Nemo's Nets - O scale, 1/48 waterfront scratchbuild

[robert goslin]

Now time for a bit of surgery.  I needed to open up the side wall (the bit without the cladding that is circled) so the interior can be visible when looking through from what will be the side extension.



Then added some timber detail to that wall section and put in the base / interior raised platform and the staircase.




View from the rear showing the interior staircase

[robert goslin]

It was at this point I needed to do some more surgery.  Because I was copying Laurie's model, I added a door that never made any sense.
On the model the inside floor of the main building is raised up because it opens to a raised loading dock at the back.
At the front there is a door that doesn't make sense (circled) as it wouldn't be able to open inwards because of the raised floor.


So I removed this and added on some more plain weatherboards.

So now onto making the angled side extension.






Here you can see where I've removed the offending door, and attached the side extension to the main building.

[Rick]

Nice job on the surgery.
Couldn't have been too easy with the walls together already.
Angled side extension fits well.

[robert goslin]

Thanks Rick.  Wasn't too bad cutting out the hole in the side.  New blade, plenty of shallow cuts and patience did the trick.
Doing that side extension was a bit of a pain because the back wall of it is shorter that the front.
If either are out. it throws off the angle.
So getting the correct angle off the main building took some time. Got it right in the end, after trialling with a cardboard mock up.

Looks like your doing some good hikes in Colorado. Really enjoying your photos.

[robert goslin]

Next up I added in the upper story floor, made from cardboard.  But I didn't take any photos of this.
Also painted the walls of the side extension.
So now I could close up the building by adding a sub roof to each section.  Used picture framing card for this as I was given a lot of it from a mate of mine.
Also added the rafter tails and the gable end trim, made from stir sticks.







better view of the rafter tails.

[robert goslin]

Next up came the roof shingles. These were hand cut with scissors in strips from card.
This time I added a bit more detail to them by scratching grain onto each shingle.
It's a subtle but nice effect to give some texture.
The rooftop lead flashing is just paper.  Why orange ?  Cause that was the first bit of paper I grabbed.

[Rick]

Shingles look great.
Are you going top paint the cap?

[robert goslin]

Hi Rick.  Yep, it and all the shingles have to be painted.
The grey is just the card colour, which is good in case I miss any spots.

[Rick]

Hi Rick.  Yep, it and all the shingles have to be painted.
The grey is just the card colour, which is good in case I miss any spots.

I thought you would but I had to ask. 

[Larry C]

Rob great diorama your building. The original looks fantastic and years of collecting dust is some nice accidental weathering. You're off to a great start and now I know about your thread I'll be stopping by watching a unique and different type of diorama build.

[robert goslin]

Thanks Rick.

Thanks Larry. Unfortunately the amount of dust & damage to Laurie's diorama was beyond what I'd call weathering.  Ha Ha.
    Because Laurie was such a prolific modeller, those of us that knew him figured he had no long term attachment to his models.  He was always moving onto the next one, so when we visited his house, many times for our local NMRA meetings, all the dioramas sitting under the layout, were just full of dust and many damaged.
    One of our NMRA members has since bought many of Laurie's dioramas from his estate, and is restoring & refurbishing them.

[robert goslin]

At this point I hadn't taken any photos of the painted shingles roof.  So I have now moved onto the actual construction of the diorama.
  I have long admired the military modellers who do a lot of hand carving of stones & bricks using foam, so I decided to try my hand at it.
I wanted a stone wall under the wharf so used blue foam for this, carving the stonework using a ball point pen.

Stone work carved with a pen, then rolled over it with a ball of aluminium foil to give it some texture.




Then gave it a base coat of dark brown paint, then coloured individual stones in various browns




Then finished with a light tan wash to unify the colours, and some dry brushing

[Rick]

Rob, that's an outstanding job of carving.
I wouldn't have thought of using a pen.
The aluminum foil did a nice job of adding texture.
Colors you used look very natural.