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A hole dug by a Hitachi Zaxis 135US Excavator


Svedberg

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I have started on a diorama to show off the Hitachi Zaxis 135US Excavator i built earlier. If you care to have a look at the excavator itself it is here:

 

Since an excavator is intended to dig, as far as I know 😀, I wanted the scene to show just that - an excavator digging a hole. I have settled on road work scene where one of the lanes of a street has been blocked off with barriers, and the behind the barriers the digger is at work. My scene plan/sketch looks like this:

 

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Apart from the stuff shown above I intend to add other details as well, like various signs, traffic cones and likewise. 

 

So far I have also cut the diorama base from piece of extruded foam. The foam is 5 cm (2") thick which hopefully is enough for the depth of a decent looking hole.

 

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Edited by Svedberg
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4 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

By the way, to account for your "missing driver", you might as well throw in some mobile roadside sanitary facilities! 

 

This was what I always intended for my excavator have it parked by a portaloo with some muddy footprints leading up to it :) However, try finding a model of a portaloo in 1:35 scale :D A scratch build would be doable I suppose...

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42 minutes ago, Kallisti said:

 

This was what I always intended for my excavator have it parked by a portaloo with some muddy footprints leading up to it :) However, try finding a model of a portaloo in 1:35 scale :D A scratch build would be doable I suppose...

I was thinking some bushes and a guy facing them, with his back towards the actual scene. 😉

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2 hours ago, Trig said:

Looking forward to seeing this,the diggers great.

 

You will also need at least 4 figures leaning on shovels whilst smoking if you are going for the realistic look. :)

And the other four will be on their mobile phones.  :winkgrin:

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15 hours ago, Badder said:

I might be committing heresy here, but how about a 3D printed portaloo?

Heresy? If you are a scratch building purist, yes, but if you are OK with buying a kit then 3D printing must be fine as well. Especielly if you do your own 3D design.

 

Anyway, I did a quick test to see if there was anything to gain from 3D printing vs buying a kit or a ready made loo. If you use a 3D printing service such as Shapeways the level of detail does not really impact the price. It is the general shape and size of the printed object and how much print material it consumes that are the ruling factors. So I designed a very simple loo consisting of an open box and a separate flat door. The loo itself is 200 x 70 x 70 (real) centimeters, but in 1:35 scale. Both parts being 1.5 mm thick. Shapeways wants about 17 USD to print these parts using something they call Versatile plastic, which I think is some kind of nylon. To print using Fine Detail Plastic (what thay earlier called FUD) would cost about 27 USD. Still cheaper than the loos mentioned in earlier posts, but far from free. 😒

 

If you already have your own printer then the price would of course be different, only paying for the actual material.

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You might as well scratch build using sheet plastic - its only a box with a curved roof after all!

 

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Most of the surface detail could be added with extra strips and its doesn't have to be exact. The most complicated bit would be the roof!

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1 hour ago, Kallisti said:

You might as well scratch build using sheet plastic - its only a box with a curved roof after all!

Most of the surface detail could be added with extra strips and its doesn't have to be exact. The most complicated bit would be the roof!

Agree. 

And in the photo someone has already conveniently placed a measuring stick! 😀

Edited by Svedberg
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3 hours ago, Svedberg said:

Heresy? If you are a scratch building purist, yes, but if you are OK with buying a kit then 3D printing must be fine as well. Especielly if you do your own 3D design.

 

 

 

If you already have your own printer then the price would of course be different, only paying for the actual material.

My bro has a 3D printer which he upgraded by 3D printing upgrade parts for that printer! Funny old world. 

Anyway, I wanted to see how good these things are, with an actual 3D printed object that I can hold in my hand. I had a search through a catalogue of downloadable 3D designs and found a Victorian double oven type thing which he's going to rescale to 1/35th and print off for me. If it's any good I'll be using it my Pit Stop diorama. In my defence, the oven will be almost completely buried under a collapsed roof and ceiling, so it's not going to be easy to see. I don't think I'd ever use a 3D printed object as a major component in a diorama.

 

Badder

 

 

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Badder, home  3D printers (even the 'good' ones) are waaaay inferior to the high quality commercial versions. I had Shapeways print me something about 5 years ago and the quality, even then, was amazing. Almost no surface texture at all.

 

There's a reason that the big boys charge like they do - commercial printers cost significant amounts of money, but provide a product to match the price. If you've only ever seen home printed objects, you'll be stunned when you see the Real Thing. If you're interested I'll dig the part out and make some photos. I never did get around to using it...

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Some work on the base plate. First I moved the road towards the front and also angled it. This to make more room on the far side and make the whole thing a little less visually predictable. I also decided to change the hole into a trench, the story now being that trench digging begun off scene and has now reached the road where so far one lane has been dug up.  The trench will eventually cross the road and continue on the other side, but that will happen in some only imaginable future. The reason for this change is that I wanted it to be possible to look in to the modelled hole/trench from below. I thought that might give the opportunity for some interesting photo angles. 😀

 

I have so far cut out the trench. I found it easier to cut through the foam board and then create a new bottom from a piece of Masonite. Here are some photos (although not very exciting).

 

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Edited by Svedberg
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Ahh now I had another idea for my original trench diorama that I never built... across the trench is a broken conduit with lots of wires hanging out ;) Seems to happen a lot around here...

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16 hours ago, Rob G said:

Badder, home  3D printers (even the 'good' ones) are waaaay inferior to the high quality commercial versions. I had Shapeways print me something about 5 years ago and the quality, even then, was amazing. Almost no surface texture at all.

 

There's a reason that the big boys charge like they do - commercial printers cost significant amounts of money, but provide a product to match the price. If you've only ever seen home printed objects, you'll be stunned when you see the Real Thing. If you're interested I'll dig the part out and make some photos. I never did get around to using it...

Rob, I used to say like you do, but I might have to reconsider. It seems that home printers are coming down in price and up in quality. I am in no way knowledgable and does not own any printer myself but I have been following the below linked thread on a model railroading forum. Those guys are achieving some nicely detailed results, although the process is still far from "plug and play". And whether you consider the printer they are using cheap or not can of course be discussed. 😀

 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=45736.0

 

 

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1 hour ago, Kallisti said:

Ahh now I had another idea for my original trench diorama that I never built... across the trench is a broken conduit with lots of wires hanging out ;) Seems to happen a lot around here...

Don't steal my ideas 😡, I just never came around mentioning it 😀😀

 

EDIT: To be honest, my idea was just a crossing conduit or pipe. Wires hanging out is taking it one step further 😀 

Edited by Svedberg
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Work has commenced on the trench. First I painted the whole shebang with a tan colored latex paint. Just to get the pink foam out of the way. 😀 I then started to form the actual trench. I cut away some top material where the road crosses, and painted that area gray. This to prepare for the gravel that lies under the asphalt but will show around the trench edeges. I also added some foam to the bottom of the trench in that area, where digging is not yet complete and the trench consequently should be a little more shallow.

 

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Next I added the basic mud and clay layer on the bottom of the trench, and along part of the sides. I blended some unsanded grout (the stuff you use to attach tiles) with water and the above mentioned tan latex paint. This gave me a muddy looking paste.

 

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Next, I spread this guck in the trench. I have no idea what kind of marks a digger bucket leaves in dug out dirt but I anyway tried to create some kind of plausible pattern left by the teeth of the bucket. This is what it looks like right know, with the guck still uncured. I kind of like the last view. 

 

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Edited by Svedberg
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