RAN late 1930's Diorama

[Forlornhope]

Evening all, Its been a while since I've been on BM I hope you are all well. I've taken a break from aircraft and have moved on to a little project I have wanted to do for years that of a dockyard diorama in 1/700 scale. This is my first dio and I'm having good fun with it.

What you see is Conbrigs HMAS Canberra, NNTs HMAS Sydney and Tamiyas HMAS Vampire. The docks most of the buildings and tugs and oiler are from Battlefleet models. The cranes, trains and water tower are from Alliance Modelworks while the 2 thin long buildings on the pier are White ensign and trucks Niko. I've been working on it for the last couple of months and have Vampire finished and Sydney well under way but have just started Canberra I'll get stuck into her after Sydney is finished. I've been trying to add a bit of extra detail to Sydney but thats mainly around the bridge area and forward funnel. Its still not proper but it looks cool.

I've raided a 1/350 Arizona kit of her lifeboats as I want to add some small craft that aren't tugs and these just seem a perfect size so I've cut the 2 largest lifeboats up to create one longer hull and try and make it look like a really small coastal vessel then I'll use a couple more as something else, and yes I am very vague on what I'm tryinng to make, I've just been looking at pictures on the net and seeing what would suit and I've found a couple. so you may have noticed the life boats in the above pictures heres the cut up one after a bit of a sand

I'm not really sure what I'm doing but that could maybe pass for a hull of something with a bit more sanding

So I'm hoping I have made a bit of sense with this post as any advice, ideas or critisims would be most helpful as I'm going along.

Cheers Callum

[surfsup]

Hey Callum it is looking great but will it take on my Zui with it's Shagbats. Great to see you here also.....Cheers Mark

[Forlornhope]

Thanx Mark. If I ever get the markings for the Shagbats Zui is toast. Good to see you on here as well. Now if the staff at work would stop calling in sick I could have a day off and get stuck into this (but then I've put in for a week off at the start of December for the sole reason of some serious work on the it)

Cheers Callum

[pacificmustang]

Great stuff Callum

looking forward to seeing this progress. Are you basing it on an actual location, Garden or Cockatoo Island?

Cheers

Bruce

[Forlornhope]

Thanx Bruce I'm glad you like it. The dock isn't based on anything real sorry to say. I looked at part of Garden Island but couldn't get all the ships to fit in the space available for display. I'm calling it a civilian port and the warships are visiting showing the flag and replenishing after exersises ,but its only based on how all the parts ended up falling together

[foxy]

Nice going Callum mate, looking good and nice to see some Aussie ships on show.

The Diorama is looking very busy as it is, so good luck.

[Chris Hewitt]

very interesting build

Edited November 13, 2012 by Chris Hewitt

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

NIce progress Callum. Didn't realise you were a member here as well. Such a small modelling world

NIce to this progressing. I would love to build Sydney and Canberra in 1/350 one day ( my prefered scale for ships).

Can't wait to see it done, I like your overall idea too.

[Forlornhope]

Thank you gents for the comments, I'm spreading this around to try and reach as many folks as possible because there maybe someone with a good idea I have missed or spots something that just wouldn't happen in real life (I found a picture of a real water tower the Aliance modelworks is based on and its sitting in the middle of a town would the same thing be sitting on a dock, what about funnel gases and sea spray contaminating the fresh water in the tank)

I'm hoping to get a bit more done over the weekend especially to Sydney but with so many things going on, on the board , we'll see what does get done.

@Trojan Thunder 1/350 would be cool more money and more space though I wonder how long it will be though before someone does the Counties and Leanders Trumpeter maybe? Who would have thought a Tribal class Destroyer would be done (they did release this in 1/350 didn't they ,I'm sure I read that )

Anyway thanks for looking and the comments

Cheers Callum

[Harry@BFM]

(I found a picture of a real water tower the Alliance Modelworks is based on and its sitting in the middle of a town would the same thing be sitting on a dock, what about funnel gases and sea spray contaminating the fresh water in the tank)

Hi Callum,

Yes, you could use the water tower on the dock.

Also, you may want to consider some oil storage units. The tins of WEM & Humbrol Paints work well for this, just add some PE ladders and railing.

Keep up the good work,

Harry

Edited November 14, 2012 by Harry@BFM

[Forlornhope]

(I found a picture of a real water tower the Alliance Modelworks is based on and its sitting in the middle of a town would the same thing be sitting on a dock, what about funnel gases and sea spray contaminating the fresh water in the tank)

Hi Callum,

Yes, you could use the water tower on the dock.

Also, you may want to consider some oil storage units. The tins of WEM & Humbrol Paints work well for this, just add some PE ladders and railing.

Keep up the good work,

Harry

Hi Harry and thank you for your advice, I wouldn't have thought of oil storage or using paint tins and I'm looking at them right now hmmmm.......

My compliments to you and your crew at Battlefleet Models, your dock sections and buildings are amazing and being able to pull them out of the very well done packaging and slap them straight on the base is pretty cool. Then the tugs and oilers are beautiful little kits in themselves.I hope I can do it all justice.

For anyone interested heres the tugs and oiler.

Cheers Callum

[Harry@BFM]

Hi Callum,

Thank you for your kind words about my kits. Much appreciated!

I can not find my photos of my friend Louis Carabott’s dockside dio.

You my want to look at his homemade oil units.

I do not know if it is allowed to place a link to another website, but here it is:

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/fr/richelieu-350-lc/lc-index.html

[Forlornhope]

Thanks Harry for the link, thats helped out alot and thats a very detailed Diorama. I've had a look at the paint tins on the base and they are a little big so I've cut the tops off my super glue lids and tried them

and getting totally distracted while writing this

So thanks once again for the ideas I'm off to play

Cheers Callum

[Harry@BFM]

Hi Cullam,

Yes, that did seem to work out great.

Might even try some old circuit board resistor parts to make propane tanks.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Harry@BFM

[surfsup]

Getting better and better each time Isee it Callum.....Cheers mark

[stevehnz]

That is really a bit nice, surely one I'll be looking for updates on. I'm awed at the detail you're getting into this small scale.

Steve.

[Forlornhope]

Thanx gents, @Harry I'm trying to find some old video cards from my pc I have laying around for the resistors.

In regards to the detail I'm getting, the detail is in the kits provided just add paint trying to make the detail on my own doesn,t quite go so well

heres some progress on my lifeboat turned something as seen in the photos above

and heres a link to Destiny who's photo I'm using as a basis.

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=Destiny+1930%27s&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=612&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=1jrUmJcPIjG2nM:&imgrefurl=http://www.merseyfire.gov.uk/Historical/liverpoolFireBoat.htm&docid=i7XLgs3dvLEwWM&imgurl=http://www.merseyfire.gov.uk/Historical/photos/Destiny-1930s.jpg&w=1000&h=612&ei=rCCrUMXLAaeuiAf83YCYAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=259&vpy=155&dur=755&hovh=176&hovw=287&tx=167&ty=112&sig

=103207495492441466599&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=219&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:72

For my next party trick, the 2 long skinny buildings on the centre of the pier only have door and window detail on one side, so I had a go at copying the detail on the other side

this is what I'm trying to copy

this is what I ended up with

In my defence the only plastic sheet I had was from the packaging my razor came in and it really sucked trying to get it to not bend when cutting it.

Lucky I have a spare building. I've tried to add skylights to the roof as well using 350 scale railings, bit big though and trying to get both sides to line up didn't happen at all.

I've given my new oil tanks a couple of coats of white but one of the ladders is a mess with pva glue so I'll replace that

So a bit of a 'thats not how you do things' weekend for me. I did manage to respray the dock and give the tracks a black wash, I have to respray the water next then I can start actually glueing pieces to the dock as they finish.

Hopefully a bit more interesting post next time.

Cheers Callum

[Harry@BFM]

Hi Callum,

One nice thing about our hobby is you can always sand the work off and start again. One thing I have noticed is everyone seems to make a different standard railing.

I found this photo of a dock scene that may be of some help. Adding lumber, boxes, barrels and crates adds more interest to the dio

[Forlornhope]

Thanks Harry, thats a very busy dock , it looks amazing. What scale is it in? Going by the figures I'm guessing 1/700 but the rigging on the ships is brilliant. I do have your pallet load set I havn't got it out of the packageing yet though . It is also quite possible I am going to be stealing the colours of the buildings in your picture above.

Cheers Callum

[Harry@BFM]

Hi Callum,

Yes, 1/700. This is a dio by Jim Baumann here is a link to his write-up and pics.

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/misc/ak/700-hog-islander-jb/jb-review.html

Off now too a 4 day Thanksgiving Holiday,

Harry

[Forlornhope]

thanx for the link Harry, I hope you are enjoying your holidays.

For some reason I am obsessed with this boat thing instead of doing something important hehe

So this is work done so far on the MV ForlornHope I figure its gotten far enough along to deserve a name

Theres a couple of funny angels to it and its a little rough around the edges but its looking the part

time for fitting out I guess

cheers Callum

Heres a couple more pics in the sun

Still doesn't look very good but I really like the water effect underneath it. Its just a practice piece but its the first time I've seen it in the sun. Its just an acrylic clear gel medium over a painted base. Should look good on the dio.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Forlornhope

[Harry@BFM]

Had a great Holiday, thank you.

It looks like you are having fun and that is all that counts.

After all that is what a hobby is all about.

Keep at it,

Harry

[Forlornhope]

Glad you had a good holiday Harry, mine starts on Sunday I havn't told the boss I want a week off to work on my model dockyard dio, just that I need a break before we go into xmas new year period anyway Yeah I'm having fun, a little more use (or some use ) of a pecil and ruler would probably be an advantage to me at certain points but I'm feeling much more confident in turning one of your oiler craft into a passenger ferry now (nice that there is 2 in the box by the way) and I've started to rework this as well try and clean it up a bit. It should come up ok bar the skewif portholes along the hull (I'll never show the other side I really dropped the ball there but that side will end up against the dock and hidden)

cheers Callum

[surfsup]

I am really liking what you are doing Callum. Your MV is some great work in this scale.....Cheers Mark

[Harry@BFM]

I find using Dynamo plastic tape the best for make portholes. Then measure out your distances and use sharp tack or scriber needle to make an indentation into the plastic or resin and then drill. For 1/700 I mostly use an X-acto # 75.

I am really on permanent Holiday since retirement.

Harry