Camwader

A little more progress - both sides of the hull are now planked, next job is to plank the underneath of the hull.

Arnold, The real boat is sixteen feet long, nearly five metres, so the model is 32" long. My 'in progress' photos in the garage are intended to represent the full size build, but I thought my 1/6th garage diorama had been seen too many times on BM to fool anyone these days. People often suspect some sort of trick photography or digital manipulation is involved, but that's not the case. It's always just a 1/6th scale model in a 1/6th scale garage, with photos taken with a camera that gives great depth of field at short distances. 1/6th Scale Garage Diorama

I'm finding this model to be too big for my model bench, but that's no problem as it's quite comfortable to work on with it on my lap while I sit on the bed in my 'toy' bedroom. One side of the hull is planked now, moving on to the other side and the hull next. It's a bit tedious one plank at a time, but I'm getting there.

Before Christmas I saw on Ebay a 1/6th scale model of a classic American speedboat, a 16ft 1935 Gar Wood Speedster by MACK Products. As I have many unfinished projects on the go I decided that I really must resist the temptation to acquire it. Three months on, no one had bought it, so the inevitable happened and it arrived on Good Friday. Having previously built a 16ft wood strip canoe in my garage I knew the Gar Wood would fit, albeit taking up a lot more volume. I got stuck in straight away, and what you see here is the progress so far. The frame is complete, with the next job being to add the first layer of balsa planking. As usual with my builds, more photos are in my Flickr album: 1935 Gar Wood Speedster

They are not actually leaves, they're birch seeds. They can be found on Ebay - or on the ground around birch trees.

I just couldn't resist having another little play as I was clearing everything away.

This scrap yard diorama, which I’ve shown a couple of times before, only exists for a few hours at a time on my work bench when I’ve got some additional scrap vehicles to photograph. It’s been over a year since I last set it up. The latest wrecks are a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz and a Pontiac GTO. The Caddy is a Maisto diecast, acquired relatively cheaply on Ebay as it had no box and faded chrome. It was also horribly pink, so I had a fun few hours giving it some junk yard patina. The Pontiac is an ERTL diecast, very cheap on Ebay because it was missing a couple of wheels. I had some spare Corvette wheels from a Revell kit - problem solved. I just gave that one a light kerbside aging, no under bonnet work yet. There's a link at the bottom to the Flickr album with a lot more photos. Flickr Album - 1/12th Scale Scrap Yard

Everything is 1/6th scale - the drones and the garage setting. The link to the album in the original post doesn't seem to work any more, so here's a new one: Silent Running Drones Flickr Album

This made my day - guess who likes my drone models? I followed the link, and it is indeed Freeman Lowell himself.

Another little iteration on the Alfa. I found a pair of secondhand wings and running boards on Ebay, and cut them down to this often seen configuration of long wings at the front with cycle wings at the back. After the fully stripped racing version, this is probably my favourite look. Unfortunately with the big wings on it won't fit in the display case I've been using, which wasn't designed for the car but just happened to be a near perfect fit.

Excellent work Davi. I know from personal experience that it's easy to get carried away with garage dioramas, and they end up being big projects of their own. I have two, in 1/12th and 1/6th scale and they continue to evolve.

It's as real as you want it to be. 😀

The exhaust wrap is genuine Boots zinc oxide plaster from the 1960s, coloured appropriately. I found a reel of it in an old motoring first aid box that had been in the back of my dad's garage for over fifty years. I first used it on the exhaust of my 1/6th scale Tamiya Harley Davidson Fatboy, so I knew exactly what I needed to do for the Alfa.

The first real Alfa Romeo Monza that I saw, at a Silverstone Classic meeting in about 2002, was that colour and I liked it. The majority of Pocher Monzas are red, so I wanted to do something different.

Just about all the period photos of Alfa Monzas are monochrome, so it seems appropriate.