Shelby's Marine Service

KCSTrains

Steve, looking great. Decals have always been hard for me. You did a great job. Phil

sdrees

Hey Phil, Thanks for stopping by. They are dry transfers and thank god that the ones that matter turned out OK. I did screw up some other ones though in the process.

sdrees

I have laid out the framing for the main wharf on the template. I use double sided scotch tape to hold the framing material in place.

Then I start to place the plank material making sure to keep it straight.



Here are the finished wharves.

sdrees

I have started the diorama base. The first step was to draw a template of the area with the layout of the wharves and the land formation.

I then used carbon paper and a pin wheel to transfer the land formation to the 1/2" sheets of Styrofoam.



I then cut out the different Styrofoam sheets.



I used a 1/2" piece of Gator Board for the base, and then used a caulking to glue the base and 4 layers of Styrofoam together.




I then placed the wharves where they are supposed to appear on the diorama.

Karl.A

Looking great Steve. Colouring on the wharf decking boards is nice and sun bleached with great variational tones.
The land forms are also looking good, I loved this stage of the build.
As a side note, if you find the caulked together layers are taking too long to dry and are still sliding around and not firm, but, you are keen to move on....... push toothpicks through the layers at 45 from several directions, 10-15 should work well for you, just snip off the excess with some clippers/nipers. This will prevent the layers moving while the adhesive is still not set and allow you to move forward if you wish.

Karl.A

sdrees

thanks Karl. So far I haven't had any problem with the Styrofoam layers sliding around.

Karl.A

Good to hear, caulk is nice and tacky, other adhesives not so much and drying time can be extended due to lack of air. I always was impatient... ha

SteveCuster

Great job so far Steve. The dry transfers can be challenging the older the kit is, yours look great.

sdrees

Thanks Steve. They weren't easy

KKarns

Really good start on the dio base Stephen. I love the topography that's built into the Shelby's diorama, Brett did a marvelous job with the design.

sdrees

Thanks Ken, I hope it turns out as well as the rest of the diorama.

KKarns

I have no doubt it will...

sdrees

Here are more progress photo's on the diorama base. I have located and temporarily installed the support piles for the main wharf and the bait and tackle shop wharf. But before I placed the sculptamode I removed the main piles and placed temporary pile in there place and placed the sculptamode around them.

The retaining wall by the boat ramp.


The piling wall


The rock wall


The wharves are temporarily sitting on the support piles and the trestle is also temporarily in place


I will paint the diorama base before the support piling and the decorative piling are installed.

Bill

Coming along nicely, Stephen.
How did you make the rock wall? Really like the look of the stonework near the boat ramp.

sdrees

Thanks Bill, the stone work near the boat ramp Brett did with one of his castings. I did an initial coat of paint, but still have more to do. The wall on the tackle and bait shop side, I did with real rocks from my back yard. But, as I look at the picture of it, I think the rocks are to big and I need to find some smaller rocks, say about half the size shown for the wall. 10 ton riprap looks way to big for me for this situation.

Bill

I agree. Since you're not too far along (and if it's not too much trouble), I'd make that opposite look as similar to the first one as possible. In the real world, they probably would have built both at the same time and therefore used similar materials.

Keep at it. This is an interesting looking project. I have no vision whatsoever when it comes to composition, but I like what I see in the arrangemnet of the elements.

sdrees

I redid the riprap on the bait and tackle shop side and have added barnacles to stone wall and to the riprap. I have added stains to the wall and riprap at the water line. Included are several prototypical photo's I tried to use as a guideline.





I think the riprap wall looks a lot better now.

SteveCuster

Great work Steve. The stonework and pilings look fantastic, very realistic.

mikemettelka

Everyone I see this, I like it more and more! Great job!

admin

I really like the new waterline topography. Well done!

KKarns

Wonderful little mini-scene detail work Stephen. Love that retaining wall casting with the old pipe, so many opportuities for deatils around that bad boy and your finish on it is looking terrific.

sdrees

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Oh Ken there is so much more to do in this area.

Karl.A

Looking great Steve, the landforms and topography came out great and the stone walls are coming along very nicely indeed. love the views with the decks in place, starts to bring it home. Strong work indeed.
Awesome kit, fantastic design and your work is doing those superlatives proud.

Karl.A

sdrees

Thanks Karl. Those words mean a lot to me.

sdrees

Attached are progress photo's of my project. I have placed the basic ground cover for the foreground of the diorama. I painted the sculptamode then applied real dirt which I had sifted through a nylon stocking. I then applied a courser material for some texture. Then I applied some debris. Once the rest of the diorama is completed, there is a lot more details to add.

I glued the support piles in place and then glued the wharves to the piles. On the boat works, I applied the decorative piles.

nextceo

Looking really good. Have you decided which material you are going to use to simulate water? With this particular configuration, I would probably recommend ModPodge. The other option would be Envirotex if you can figure out how to seal the three open edges...

Karl.A

Envirotex/open edges.

run some painters tape around the edges to create a dam.
mix up a small amount of envirotex and 'paint' it around the inside of the dam to create a seal.
leave to cure and then pour your main epoxy.
leave to cure and remove low tack tape.
drybrush off white on ridges around pilings/rocks to simulate foam/ turbulence
let dry, stand back and admire.

Karl.A

Bill

What Karl said. Spot on

sdrees

Carl, I was going to use envirotex. In this case it will be 3/8" thick and I will do it in 3 layers. Once the envirotex is cured, I will apply Modpodge to the Envirotex surface to add ripples and other texture.

This won't happen until the last step of the build.

sdrees

Thanks for the advice Karl and Bill. Any suggestions are a real help.