Friday, April 25, 2014

More dioramas

As unfocused as ever, I'm presently playing with a couple of dioramas. Very slowly as it happens what with one thing and another.

The first is a scene based on Hale Station which has a wonderful canopy.  Obviously that doesn't appear in the picture.  I'm still figuring out how to do it.  If there are no more posts on this, I didn't manage to figure it.



The second is of a row of seaside cottages with rough stone tile roofs.  That's an interesting challenge - styrene sheet and scribed DAS - and I'm struggling to get the colour right at the moment.  I can never seem to anticipate darkening colour as the acrylic paint dries.  The scribing also needed to be finer as the gaps between tiles appear too large.  I may lose interest in this one.



13 comments:

  1. These look great. Please, please don't lose interest, the stonework and the roof is looking so good and the structures are really rather fascinating. It looks like Kerridge stone near Macc. As for the canopies, most promising...I would probably go down the etched brass route myself, there are plenty of parts available although all are still a pig to glaze...but of course you will manage it and make the rest of us look ham-fisted!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Iain. Yes I'll do a bit of research into suitable parts for the canopy. The supporting brackets for the original at Hale are quite ornate as are the supporting pillars. I'm sure there must be something suitable which could be adapted.

      Delete
  2. It looks like you have another two excellent models in the making there Chas. Stick with those seaside cottages, I would because they are well proportioned and full of character. You could always try overlaying the roof tiles with some made from postcard or cartridge paper.

    Colouring is always a bit of a lottery and when I find things are a little too dark out comes the talc. A light dusting well brushed in works wonders and has managed to turn many of my models around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Talc! Of course. Thanks Geoff. I've just applied some and the colour is now much better.

      Delete
  3. More lovely modelling!
    I loke those cottages, superb stonework. My own house has a stone tiled roof and although the gaps are bigger than that on a tiled roof I agree that yours might be a tad too wide. Don't lose interest though! Are they based on a real row of cottages?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Paul. The cottages are based on a row on the front at Mousehole but I saw a lot of stone roofed cottages on a recent visit to the Cotswolds which I thought very appealing. I'm tempted to re-DAS and re-scribe. Or just slate them!

      Delete
  4. Hi Chas, I agree with the above - these look like a couple of great projects in the making. I'd go with Geoff's suggestion for the roof tiles, if it's not too dis-heartening to start it again. You can use a thicker paper to represent the stone roof - I've used a plain flat textured wallpaper before to good effect, and you could also check out the excellent method Allan Downes uses to produce his stone roofs (although even though he's explained it, I still don't know how he does it!!! )

    Keep up the excellent output,

    Lee

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks very much Lee. Textured wallpaper is a very good idea. I'm wondering how to achieve (in an easy way!!) different sized tiles with rough, chipped edges. I'll see if I can track down the Allan Downes method.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Chas, I know what you mean about unfocussed modelling - it can be a little frustrating, but when it leads to something like this it's 200% worth it!

    Your APA box is superb. I admire how you can build to such a high standard and yet do it fairly fast. Your new projects look good too. The seaside cottages look fantastic to me, I hope you carry on with them!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Mikkel, you're very kind. And thanks for putting me on to APA boxes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Chas, just looking in again. Any progress on the dioramas, or has summer taken over?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Mikkel. A good guess! The summer has taken over. Just waiting for the clouds to roll in again!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Chas, I am new to the art of modelling buildings and find your blog very aspiring. The level of detail is amazing and wish I could model to your standard. After having look around your blog I created one myself; http://chazsmodels.blogspot.ae/ Thank you so much for creating the blog.

    Best Wishes

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...