"Once Upon A Time In The West" 1/24 scale

JohnReid

Active Member
Jon,


Nice brick work, are those bricks from the dollhouse. are you planning on using one of those fine models of the general you show the box art from. That are a very fine kit, with lots of detail. I started to build one once , and it was damaged, and I put it up. My dad had an un- assembled kit. I have a G scale Kalamazoo 4-4-0 whose body is quite toylike, and I have thought of using the mechanism from the Kalamazoo, and pillaging details from one of the General kits.

What other elements are you going to use in this diorama.


Bill Nelson

Not a lot Bill,actually in some ways it will be the least complicated story to tell.Because it is based upon a movie, the story has already been told ,so I will rely more upon the viewers imagination ,memories of the movie itself and light and sound.
 

JohnReid

Active Member
More and more I have come to believe that photography and the way your stuff is presented is just as important as the diorama itself,especially dioramas of the storyboard type.The frame, painting and lighting are just as essential in 3D as 2D art.Even "how to..." pics are more interesting when properly presented.
I have been fooling around in photobucket and photoshop as you can see.
Layering is something that I am trying to learn now so that I can have just the frame saved and add different pictures and text to it.In the meantime the above is an example of what I mean.
When my building days are over,I plan to do an on-line book of pictures and "how to's......" for my modeling buds on the internet.The best part is that it will be free!
The way I look at it is this,prior to having the internet I spend a lot of time and money tracking all this information down(I have been modeling for over 60 years)now I have all this at my doorstep ,it is time to give something back!
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I have been using photography for years as a tool to improve my modeling. One of my sisters took some very close up photos of some of my work when I was about thirteen year old, blew it way up, making small errors look huge. the digital camera has made this fast easy and cheap, and I can share my work much more widely.

The diorama has some interesting challenges and advantages, the designer can choose the angle that the scene will be viewed from, allowing for much tighter control of the composition.


In the wider model railroading world there are different concepts involved, one is the little world concept where the modeler's world is a broad expanse, a little world. and another, more like the diorama, or stage design, various scenes are built, and the trains, like actors, move into or out of these scenes.


Bill Nelson
 

JohnReid

Active Member
Changed my mind again.I thing that I will go back to the opening scene from the film.It fits more into my style with a lot of old stuff around.Old wood,old shack,old windmill etc.. that I can weather to my hearts content.No figures just the sound of a puffing loco and squeaky windmill with dubbed in music from the film.
I will draw up a floor plan and start the mock-up next in HO scale.

My photobucket:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/JohnReid/
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I went and looked at your photo bucket albums, lots of impressive work there. I am unfamiliar with Once upon a time in the West, but it has got to be a spaghetti western, Looking at the frames that you show, those are obviously European four wheel cars. Sure there were American four wheel cars, but they have a different look to the journals.

One advantage to dioramas is that it is limited, so it can actually get done. One builds a whole world, as I do, and nothing is done. there is always something else to add to the edges, or detail to add in the middle , and when the vision changes there is stuff to remove and repace.

Most of my stuff is http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164383 , in the logging minni but I have projects strewed all over the place, here at Zealot.


Bill Nelson
 

JohnReid

Active Member
My next diorama.
I am doing the opening scene from the film "once upon a time in the west"in G or 1/24th scale.This will be a static diorama and I will be building the kit "the general" as the locomotive.I would like to build a passenger car,box and a flat car if I can find one to modify or kit bash or even build from plans if necessary.I would also consider old unserviceable shells or anything that requires restoration,in fact I prefer it that way for static models.

In the film there is an old box car converted into a temporarily station and a water tower and windmill that I also want to kitbash or build from scratch if need be.The rest would be standard track and old railway ties or new ones slightly weathered.Any advice you could give me would be really appreciated,I am especially looking for fellow modelers who are also into the old west genre to communicate with as I am a newbie to RR dioramas although I have been modeling for 60 years.Cheers! John.
 

JohnReid

Active Member
Onceupon-1-1.jpg
 

clif52

Banned
Very COOL diorama work. I thought about building a garden railroad in the backyard when I retire. 1/6th scale would work with military 12" figures and GI Joes. I wonder if I could create the Wild Wild West with Jim West and Artemus Gordon. Maybe put Dr. Loveless in the engine of the train. You have given me a lot of ideas. "John Reid" isn't that the real name of the Lone Ranger.

Clif
 

JohnReid

Active Member
You know it is funny how these creative seeds are planted in your brain.When I walked out of the movie theater 40 years ago after seeing this movie for the first time,I knew something had changed,that I had experienced something that really hit home.I couldn't quite figure it out at the time but I new that I had just witnessed a great piece of Art.I have seen the movie many times since but it was only when I got into storyboard dioramas that I really began to appreciate it .The genre I had always loved since I was a kid, "The Old West", but this film was different from anything I had seen before.
I bought the special collector's edition DVD of the film and began to really study it this time.
This edition not only has the movie itself but you can program it for a running commentary on every scene by knowledgeable film people.
There is also 3 documentaries included.
Maybe its because I am an old fart now but for me this is a wonderful tool that I would of never dreamed of years ago.A university course on film making in a box. "WOW"
When studying this film I sometimes just run it with sound,sometimes without sound and sometimes just the sound alone.I freeze frame compositions that I like and note lighting ,composition etc...I take pics with my digital camera right from my computer screen for research purposes.Never before have artists had all these wonderful tools at hand whenever they need them.It kinda blows this old fart away!Home based artists have never had it so good!Now we too can learn from the masters in an exciting new way.
 

JohnReid

Active Member
Things to consider

The General locomotive kit is 1/25th scale.The closest thing to that is G or 1/24 scale.

The General was originally designed for 5 foot track but changed to narrow gauge in the 1890's

When I get the kit I will have to measure what is on there now.If it is G can I use LGB Durago and Silverton rolling stock? What about their other rolling stock is it all narrow gauge?Is it possible to change the trucks only to G scale?If not then I could modify the locomotive I guess.

I don't mind using a little artistic license with all of this after all Sergio's trains in the film were Spanish dressed up to look American.

Any ideas? thanks.
 

JohnReid

Active Member
Because of all the confusion as to what G scale really is and because I need civil war cars at a reasonable price, I have decided to use Bachmann kits for the rolling stock.I can't easily modify the locomotive so it will have to be the cars.
When I have everything I will put it all together and see how it looks and modify the cars if need be.
I don't plan to put in any figures so scale will be not so obvious anyway.Worse comes to worse I will call it artistic license.
Speaking about artistic license this diorama will be my tribute to Sergio Leone and the art of making film.He used lots of it in his film and still succeeded artistically in creating the best old west film ever made.Not a bad example I would dare to say. My diorama will be more about the art of telling a story than recording history.
This story will be the simplest that I have ever done.No figures just the train and wooden structures will be modeled.The story will be centered around an empty directors chair with Sergio Leone written across the back.I thought about adding a camera and tripod but even that seems too much and it is not really required for this piece.
 

JohnReid

Active Member
As it is planned now the train would be about 62" long ,the same length of the diorama that I am presently building in 1/16th scale.I find that this is getting a little big for me to haul around now so I am looking to reduce the size a bit.I think that I will reduce the length by using the locomotive and tender and a combo passenger/baggage car only.I will start with this and add to it later if I want.I build my dioramas in modules that are joined together with screws only ,so I will still have the option later to add to the scene if it seems necessary.

I will start by building my HO mock-up and see how it looks!
 
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