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.

From what I've read, it's because when Enzo Ferrari started his own racing team - Scuderia Ferrari - after he left Alfa Romeo, he still raced Alfas in the 1930s. He didn't make his own cars until about 1940. The badge on the model is the Ferrari team emblem, not the Ferrari car maker badge - though they are obviously almost identical.

When I first finished this Alfa Romeo Monza earlier this year it was essentially as presented in the kit by Pocher. I had intended doing no more to it, but then became involved with a couple more Pocher Alfa projects. That provided me with a choice of wheels and tires, and spare wheels, so I decided to add a spare and a chassis mounted tool box to the original Monza. I was just about to start scratch building a toolbox when I found exactly what I needed from an outfit in Australia called Leadfoot Models. I also reworked the Pocher cycle wings to get a better fit - near boiling water and a bit of bending reduced their radius to get a closer fit to the wheels than was possible with the originals, and surprisingly, the paint suffered no harm. These photos show the car with road tyres on blue wheels, and race tyres on black wheels.

You’ve seen my transient 1/12th scale scrap yard ‘dioramas’ before; here’s the 1/8th scale version. As I only have a few 1/8th scale vehicles it’s obviously not as busy - just a couple of fun hours messing about on the bench before it all gets cleared away again. More photos in my Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/camwader_jon/albums/72177720311753791

A bit of fun this morning, pulling the old Monza chassis out of the weeds. More photos here: Alfa Romeo Scrap Chassis

Here are a few shots of my Pocher Alfa Monza in hill climb mode. As originally built, it had blue wheels on road tyres, but I prefer the black wheels on race tyres. The blue wheels now live on the show chassis I've shown on here earlier. Here the Monza is stripped for action, with no number plates or headlamps, added race numbers and twin rear wheels.

This is the second of two chassis that I have been able to build up from parts kindly given to me by fellow Britmodeller DFC. I might do a little more to it if I can find or easily make a few things, but for now I’m calling it complete. As well as the parts I was given, I’ve also been able to use a few left over bits that I didn’t use on my first Monza, such as the floor, dashboard and dash support frame, which I replaced with improved scratch built parts. I have used just about everything that I was given between the two chassis – any duplicates like brake back plates, crankshaft, pistons etc were scruffied up and chucked on as miscellaneous scrap. Included in that category is a white metal cast cylinder head, which was no doubt intended to be an improvement on the plastic one, but was in fact quite the opposite – useful as scrap metal though. What this wreck really needs is some rusty old wheels, but as I have more chassis than wheels at the moment, it has had to borrow some that are intended for a tidy car. I’m not sure if I want to spend the approximately £45 per wheel that is the typical asking price, or spend yet more tedious hours building the things. I’m watching Ebay hoping to find some cheap, scruffy used ones.

I have three kits by Model Trailways in my stash, all 1/12th scale - Conestoga wagon, chuck wagon and the Western Mountain Buckboard - no idea when I'll get around to building them.

The wagons were made by a retired cabinet maker - the craftmanship and attention to detail is outstanding. Have a look at these Flickr albums: 1/12th Scale Horse Drawn Vehicles

Jonners, Your tip cart is beautifully done. I build one for my mother when I was in my teens in the ’70s, from a John Voisey kit, to go with a ceramic shire horse she had. It was a treasured possession of hers right up to end - unfortunately Mum had dementia and was paranoid about her things being stolen in the care home so she was always cramming it into the back of the wardrobe to keep it safe - which did it no good at all. I originally finished it in natural varnished wood, and to my eye, it always looked like more of an ornament than a model. After Mum died I gave it a full refurb, and painted it like yours in the traditional blue and red. A couple of years ago I acquired a trio of superbly built wagons and another tip cart from a seller on Ebay. They look great as they are, but I am tempted to go for more traditional paint finishes.

Poul, The diorama is only set up for photo sessions, it takes up too much room to be a permanent fixture. Also, I use the base and walls for other model shoots as well. I'm planning a display case for the Monza and blue chassis, and another for the Mille Miglia once it's finished. I probably won't bother with a case for the red chassis as it's going to be a wreck - a bit more dust won't matter.