Justice City Layout Build

[PRR Modeler]

Really nice modeling.

[tom.boyd.125]

Martin,
Lots of modeling info in this thread.
Great progress on the layout.
Thanks for sharing all your builds !
Tommy

[tooStupid]

Really nice modeling.

Thank you for taking your time to view the post.

[tooStupid]

Martin,
Lots of modeling info in this thread.
Great progress on the layout.
Thanks for sharing all your builds !
Tommy

Tommy,

It is amazing what it takes to do this hobby. Thanks for dropping by.

[Jerry]

Nice work on that building.


Jerry

[postalkarl]

Hey Marty:

The sign looks just beautiful.

Karl

[tooStupid]

Nice work on that building.


Jerry

Thank you for the comment.

[tooStupid]

Hey Marty:

The sign looks just beautiful.

Karl

How would you know that a simple thing as a sign could take so much effort?

[tooStupid]

Have you wondered why your creative juices have all dried up? I have in a big way over the last year. I have been staring at the diorama everyday trying to find out why I did not want to work on the diorama. So I distracted myself with major home renovations including putting in a new floor (on a slightly unloved concrete base). It all worked in improving my life, but nothing to get me working on the diorama. Until now!

I happened to notice that my new laminate floor was getting a bit more bumpy than normal. A bit of investigation I found that the weight of the Lighthouse area was pressing one laminate strip down and causing the adjacent to lift up enough to create a noticeable lip. That was the the last straw! I was not going to have all my renovation be destroyed by the diorama.

You can stop me from doing something, but destroying what I have done - nope not happening!!!!

Here is the area I am talking about,



Notice the amount of rock and how tall the lighthouse is. While the lighthouse is to scale, its height overpowered the scene and was a "knock me down" hazard.



The lighthouse made everything seem small and not important to the diorama. The lighthouse is 75 scale feet high and is 35 scale feet higher that the water. Is HO scale that is way too overpowering. It is a pretty scene, but is at the expense of the rest of the diorama.

So it has to go!



Now to can see all the hydrocal cast rocks that are in this area. There must be 10 pounds os plaster in this one corner. If I wanted to move the diorama I would need machine skates to do it.



Hacking and hacking and sawing seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders and the laminate began to return to normal. The question is his enough?



Hmm, is this enough?



What if I raised it by 1/2" (~5 scale feet)?



I took out a lot of rock castings, this is only half of them.



Could this shape be acceptable to put an industry on? How would trucks get to the area? Would it be realistic?



Getting rid of the trees and small cabin will open it up to more options. Red Light District? Printers Row? a FSM kit how knows? Suggestions!



So here is where this area stands for now. A paper template of the area will allow me to start with a "blank" sheet  and re-think this scene to feel better for this part of the diorama.



The small diversion has removed one roadblock for now and I need to think about it for a while before modelling this scene.

I need to get back to Murdock Precision to get that one finished.

See you later.

[PRR Modeler]

I look forward to seeing what you do.

[tct855]

Marty,
          Excellent layout update and modeling.  I just love stopping by from time to time for motivation and inspiration.  This high level detailed modeling I've come to expect every time I stop by.  Very cool!  Keep going brother!, keep going!!!
                                                                              Thanx Thom...

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi Marty.

I made an exclamation when I first saw you model of the lighthouse, but for me it was the bright colour that completely overpowered the scene.  Before I read any words I thought 'this scene would look way better without the lighthouse in it'.  So - I definitely think you've made the right choice.

Personally, I would keep the area in front pretty simple.  I see a couple of lovely views that I would not like to hide.  I've tried to show these by copying a couple of your pictures and drawing view lines in paint.  Remember you can often keep views by framing them with an aerial walkway between two structures.  As an example of what I mean I immediately thought of Gregg and Jims' version of FSM's Rollin Saywer Chemical Co.  If you were to put the aerial walkway higher and open up the land between the two structures, this is the sort of thing that could work.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23308

Anyway - for what it is worth - that's my two cents worth.

Cheers, Mark.

[postalkarl]

Hey Marty:

The layout is really looking cool. Lots of great structures and dioramas.

Karl

[tooStupid]

Marty,
          Excellent layout update and modeling.  I just love stopping by from time to time for motivation and inspiration.  This high level detailed modeling I've come to expect every time I stop by.  Very cool!  Keep going brother!, keep going!!!
                                                                              Thanx Thom...

I am glad there is some inspiration in my posts. I try to avoid the mundane activities and show the big changes.

Thanks

[tooStupid]

Hi Marty.

I made an exclamation when I first saw you model of the lighthouse, but for me it was the bright colour that completely overpowered the scene.  Before I read any words I thought 'this scene would look way better without the lighthouse in it'.  So - I definitely think you've made the right choice.

Personally, I would keep the area in front pretty simple.  I see a couple of lovely views that I would not like to hide.  I've tried to show these by copying a couple of your pictures and drawing view lines in paint.  Remember you can often keep views by framing them with an aerial walkway between two structures.  As an example of what I mean I immediately thought of Gregg and Jims' version of FSM's Rollin Saywer Chemical Co.  If you were to put the aerial walkway higher and open up the land between the two structures, this is the sort of thing that could work.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23308

Anyway - for what it is worth - that's my two cents worth.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark,

I can always trust you to provide great input. The Lighthouse was going to originally be a diorama by itself of the West Quoddy Lighthouse with all the outlining buildings. I then came to the conclusion it would have been too large and abandoned the idea for now. I was going to weather it down a lot later, but I felt uneasy actually completing the structure for the Justice City Diorama because it needed good 12VDC source, what I was trying to avoid Haig just for the one structure. Remember everything in the diorama is powered by the DCC buss.

The shoot through scenes/views are an idea, but too sure yet were they could be. Right now I am leaning to have more of a street scene with gaps to see behind it. More on this as my ideas flow to the surface.

Here is what is my head right now.



A road and sidewalks at waters edge, a harbour beacon where the lighthouse was and some sort of buildings along the street. The road will raise left to right with an elevation of ~6 feet. A few of the structures will have loading docks at the back track.

The thoughts are transition top buildings from commercial and industry into "artsy" renovated type buildings. My aim is to avoid heavy industry as they are too tall and big to suit the scene and sill hide things. This is still floating around in my head.

Any suggestions for structures. I can't buy kits from the US because of shipping costs, exchange rates and vendors stopping shipping to Canada. So most will be scratchbuilt buillding so anything is possible.

Thanks all for now.