illinois Central Chicago District - Monee Rebuild

[vinceg]

Here are a couple of shots from the back. This diorama will be placed directly against the backdrop so there's no detail here:

[pbltrains]

Vince,

You did a wonderful job with this diorama!!!!!!  It will look great on your layout.

Seth P.
Minnesota

[vinceg]

Temporary shift of topics - my backdrop. I mentioned a while ago that I had problems with my backdrop cracking. About a year and a half ago I brought in a contractor to anchor some furring strips to my basement walls and attach Masonite panels (22" x 8') to those furring strips. I also had him tape and mud the joints between 8' panels. Within six months, all of the joints had cracked. Here's an example that just happens to be behind where the Dexter's diorama will be located:



You can see from the crack that the he used nylon tape that apparently did not stick to the Masonite. He also used small staples to attach the hardboard to the furring strips. In some cases, the staples loosened and the hardboard came off of the furring strip. In general, I think this is not surprising as I saw that as seasons changed there would be some swelling and contracting as humidity changed. It's not enough to make the backdrop look bad but it is noticeable.

So, a few weeks ago I reworked all of the taped joints. I ripped out the old taped joints (which was disappointingly easy). I then countersunk wood screws to fasten the hardboard to the furring strips. Finally, I retaped the joint using the same paper tape I had used a few years ago when I did some other section of the backdrop. BTW, those joints have not yet failed even though the backdrop fell off the wall! (I had used Liquid Nails only -- no anchors....that's why I called a contractor to begin with.)

I'm mentioning this here in case this experience helps other out that are considering the use of Masonite for their backdrop.

[vinceg]

Here's the diorama sitting roughly where it will be finally located. Note the grade that goes down to the tracks - the Monee Cut. The patched backdrop is right behind the foam where it stops on the left. In fact, you can see that I didn't bother sanding the mud all the way down where the backdrop meets the pink foam. That will be hidden by horizon scenery.



Next up I will be air brushing in some clouds in this. area. Then I will need to overthink how I want to deal with the horizon.....nondescript painting? Photorealistic print? Thinking photo prints at the moment but we'll see. Finally, I need to double check the clearance between the double tracks and the foam - in particular the far (east) track. I think I probably need to take another 1/2" or so off so that I can be sure the terrain with foliage does not interfere with the trains.

[vinceg]

One final pic - a closeup of the main Jacob Tire complex. This shows a little more detail of the power lines and the street side.

[vinceg]

Vince,

You did a wonderful job with this diorama!!!!!!  It will look great on your layout.

Seth P.
Minnesota

Seth, thank you! I'm still thinking about the conversations we had a couple of years ago -- hopefully getting very close to that "first square foot" of scenery.

Vince

[Mark Dalrymple]

Your diorama looks fantastic, Vince!

I really enjoyed looking through your pictures.

You mentioned having trouble using Campbells shingles (as others have done in the past).  I find using a combination of double sided tape and canopy glue makes the job easy.  I have copied my step by step instructions from my 2020 cannery and wharf challenge.  Hope this helps.

The shingle wall was quite easy to do, so give it a try.  Here is a quick rundown of my method.  The shingles were Campbells.

* Cut your window and door openings in wall and mark the wall with horizontal lines as a guide for attaching the shingles.
* Cover wall in double sided tape.
* Remove the bottom piece of tape backing and attach the first row of shingles.
* Add a bead of canopy glue to the top of the shingles installed.
* Add the second row of shingles.  Press down every inch onto the double sided tape to fix and line up with your pencil marking.  Press the bottom of the second row of shingles onto the bead of glue.  Remove any ooze. (the aim is to get no ooze so you want a fairly thin bead of glue).
* Continue, covering any openings with shingles.  The wastage is minimal, and I find there is no damage during the painting process.
* When dry, paint, using a soft brush, with a brownish black colour, slightly diluted.  You want to completely cover the shingles.  Angle the brush upwards to get paint under the shingles, so that no bare colour shows through.
* When dry, follow up with a series of dry brushing with paynes grey, light browns and tans.  Dry brush from the top down.  If you go too far, reverse with brownish black.
* When dry, remove shingles from the openings by placing the wall upside down on a cutting mat and using a chisel blade to cut the shingles and double sided tape.  I found this better than a knife for getting a clean cut without damaging any tiny slithers of shingles that resulted.
* Install windows and doors.

Note: the painting method is as described on Troels Kirks DVD.

Cheers, Mark.

[GPdemayo]

Grand scene Vince.....

[ACL1504]

Vince,


Fantastic looking diorama and very well done. Just beautifully finished and detailed.


Tom 

[Keep It Rusty]

Just awesome. Another fantastic FSM build, Vince. Well done!

[tom.boyd.125]

Vince,
You pulled it off...excellent work on this FSM gem !
It's time to celebrate now on your diorama and structure modeling and then move on to your next project.
Think that when you retire soon, you will really have a lot more time to enjoy the hobby and share your projects with the forum.
Tommy

[deemery]

Normally I think those structures with overhanging 2nd stories look bogus.  But in this case the overhang actually makes sense and doesn't look phony.  Nice work working the building in its location!!

dave

[NKP768]

Nice job Vince - looks great from every angle - have to agree with Mark - the Campbell shingles used to drive me towards basket weaving as a  hobby (or maybe toll painting) but since I started using the double sided tape it has taken a lot of drama out of this task. I think the stucco turned out awesome on the Jacobs Tire building. As far as the elec. distribution question - transformers are usually sized by what a customer or block of customers would require - tying one transformer drop to another would defeat the purpose of load distribution. By all means tie one pole line to the other but leave it at that. Great work again...

Doug

[Keep It Rusty]

Gonna throw this out there... I ADORE Campbell's shingles!

Then again, I would only ever use them with 3M transfer tape, too.

[postalkarl]

Hye Vince:

Very cool. Love the colors and weathering.

Karl