As long as you don’t finger the proto-Bladerunner dio for demolition…
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Those tools at the end of the excavator arm are easily swapped, I see smallish excavators towing a trailer loaded with all their tools, once they are on site they unload the tools and use the trailer to move things around.
Standard attachment plate and a few hydraulic couplings is all they need
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@Dioramartin you know Tim, if those parts could convincingly pass for 1/48, well, you might have seen them in re-use!
@Uncle-Heavy, indeed - it’s remarkable how easily the parts can be swapped out. Parts with hydraulics appear to be a bit more complex, but, not that much more so, as they only have two lines to swap. As such, the grapple is currently being converted to a concrete crusher.
As for this update, on to the drivers set up and cab:
The Hasegawa kit comes with some nicely detailed parts, which served well for this conversion. They required a lot of cutting and filing to be useful, but they do the trick. The operator was supposed to be the locomotive engineer, but he’s now destined to be working this instead. He’s pretty nicely done, and served as a good template for making his work area. It’s remarkable how well this worked out.
To make this, I started with the cab, as it is has a minimum spatial requirement to fit. As such, the seat was cut up to fit the cab:
The cab was a tricky project. I used two kit parts, both of which were first shortened, then narrowed by being cut in four places. I had to make four cuts because the parts go together with a tab and slot, which is fairly crisp. Doing this also allowed me to keep some nice geometry and detail, like the curve you can see in the front part of the roof top. The rest is made up using several pieces of cut up evergreen.
As the windows are oddly sized, and I find cleanly cutting acetate to be a challenge, I made styrene templates for each future window:
While this resulted in a time consumptive step, I think it will help when the time comes to cut the window panes. I hate having sloppy cuts in this, so hopefully this turns out to be a useful step.
On we go
Cheers
Nick 
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Despite my lack of posting here, I have not given up on this dio. I’ve been making more vehicles, and none remotely similar to a train! That said, they are what I want for this project. As I’m getting close to being done with them, I’ve begun to think more seriously about the actual dio,
So as a reminder, the plan here is to reuse another dio base:
A key part of this project will come from reusing about half of the base from another project I built a long time ago. I’ve been gradually picking this apart - why not?? the materials are good and well, here they weren’t doing much good at all. So, as you can see, I’m planning to use the left side of this base, and running the railroad tracks where the red dashed lines are, though I’m not sure of the tracks will curve in this direction - still thinking about that.
I picked this side to keep because:
It has an interesting brick facade! This took a long time to build, and still looks pretty good, so why not reuse it too? I’ll use it like it was used the first time, as the base of a building.
And the train and tracks, looking something like these:
A curved track section running past an industrial building - and the building, taking some cues from these local examples:
I will not be making a tall brick wall. The base is made using individual bricks and I am pleased to confirm that this was a remarkably tedious process. Instead, I am citing these as examples of window patterns and details - big windows punched into big walls.
Then, the twist - who says it will be a complete building?
I’ve built a lot of complete buildings, and now want to make something else - a building being demolished with a key facade retained - hence the work on the dozer, excavator. and other vehicles, like this:
Oh what a treat! a train, heavy equipment, demolition, and some interesting architecture! All of it!
OK, so on we go, thanks for having a look
Cheers,
Nick 
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Looks good and sound thinking as well 
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I had the same thought when I started reading the post:
“Hmm, could it be a decrepit building or a building being torn down?”
Around here the demolishers sometimes keep the wall/walls facing the road/street for as long as possible to contain the rubble on the site …
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Brace yourself - yes, I am actually showing work on a train! @18bravo, Rob, I didn’t forget your comment about decking, just hadn’t gotten around to it just yet, but as I had some time today, the GP now has some deck plate:
This is one of those tasks that isn’t that hard to do, just slow going and awkward to do. As you can see in the last pic, Eduard makes deck plating, so that’s what I used. It comes in a thin PE sheet which is pretty easy to glue down with CA. Less easy is getting the right shape laid out and cut. I use a sanding block on the back side of the PE sheet to help with getting a decent surface for the CA to adhere to.
Each of the vehicles I plan to use are now built but not painted and weathered. That’s fine, as I am not eager to do that. While I like painting, I just don’t feel like it right now, so will instead get into the dio after thanksgiving -
OK, thanks for having a look, and happy thanksgiving!
Cheers
Nick
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Hi model builders, as someone else said, with the ability to post photos on hold, we had more time to make models. And that’s what I’ve been doing, starting with the dio base:
As you might recall, the plan here is to reuse a base from another project that was preposterously big, and being picked and falling apart.
Step one was to take the vacuum to it, then mark a clear cut line, and then do just that. It turns out this base is remarkably durable, with the saw cutting through layers of plywood, hydrocal and and whatever else I generously applied to it. I selected the cut line in order to allow for track and a convincing building footprint, to keep much of the driveway (which is made of hydrocal and looks good), and a segment of foundation with a nice brick facade.
Then went to the opposite side of the spectrum, making up a pair of complicated windows:
I made these now because they will/did define the general proportion of the wall that will/does now surround them. But before getting to the wall, during my heavy handed demolition I not so wisely removed a bit more of the foundation stem wall than I should have, and guess what? got the chance to reinstall it:
Oh what a treat. I made the foundation using hydrocal, and while I was at it decided to use florist wire for rebar, just like a real foundation - wow - I was pretty ambitious back then 
The good news is that this method of construction is pretty strong, as while I did remove the foundation from the base, the damage done was relatively minor. The less good new is that it was not easy plugging this back into the base. I used a lot of rebar, which meant there were a lot of holes and segments of wire to get into alignment, and glue back together.
With the foundation resolved back to the walls and windows, starting with the special corner.
which ties into a longer wall
As you can see, this is now well underway. I’ve added several materials to texture the wall material, a cornice, trim etc, and some of the framing around the room with the fancy windows.
So, on we go - thanks for having a look
Nick
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That cracked or demolished foundation corner looks convincing,
I wonder what type of vehicle hit it, must have been something really solid …
bulldozer?
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@Uncle-Heavy, yes! a bulldozer and an excavator with a concrete crusher implement!
And, while we’re at it, some more thoughts about how this might work out. Someone asked me about the “S” curved train track I show in the slides above. This idea stems from a screen shot I have of a train moving along the same (also shown somewhere above) - but, that is indeed in real life, where while reverse curves are in use, real life also has the benefit of real life distance - not 1/48 distance. So I began wondering if the idea might be crossing from novel to silly, or worse yet….cutesy.
As @Dioramartin Tim knows, I am a confirmed non-miniaturist (long story short, I once met a hipster artist from LA who gushed “I love miniatures” when she found out I make models…
) that is, not someone who makes cute aspirational figures to be sold off out the county fair! And the “novelty” of the forced use of an “S” curve might be leading into this territory.
To address and avoid this potential disaster, I went back to the remnant other half of the original base and took out the Buck knife, and pried off another segment of footing, which happens to be a long uniform curve! And this is what I’m pondering:
The yellow curve is the top cap on a foundation stem wall! hmm - this might look pretty good. It allows the track to curve along side, which might look pretty cool. It also leaves some interesting spaces around the dio for vehicles/figures and so on.
The un-good side of this is that to make the curved footing and track work, I’d need to use a small cutoff wheel and make “trenches” for each in the base. The stem wall is shown on top of the shop floor, which is thin plywood glued to basswood sleepers glued to the base, and the tracks run over this, and the driveway which is poured in place hydrocal!! So, while potentially cool results, clearly a messy process!!
OK, and on to less drama, as it was nice and sunny, I decided to take some test photos of the walls with some color on them:
The exterior is coming along - the windows are not weathered yet. Aside from that, this is coming along. I am thinking about making it darker, but, I don’t want to muddy it up - so, will continue to think about that.
The interior is coming along too:
The idea here is the blue and white area is bounding the shop floor, while the area with the roof and fancy windows would have been an office. Remember, this will be set atop a foundation stem wall, so the window sills will be raised above the ground.
In the near term, I’ll focus on building the walls separating the office from the shop, and then get back to the base -
OK, that’s where we are - thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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Hello model builders,
With the front wall in pretty good shape on to the base I went. As a reminder, the base on this project is being made using about half of the base from an old project. In addition to cutting the old base down, I decided that I wanted to use some foundation parts from it on the new base, which required some cutting:
On the right, you can see train tracks, and the curving yellow line which is a cap on a foundation stem wall from the other side of the base. To make these parts work on the new project, I needed to cut a trench in the base:
As you can see on the right, I cut two trenches in to the base, one for the train track and the other for the stem wall. With this done, I went on to install the foundation stem wall, and begin work on other tasks:
I think this picture clarifies what I meant by a trench, as you can see the train track set in place, and the foundation stem wall glued in place. As this building is next to a train track I decided it needs a loading dock, so made one up using bass wood with a variety of acrylic gels applied, but it is yet to be stained. You can also see a lot of “gravel” which is actually coarse pumice acrylic gel, which is not yet set up.
While waiting for the various acrylic mediums were drying, I made up the parts for a rail crossing.
These pics give a fairly good view of the new/old stem wall glued in place.
And more progress on the wall, which is still not glued in place. I framed up a pitched roof over the office area and weathered the windows. Sorry about the dark pictures, as the colors look pretty good in real life.
OK, on we go, and thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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Are you planning on replicating the special type of rails used for railroad tracks in paved areas (asphalt, concrete or cobblestones)?
@Uncle-Heavy hi Robin, well, no. This project is using typical freight rail with a (generally) standard cross section (in the US anyway) as opposed to light rail/tram tracks which are lighter and use different cross sections. The light rail tracks have different sections for unique applications, like, as you note, running in cobblestones, asphalt, or over sleepers. For this project, it’s regular rail over wood sleepers, with wood being used to make an at grade crossing:
Ahh! just for you! local serving tracks in the upper left, wood at grade crossings in the upper right and lower left, and the model as it sits today in the lower right. I couldn’t make this until the ballast set up. By this I mean, the ballast is scale crushed rock which looks good - but, to get it to stay in place, I poured highly diluted PVA with water over the top - hardly a new idea.
But, this morning according to my weather app, we had 90% humidity and it was 52 degrees f, and it’s been like this the last few days. The diluted glue took a long time to dry - and it’s still not, so the project is sitting on a table in direct sunlight. I had the same problem with the acrylic pastes and gels earlier in the week.
Nonetheless, I kept after it:
Work progress going from left to right, and a close up of the loading dock debris:
Not a fast process, but the results are fairly nice - and a wider view:
Direct sunlight really helps show what’s going on.
Still a long way to go so for some variety, I decided to take on making up figures, as there are a lot of them:
Some figures got some changes and others pretty much out of box. You’ll note many are wearing WWII army helmets, which is simply as close as I could get to a normal hardhat - I can live with the discrepancy! Others received tool bags, and a few received cutting and reworking body parts. BTW, doing this in 1/48 scale is less pleasant than in 1/35+ - quite a challenge!
Thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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This turned out to be a week of painting, first up the figures:
I can now say that I think it’s harder to paint 1/48 figs than it is to paint 1/35 figs. Like the rest of this project, the challenge is that I can clearly see what I am supposed to be doing, but, at this size, that is easier said than done! and among these figures, they’re each part of the storyline:
As these are indeed small, I decided to glue each along the edges of a long and narrow cardboard box, and paint them in place, which worked out pretty well.
next came some paint on my hopper rail car. As this is a dio and not an operable railroad set, I looked for a good looking, inexpensive rail car on EBay - and had some luck:
This cost me less than $20 USD, so a pretty good deal. The basic details are fine, and the trucks are particularly nice. So what better to do than weather it:
This is done with a series of washes. As it turns out when I’m riding my bike around I’ve noticed lots of rail cars, so it eventually occurred to me to take some photos for prototype examples. I found that hoppers I’ve seen generally have rusty corners, or general grime, and for this, I opted for the grime. I also noticed lots of artwork in addition to the typical livery, as in, lots of graffiti - some really nice and other that’s just bad:
Note a couple of these have evident rust, and some pretty elaborate graffiti - and these:
Not much rust, but a fair amount of grime. So on I went with some graffiti:
Adding this graffiti was almost intimidating, as I rarely paint anything even generally similar to this. Rather than fretting about it, I decided to go for it and hope for the best - embarrassingly, a few months ago…I bought some graffiti decals! what a sell out! And as you can see, I did not use them!
This process was interesting. I followed these basic steps: layout in pencil; trace with a black pen; fill colors using markers and acrylic paints; retracing the black with acrylic paints; and then adding few layers of acrylic dust (just highly diluted dust colors). And, well, I suppose not great, but not bad either - they’ll do the trick. When I was applying the final wash, some of the black pen began to bleed, but, I think that ultimately made this look more like actual graffiti and not me painting a shiny graphic on the rail car.
Even though I am now in the mood to keep painting, it’s supposed to rain here over the next several days. This is a problem because I use Tamiya spray primer, which I apply outside.
As such, I’ll likely need to get back to the base.
thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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Good thing that you didn’t choose 1/87 (H0) scale …
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Wow, figures look great. With so many I’m surprised you didn’t get caught painting the graffiti on the hopper 
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Am I the only one who looked at your painted figure pics and heard strains of the Village People in my mind? 
Seriously, they look great! And that hopper is a real treat too.
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Beautiful work as always Nick you’ve been busy !!!
Ya know , going from 1/35th scale to working in 1/48th scale and eventually even smaller in the future maybe , you’re also getting closer to becoming an actual miniaturist .
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Thanks Glenn @Cheyenne , and ha! yes - lol - in this case, I have become the dreaded miniaturist! I’m not sure about 1/48 builds, they are deceptive in a way and the struggle is real! that is, you can clearly see what’s going on, but, they are just small enough to make the build a lot of tricky work, both to build and paint!! But there you go -
Cheers
Nick
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Hahaha! especially in those pics! dancing fools! It turns out there aren’t as many choices for figures in 1/48 as there are in 1/35, so I took what I could get and made them work!
And about the hopper, as I said, I was actually anxious about trying the graffiti! lol. I think there’s a fine line between doing it at least convincingly, and doing it badly! And, again, I’ve been struggling with adapting to 1/48 - weird - lol - but, on we go -
Cheers
Nick