Continued from Castle Diorama VI – Reaching the Top…
After looking at white plaster and white styrofoam for a long time, it is quite a pleasure to add colour and texture to the castle diorama.
Model kits of European buildings in O scale are unfortunately rather rare. But it seems like there is light in the horizon as more and more manufacturers begin to produce models for this scale.
The small railroad depot above is a brand new model kit from the German company Busch. I bought the kit for the halt on my Castle Diorama instead of scratchbuilding a building of some sort.
Continued from Castle Diorama V: Cliffs and Arrow Slits…
Finally! No more casting and filing Hirst Arts blocks to build the wall of the castle. A couple of days ago, I reached the top of the tower so I could proceed from constructing to painting the whole thing.
But first a few building notes.
Today, modern automobiles are all very similar. They are all tested in the same wind tunnels, built at similar plants and all become, with the help of todays advanced science, very efficient and safe vehicles. Fantastic, but also quite boring!
That’s why I collect car models from before the Second World War. In the early days of the automobile, lots of fascinating experiments were being made to create better and cheaper cars.
One of these experiments were the Hanomag 2/10 PS, which was available on the German market from 1924-1928.
For a while now I have been enjoying the beautiful tree models from the Danish nature-modelling guru Reiner Merke. Please take a look at his gallery to his wonderful and realistic tree models in H0 scale.
Slowly I gathered enough courage to try something similar, knowing that one of the reasons the tree models made by Reiner look so great is because he really knows how the real thing looks. Building good models is of course a lot about modelling skill, but it is very important to be able to see and find inspiration from the real world or at least images of it.
Continued from Castle Diorama IV: Timberwork and Stone Walls…
Inspired by my new book, the construction of the Castle Diorama continues.
Another inspiration was the news of a diorama contest in the town of Køge in eastern Denmark in April next year. I participated in a similar contest a year and a half ago with a city diorama in H0 scale and was fortunate to receive second place. So I am really looking forward to the next contest and see how my new diorama in O scale will be received. 
While building my castle diorama, I have given a lot of thought to how to paint the fieldstone walls. Most people paint thm some sort of grey, but that seems a bit dull to me.
Inspired by the great book Capturing Clervaux, I thought about plastering the walls and trying to simulate an old and worn wall, where the fieldstone shows through the plaster here and there. But instead of experimenting on my growing castle, I decided to make a small fieldstone wall to experiment on.
Inspiration is essential when building a model or a diorama. Inspiration can come from experiences in the real world, it can come from the internet or, as in this case, from books.
For a long time I enjoyed following Claude Joachim and his fabulous diorama builds on Armorama. While most of us build small dioramas that takes a forever to finish, Claude builds huge dioramas relatively quickly.
Continued from Castle Diorama III: Dungeon Interior…
Now that the dungeon below the castle is finished, I have worked a while on the castle itself, a half-timbered building in the courtyard and on the rails below.
Narrow gauge vehicles is a great thing for saving space compared to normal gauge. Nonetheless is there a great pleasure in accurate and detailed models of large cars in O scale.
I only recently discovered the excellent models from a German company called O Scale Models. They seem to have produced a number of German tank cars as well as some small German gondolas with various markings to represent vehicles from the beginning of the 20th century till the 1960’s. Continue reading »
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