Thanks for the compliment Curt.

I appreciate your interest.

The diorama base is two 24" x 12" sheets of 1/4" birch plywood. I rounded and sanded the corners. They will be separated by a set of spacers to allow for wiring underneath. Man, lumber prices are whacked....



The spacers are 3/16" X 5/16" balsa.



I glued those down to the "bottom" piece about 3" apart.



The "top" piece was covered with a 1/8" thick coat of joint compound to depict large curved rectangular stone pavers. I'll be scribing the expansion joint lines in this later. I previously glued down two code 83 rails for the coach car to sit on. They are nearly buried in the lower left. Expectedly, this will shrink and crack and require a 2nd very thin top coat to finish.



2nd thin top coat of JC added, then sanded down smooth. Dark beige for a paint primer/sealer, and makes it a lot easier to see what I'll be scribing.



Such a large expanse of masonry requires some character. I quickly made two crude trammels of basswood, one for marking the perimeter circles and another for the individual vertical joints. I experimented on paper with varying sizes until it seemed plausible. It's just a semicircle wrapped around the front steps to the building.



Marked off the lines on the joint compound, and began scribing using a dental pick, first the outer circles.....



Then the connecting lateral joints...very slow going...



Till next time....

Mark-
Just read through all 10 pages of this thread, excellent work all around...

Thanks Greg and Tom!

Greg-I have my own DVD copy!

Thanks very much Tom! I appreciate your interest.

I firmly believe sharing "how-to" info is the best way to increase overall interest in any hobby.

John, Curt, Mark, Bob and Karl thank you very much!

Bob- I appreciate your impressive knowledge concerning these coaches,
        unfortunately this will be a lonely static model on a stand alone diorama.
        I certainly know who to ask for more information!

Much fiddling, gluing, sanding and adjusting to get to this point.



The roof is not shaped correctly out of the box, till you make it that way. Adding pieces and sanding them down to the contour desired. As Bob P. mentioned, there are some helpful instructions concerning a few procedures to build these kits, on the company website. https://www.labellemodels.com/



I want the interior lit, but with opaque white windows. I am building an LED board with 3 lights, and it will tuck into the roof.





The underframe details were applied, and I worked from other sources I found on-line.



The roof was finished, painted and then glued on.



This will be a static model just for the foreground of the scene. I'm sure these are the wrong trucks, but I'm not being picky. I may have some Kadee couplers somewhere....



Till next time...

Dave- Thanks for following.

Bob- Appreciate your offer & thoughts. I have accessed your articles on Labelle's site many times!
         I forgot to mention those resources in this thread. I highly recommend them.

Thank you Karl.

Appreciate your comments Jerry and John. Thanks!

Thanks you Curt. I am building just this one car.

In the movie, the Polar Express coach car was one of several carrying children to the North Pole. 

See a still of the movie car here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338348/mediaviewer/rm4237134848/

I already had a Labelle Co. Interurban car wood kit on hand, that will do. It's the first one I've ever built.

The instructions are single spaced typed, run together, and assume complete familiarity with coach car terminology and parts identification. I have neither, I freely admit to building 95% structures.



Spreading all the parts out shed very little light on this project. I had to do much on-line research and learn some new stuff....The wood is well machined and fuzz free.



These larger pieces are "window posts", which are separately applied in between each window. The smaller sizes are "Mullion casings" and are installed in the narrow gaps.



The scribed siding is underneath the windows and short lengths are spliced together to make the necessary length.



I have glued the passenger doors at the ends, and am building up the front and back doors.



"Bumpers" & "formers" are used to assemble the three sections together. I pre-painted many of these parts.



The clerestory has the window casing itself, and inserts to provide some definition between windows.



Till next time...more of the same...

Will do Karl. Next update is tomorrow Nov. 11

Thanks Greg!

Thanks Karl.

Actually it's a colonnade, a row of columns connected by its own roof.