required I add two additional bents and a couple inches of decking.