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Comments
Superb job! I have been looking the pictures over and over. Everything color wise as well as mini scene, track, scenery is absolutely AWESOME. Is that a burn pile on the back side of Blue Sky? I really like the gas pump and the oil/grease tanks next to it. You certainly continue to grow as a modeler. Every build I think you can't get any better and then you do it again! Great job! Looking forward to any closeups you post.
Jim
Joel, appreciate that my good man. Nice hearing from you.
Steve, thanks much and with BlueSky done I will be studying your Scotia build even closer as that one may be my next project.
Mike, once again, I love the short and sweet!...thanks much.
Yo Wes, how have you been? Thanks for the kind words and know you appreciate this build of BlueSky in particular.
Thanks Robert, glad you're here on the forum and welcome your talents and insight.
Bill...what's up my friend and appreciate the thoughts here. I think of you and your O Scale Saw Mill project often. Was excited for you to see BlueSky...talk soon...
Hey Stephen, thanks for the support and encouragement.
Hi Jim, was hoping I would hear from you. I have the detailed pictures coming and thanks for the comments and comaradery over the years.
Tried to get a reasonable close up of the main section of the loading dock. I was going to have a chair in front of the service window but it didn't look right. Mixture of Brett's group catings and individual stuff. Hand made the tar paper rolls.
Another view taking in the entire loading dock.
Dry Goods and Service Island. Note the air hose with the steel line coming from the building and the water spicket. To the right of the door is a chair with a folded newspaper and a newspaper bundle on the ground for sale in the store.
Service Island and view around the side of the Dry Goods store. Can see the metal air line coming in better here.
Side view looking west.
View of the details populating this side of the store.
Good shot of the electrical service connection from the line pole.
Close up of the service pole...lots of fiddly connections here.
The small details that make an overall impression. Clutter and junk around the base of the service pole and junk along the steel pipe fence. No trash pick-up here!
More of same....next up will be the details of the stone cook house and others...
The power lines are probably the most accurate I've seen modeled. Twisting the two wires together is, I think, what sells it. Did you use ship rigging thread or something else?
Okay...back to look again!
Thanks Alan. Right, the pick-up truck I had staged at the crane scene was taken from my O'Neills diorama and put there to get an idea of the traffic flow. The bed of the truck had details already glued down that wouldn't have worked for the scrapping scene on BlueSky. I plan to build another truck or two and have then on BlueSky along with a flatbed rail car for the EXPO.
Appreciate that Brett and I set out building BlueSky hoping it would be a worthy testament to SierraWest Scale Models and bring back fond memories of late nights and all the time and expense you put into this kit before you realized a single penny...we all know how that went....well done!
Bryan, thanks so much and I do work hard on creating believable and interesting scenes within the context of the build...with varying success.
Stephen, I hear ya my friend. I have struggled with this issue since I built my first SWSM kit. I'm easing into it of sorts. I mentioned somewhere along the way on this thread that I was going to include one LP in my dioramas from here on out. The LP will be in an unassuming spot and only one for now. A "where's Waldo" kind of thing as you'll have to hunt for it. There is one in BlueSky.
First the electrical box was cut down from a longer rectangular box to the one you see. Then I laid out where the various circuit lines would come in and out of the box. Holes were drilled to the appropriate size in the box, four total I believe. The main service line attached with clamps to the siding is an approprioate diameter piece of solder rolled a bit flat under my blade handle then scoured and painted to look like heavy cloth covered cable. The weather hood is a thin piece of etched metal roofing tin cut and bent to shape and size. I wouldn't have room to connect the power lines to the weather hood if I mounted the cable and hood to the structure first and ran the lines from the pole. So I reversed the order. With the main cable and weather hood in my hand I attached two very thin pieces of FINE EZ Line with glue under the hood cut longer than needed to reach the pole. I then glued the cable with hood, one end into the top of the electrical box and the other to the siding as you see. The two lines were then just looped up over the roof out of the way. The other circuits were attached to the box with the main power keaving under the box into the structure and one going to the light at the service island and another to the old light fixture above the Dry Goods sign. I then attached an eye bolt to the siding at the weather hood for the support cable from the pole to attach. The support cable was made from .008 Ship Rigging Rope as you thought, which was bigger than the two electrical lines already attached under the hood. This cable was also attached to the eye bolt on the structure first. This allowed the ability to attach the other end to an eye bolt on the pole and take up the excess until just the right amount of sag was achieved then glued. The two thinner electric lines were then twisted over the support cable up to the pole and the ends attached to the transformer. Geesh....windy...sorry you asked about the cable??
Wonderful stone cookhouse casting Brett developed with seamless corner joints...simply marvelous casting.
Of note here, I decided rather than construct the stairs into the cookhouse out of stripwood, I would use stone. the ground level stone was burried flush with the ground and the ground made to appear as its creeping over the stone. Galvanized wash basin is just a cut down metal barrel bottom. The blue thingy is a coffee pot and the drain pipe coming out the side was an idea given me by Karl. Awesome suggestion.
This is the corner where the water tank overflow and outdoor plumbing leaks all come together. You may remember the in progress pictures of the rotted siding at the bottom of this corner.
Little steeper shot showing the erosion in the back corner. I laid in a couple of pieces of plaster cast to simulate the foundation just peeking through.
South side of the main barn and details.
More of same.
Geezerbill
Arial shot of the storage shed and yard scene.
I added the extended back roof to house the details you see here.
Burn pile where scarp wood and pallets are taken care of.
Shot of the details under the roof.
There Carl, the vines growing up the side of the shed.
More details, and path leading around to the front of the service yard.
Better view of the vines.
Back corner showing the elevated storage tank and fence detail.
Elevated oil tank and details.
Large spanner is not glued down as I'm deciding if its a bit big. Used for the oil drum tops.
Last picture unless someone would like to see something specific......thanks for checking it out.
I'm gonna have to see it first hand to fully grasp the method. But, in a nutshell, you wrapped two thin EZ-line strands around a ship rigging thread (which is the heavy support cable from the pole to the building) correct?
Thanks Kevin I appreciate that. Was wondering if anyone would wonder about the fist full of dirt! Steve C. and I were discussing the dirt I use for my dioramas and told him about what I use for my top layer and told him I'd post a picture to get the idea of what it looked like.
Stephen, the issue of LPs in a diorama is certainly a debated topic. Some modelers use them to good effect and other times it kills the reality in a hurry if not very well done. I don't have the confidence in detailing figures to attempt to populate my work with them.
if it isn't dirt, what is it and where is it available?
The use of scale figures or Little People (LP's) in a diorama is one of those details some modelers like and others dislike. I believe that there is not a correct decision in regards to LP's. Add them if you like, omit them if you like! Just remember to enjoy the journey.
Thanks for posting all the additional photos. Man, the detailed scenes are Fantastic!
Some observations:
1 - You nailed the vines growing up the side of the buildings. That is very difficult to get them to look just right without looking fake and ruining the scene.
2 - The oil spots around your fuel tank are just perfect. Again, a very difficult thing to model.
3 - That metal roof on the shed and stone building. Its really difficult to get that nice dull and blended look that you achieved in this build.
4 - The stacked wood at the back of the Stone building is perfect...oh, and your bushes are perfect. Heck man, I could rattle on for a day about everything that you nailed perfect on this build.
Only complaint is I didnt see any pictures of the inside of the repair shed...it looks like there are a ton of neat details that I'm sure everyone would like to see..
Thanks again for sharing your masterpiece with us...
Alan
Alan, wow, such a nice critique I really appreciate the scrutiny and comments. I highly value your opinion my friend. You're right about the shed. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a good close up once the fence and crane were in place so I posted pictures of the finished interior earlier in the build thread here. I have attach a couple of the pictures here again.
Hey Kevin. Well here's how it went...I wasn't happy with just dirt layer upon dirt layer to get the look I wanted. So I therorized that my gravel drive to my cabin I have in the woods would have fine material that sifted down through the bigger rocks that wasn't dirt but fine pulverized rocks and debris. I took my sifter and rough sifted that material and then sifted that a bit finer and it was perfect...it had little bits of wood, dead leaves, fine rocks, etc...so if you look close at the picture of the handful of the material you'll see this stuff. Sand was just too uniform for my taste as is other store bought material. The key for me was all the various "crap" that sifted through which would be hard to duplicate but is there for the taking. I should bag it and market it as Dr. Grung's "crap layer" !
Gee wiz Ed, I'd like to see what your building if you need that much!
Dustin, nice hearing from you my friend and thanks much. Hope to see you at one of the shows this year, for sure I'll be going to the EXPO.
I love the coloring on your stonework for the cookhouse. The stones come to life with the different shades embodied within each of the stones. I will have to refer back to this when I have stone to color in a future project.