I picked this one up a while ago and decided to start on it... finally.

I managed to knock the garage together in just a couple of hours but there are a lot of tools and other kit included with this.

There are several major items: auto lift, engine hoist, etc. My plan is to update this thread as I finish each of the various assemblies and tool groups.

With the clear plastic enclosure, it will make a nice place to display all the tools and equipment that come in the kit.

Once all the equipment is built and placed in the garage, there won't be much room for a car. Maybe Fujimi should have included a disclaimer. "Caution: May not be suitable for large American cars." Had I thought about it, I would have bought a second garage and built them joined together. Oh, well.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

I wanted as open a floor plan as possible. I'm not a huge fan of AI but it was a huge help to get the dimensions for the tapered columns and rafters to look somewhat correct in scale without having to go back to college for a structural engineering degree. I'll likely have the trusses 3D printed by one of the shops here in St. Louis. They're way too large for my printer. The purlins and girts can be handled with off the shelf Evergreen/Plastruct bits. The back three walls will be "concrete" with the front walls being ground to ceiling windows along with a piece of glass for the roof. The shop area in the back will be pretty much open floor to ceiling but I may add a second story near the front window walls for more display space.

I'm leaving off tonight with most of the framework done. I've got to add the girts to the protruding section. They've got angled ends where they meet the tapered columns so they're a little more tedious to model up. Then I can start with framing in the windows. My hope is that I can draw up the window frames in sections with a center pocket to slide a single piece of picture frame glass for each of the walls rather than a whole lot of smaller individual panes of glass.

I even scarped a bike together from parts in my PB just to have some thing in the background. 
 

Office.




Mock up of the sign.

- A black base

- LED spot lights - preferably hidden

- Pedestals to lift car off the floor a bit

- Mirrors to show off all the underside bling 

- Some sort of perimeter or barrier to keep the public back

I did a quick sketch of what I wanted and armed with my fertile imagination went to the nearest $2 emporium. A few bucks lighter I can back with a pack of black card, a bag of 16mm chrome balls, a pack of small mirrors and some fancy string

I also went to Jaycar and picked up some 3mm 15000cmd white LEDS - cheaper by the 10 - and an AAA cell battery box with a switch

I dilled out the chrome balls to fit the LEDS into and double stacked these and connected with some styrene tube I have. I set it up on a bit of customwood with a bit of blue card to check the concept. I mocked up some mirrors and found I need to have these on an angle to get the best from them. The nuts are to mock up display height

The chassis is a 32 Ford junker from the parts department

I powered the LED up and found it was too close to the car for maximum effect so I made the card larger - sorry no pix of that step

The height of the nuts was perfect so I am about to machine some pedestals from ally bar that I will polish. And continue with 3 more chrome ball stacks

waiting on 3printed  Tires, waiting for the ordered Putty and so on , i started another  longterm Project. This popped sometimes ago up, as i see the absolutley stunning Diorama "Windys Books Cafe" from Mister Yasu Okugawa  aka Doozy. Here is a Example of this beautiful Artwork.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/43/d6/25/43d625f15ab1e167cb93f5520309c773.jpg 

Yes Modelling is possible without Guns ....lol  & 

I want to make a Diorama around Summer, Girls and Fun, the Dream of a Single old man  :winky:
Based on the Revell VW Samba Minivan, modified to something like a Food or Coffeetruck. Girls with Vespas , Beachbuggies,  Surfers and so on. All Hollywoodlike, no Rivetcounting  ?
First i build the Cabintes and Workplace in the Bus with leftover Wood from my Old West Builds http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=20548&p=226724#p226724

What do you think ?

Will make the Scene from ''Goldfinger' when Q presents Bond his new Car, the famous Aston Martin DB 5. So i buy the USCP Upgrades, Engine, Grille and Rims.

First check if the Engine and Compartment fit. Then cut out the Drivers Door and the Engine Hood. Build up the Doorsill and the Doorframe with Plasticard. Added Hinges and Doorlock. Also the Hinges and the Seal for the Hood. Then a bit Filler and Sanding.

I work at a place that most of the time, we’re making concept cars, or prototypes of something.

But they had bid on this interesting job.

And it was fun for a few days.

This is an eight foot long, trunk. About 9” in diameter. 8 pound urethane foam. I took 2 days to sculpt, a hour to work an auto primer into the surface. -and a day or so to paint.

Working on this badly neglected stock car I was thinking to put it in a shop as it is about to go through a massive salvage operation

The car exists for real (showing the finished chassis below)

The diorama is completely fictional. First floor for the car, benches, tools and shelves, mezzanine would be a little official & rest area

The base structure and layout is advanced at this stage and I am currently fabricating tools and benches

This is a lot of work but a lot of fun since this is all new stuff for me

Looking for help on where I can find some of the little office type of stuff like coffee pots, food, magazines, newspapers, etc.

Here's what I have made so far. Again looking for any kind of advice from all of you.

Thanks

She chose this picture from the web as the model.  She's never worked with plaster so I volunteered to build the basic form for her, while demonstrating a few techniques.

I printed out the picture which, conveniently, was scaled to nearly the exact size of the space available in the diorama, took some measurements and built a form to pour the front wall.

Removing the casting from the form caused breaks in some of the thinner areas, but that's a "feature, not a bug" as it's supposed to be a crumbling ruin anyway, right?  I carved the left side and did a dark wash on it to demonstrate the technique and then poured, carved and erected the other walls.

And here's the "finished" project as far as I'm going to take it.  She will finished weathering, detailing, adding rubble and vegetation and blending it into the rest of the diorama.

I'll try to remember to post a picture when she finishes it.  Given her skills in every other art/craft she enjoys, I expect it will be fabulous.  Of course there's a small chance I could be prejudiced...

It's pretty obvious that neither my building skills nor my photography skills are on a par with some of the stunning examples posted here, but practice makes perfect.

I'm trying to dust off what little photography skills I have and take my Nikon P510 out of Auto/Snapshot mode.  It's coming back to me, but slowly...very slowly.

Here are a couple of the not completely horrible shots I've managed so far.

Constructive criticism of both the diorama and the photography are invited.

I started the build by hand drawing a floor plan onto the A3 size base board, and this floor plan was obtained from a property website. Each of the wall panels has been mounted onto the floor plan, with quilting pins holding them in place . . . Later, when everything is ready, the wall panels will be fixed in place using PVA glue.

I was inspired by an Adam Savage video on YouTube to build this structure, in which he was building his childhood home from foam board. Whereas Adam completed the build as a white only foam board architect's model, I decided from the beginning that I was going to fully paint the bungalow.

One of my most accurate 1:43 scale diecast model cars is a 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I and this will be inside the finished garage of the building.

Here is an unusual approach to the posting of this W.I.P., because I shall show some photos of where the project is now, so nearly six weeks into the build. and then refer back to previous photos of how various parts of the bungalow were assembled . . . I am fully expecting the roof to be the most challenging stage of the build, so I am not thinking too much about that just yet !

Thanks for having a look guys, and all comments welcome as usual.

David

This section to the right of the river is unfinished, but shows some of my vision for it.

So with some materials from Hobby Lobby and some spray paint, I have created this over the last few days. Going back to Hobby Lobby tomorrow for some more stuff, and about 6 more junkers on the way from ebay LOL. This is about all the room I have for this diorama so I will have to stop buying "parts cars"..... Or not.... buy more and swap them out every so often. My wife is pretty supportive.

Thinking of a fall foliage backdrop behind it soon. Also all the dust on the cars is legit. The green Torino for example I built about 35 years ago and it has been sitting out unprotected for a good deal of that time. The blue Monte Carlo was painted by a friend of mine around '88 and I traded him something for it, don't remember what, but same deal on the dust. My sister visited recently and swiped the roof of it instinctively because it was so dusty and I let her have it LOL! She was swiping away 35+ year old dust!