Project 18 - A Better View

Family suggested a better view of the diorama would be obtained if the front panel of the box could fold down.

This was much easier to do than expected. The box walls are not glued or screwed but stapled so it was a case of slicing the overall black cover where the front panel joins the sides and floor and prising the panel off.

The protruding staple pins were cut flush.

I hinged the panel using black tape along the outside of the join.

To 'lock' the panel closed I used small neodymium magnets set into the walls and  lined up to the staple butts left in the mating parts.

Making the front panel fold down has another benefit in that the diorama is extended forward by 70mm allowing the sea to flow over the panel. That is the next job.

To Part 7.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part 3)

The decision as to whether to have the trawler berthed or away from the jetty was made for me when I looked at prototype photographs and the position of trawler relative to jetty in the box.

Unwittingly the scene I have created is low tide. In fact the tide is at its lowest point when the harbour mud bottom is revealed with boats stranded on it. However, the trawler hull design is such that it is meant to be floating on water. Whilst the keel may be just on the mud the water level will be modelled at the hull water line. This solves another issue as to what colour the water should be. With tide that low it will need to be a muddy colour.

The jetty side is a photograph of the real jetty. It shows the wide variation in colours and texture that is visible at low tide. This would be difficult to reproduce authentically by other means.

In the 1960s the pilings at the jetty side were set at about 11 feet intervals. The brown balsa wood pilings shown in the photo need to be embedded in the rippled harbour water and will be fitted when the water is created.

On an academic note, that does not apply to the period of this model, in the 1930s horizontal fender beams were set between the pilings a few feet below the top of the jetty.

To Part 6.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part 2)

I read that the Jetty is made from concrete and rubble. I guess the sides are concrete and the infill compacted rubble.

With regard to the model jetty its top surface was raised to the top of the rails using DAS clay. I started by infilling between the outside rails. A wet spatula smoothed the surface level by running it along the rails. The rough texture was created by pressing a sheet of coarse sandpaper into the wet clay.

Infilling between the rails of each track posed a problem of how to keep the clay clear of the rails so that the wheel flanges of wagons can  roll unhindered. The solution was to 3D print a plastic channel and spread the clay within that (1st photo).

The clay dries to white. Using acrylic paints I painted it a light grey. Aerial photographs show that the edge of the jetty is lighter, which must be the top of the concrete walls. However, the join between the two shades appears quite ragged.

To Part 5.

To Part 1.