Building An HO Scale Photo Diorama

T

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Apr 14, 2006
4,073
0
36
35
Rancho Santa Margarita, Cali.
Hi guys, been talking about building a Photo Diorama for some time now. Well now I finally got started on it lol

The Diorama measures 5' long x 20" wide and features a single raised track in the back, the Walthers Cornerstone Art Deco Highway Underpass Bridge shortend down to a single track bridge, the Walthers Cornerstone Black Gold Asphalt Plant, tons of construction and a great place to do both railfaning and truckfaning :mrgreen: sign1

Here are some pics of the started Diorama

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View looking right down the Diorama. Single Track is raised in the back.

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You can see my granmas dog in the bottom left corner, she likes to help hehe. You can also see how the roads will be layed out, 2 lanes going East and 2 lanes going West, Only one of the lanes going West is blocked off due to construction. There will also be a center divider in between the East and Westbound lanes.

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You can see that the road dead ends here. Thats because the Black Gold Asphalt Plant is just to the right. The road goes North and under the train track. Lots of construction will be going on. I just layed stuff out as a general guideline for me and taking the pics so you guys could see how this will be layed out.

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Black Gold Asphalt Plant sits at the far right of the Diorama

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View from the back of the Asphalt Plant

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View from the back of the Highway Underpass

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Back of the Construction Site

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Here you can get a better sence of how the raods and such will be layed out. 2 Lanes run Eastbound on the bottom of the display, and 2 lanes run Westbound (again one is blocked off due to construction), a Center Divider seperates the East and Westbound lanes, and in the top of the picture you see where the Embankment running from where the traintrack is down to the highway.

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Highway lanes are 4" wide (or 2" per lane), Center Divider is 1 1/4, and the Black Gold Asphalt Enterance is marked at the bottom of the pic.

That it for now, gotta go work on it some more
 
Just did up one of the hill sides with some paper wauds and some masking tape, now to put the plaster cloth on er'

heres a few pics.

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Ooppsss, looks like My finger slipped in the pic sign1

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Looking Left from the Underpass

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View from the track

Thats it for now ,time to go plaster
 
Okay, laid the plaster cloth down. I have never used plaster cloth before, it was pretty fun and im looking forward to other embankment on the other side of the bridge

Im using the Woodland Scenics Plaster Cloth stuff and it works really well. I like how the embankment took its shape and I cant wait to paint it and put some bushes and whatnot on it. It says to let dry overnite on the package but it is 95 degrees here so i dont think it will take that long to dry, it has already began to harden. Ill still wait a few hours to do anything to it, I dont want it to mold or anything lol.

Anyways, here are a few pics of the new embankment:

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Looking Left

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Looking Right

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Close-up of the bridge Retaining wall which will have to be cleaned after I paint the embankment

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Ground shot, looking left again

Gonna start the roads now that the plaster cloth is laid. Im using the Woodland Scenics Smoo-It stuff for the roads
 
Got the Woodland Scenics Paving Tape down where the roads will go.

Heres some pics

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Lookng Right

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Looking Left. I had to lay some extra tape so that I could reach all the space with the spreader so thats why there is the triange and the smaller rectangles and such...
 
cnw1961 said:
Josh :wave:, great start. Hope to see a lot of cool shots of your trucks (and engines) when it is finished.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks Kurt, this is a really fun project so far :mrgreen:

Well layed the roads down with the Smooth-It Mix, now just letting it dry some to peal back the paving tape and go over the spots that I had to lay down to reach other spots with the "paving board" lol.

Here are some more pics:

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Dont Mind all the dang shadows wall1 :curse: sign1

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I have to remove the excess tape and fill in the tape holes (the triangle and long rectangle) Gonna go do that now since it has been about 25 mins since I layed the Smooth-It down
 
Peeled the Paving tape away and it left nice straight lines :mrgreen: :thumb:

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You can get a better idea of what I was talking about with the triangles and rectangeles on my last post. I have to fill these in with more Smooth-It. I also tested that turn coming from the bridge with a Ford Aeromax Cab and a 53' Trailer, the turn is just wide enough for the truck to make the turn, thats prototypical right there, I always see huge rigs like these just barely making there turns, its so exiting to watch
 
I decided to follow Tom's painting style from his thread "Building the RK&M III: The Mountain" and go with Honeycomb for the embankment. Im really liking the color, looks pretty cool. Here are some pics:

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Showing the paint I used

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This sides all painted up, next is a coat of green grass and then some bushes and trees will be added in
 
Josh:wav: , WOW!!:eeki: , I think your doing a GREAT JOB!:thumb: i think it will produce some AWESOME shots to show off your trucks & trains:winki::mrgreen: . i cant wait to see some finished pics:thumb::mrgreen: .
:deano: -Deano
 
Josh, that's a good start. I like to use the plaster cloth by using cardboard or newspaper under for support. Then after the cloth is partially dry I build it up with joint compound and mold it with my fingers. Like you, my temperature is about a 100 this time of year and it will dry overnight. In winter I use a hair dryer. Then when the desired shape has been obtained, I paint using latex paints and add plants and trees. You can make tunnels, mountains and walls easily that way. Great fun. Almost as good as running the trains, but not quite. Good luck, Bob
 
UP SD40-2 said:
Josh:wav: , WOW!!:eeki: , I think your doing a GREAT JOB!:thumb: i think it will produce some AWESOME shots to show off your trucks & trains:winki::mrgreen: . i cant wait to see some finished pics:thumb::mrgreen: .
:deano: -Deano
Click to expand...

Deano :wave:

Thanks so much. Im just glad I will finally have something portable to take outside and take some better pics with natural lighting :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Finished Pics comming soon. Just snapped some pics of the embankment that I partially finished, got the groundcover down, added a few small bushes, and put some rock next to the track too.
 
rhtastro said:
Josh, that's a good start. I like to use the plaster cloth by using cardboard or newspaper under for support. Then after the cloth is partially dry I build it up with joint compound and mold it with my fingers. Like you, my temperature is about a 100 this time of year and it will dry overnight. In winter I use a hair dryer. Then when the desired shape has been obtained, I paint using latex paints and add plants and trees. You can make tunnels, mountains and walls easily that way. Great fun. Almost as good as running the trains, but not quite. Good luck, Bob
Click to expand...

WOW thanks for the info about the Joint Compount, I woulda never thought of that. Ill have to try that out next time im doing something like this. Im hopefully starting a full room layout soon so ill be able to try this one out, sounds like it will work great :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
Play-Doh said:
Excellent work! Im digging it!
Click to expand...

Thanks Play-Doh, Im digging doing it :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Okay time for some new pics, as I said above, I took some pics of the embankment that I covered in ground cover, small bushes and some rocks. I still need to add a few trees. Here are the pics. I had to use the flash cause it was early morning and the sun hadnt reached the backyard yet lol so ill take some better pics later but for now these will do.

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I havnt decided what to do with the bottom part of the embankment yet (the part that is still brown) but that is going to be part of the constrcution zone down there so I might just make it look like that small part had been cut away to make room.

Still have to add a couple small trees in too
 
I take it you like his stuff, I mean in your pics it looks good. Do you find the paint on the drums ect of good quality?
 
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