Jan/Feb 2022I am a French model railroader and for more than seventeen years worked on a European On30 layout. After completing it, I decided to build some dioramas for my pleasure and for exhibitions. Since I like western United States wood buildings from the early 1900s, and had built and described my Old Bear Meadows diorama in the March/April 2017 GAZETTE I decided to share some techniques I used to build the grocery and general store shown here. In my imagination, these buildings are located along Road 02 in the mountains of North Dakota.
The buildings were drawn with a 2D software to 1:45 scale and cut and engraved with my laser. I used Samba wood for walls and roofs, Kappler strip wood, and cardboard for window frames, and paper for shingles. I did use Grandt Line windows for the General Store. I chose 1/43 to be able to use the figures available in that scale.
The walls of the General Store were painted with a coat of gray oil paint. Once this paint dried for several weeks, I applied white oil paint with a small flat brush. I used another method for the Grocery. After a layer of gray, I applied red and a few days later I used an eraser to remove some of the red to reveal the gray, and make the surface appear weathered.
The shingle roofs were made from strips of 180-gram Canson paper. They were painted in light gray oil. The bitumen strips of the shed were painted black and covered with decorative powder to mitigate the black.
The window frames were cut from 0.5 mm cardboard previously covered on the back with a 3M double sided adhesive. On this ultra-thin adhesive, I glued 0.5 mm plexiglass serving as glass.
I used a template for the stairs. Using my Proxxon circular saw, I countersunk two grooves into a small board. The two grooves must not be too deep. The surfaces receiving the steps must be outside of the template.
I made clay patterns for the trees and cast them in resin. The foliage is Limonium Caspia from California. They were spray painted with an olive color and covered in Woodland Scenics light green Coarse Turf. Along the fences, these trees ease the transition between the scenery and the backdrop.
The advertisements on the walls come from the internet. They have been improved with my Affinity software (a wonderful creative professional software and very inexpensive).
Some details such as piles of boards, cartons, boxes, and figurines give a little more life to my buildings. I cast some of the details such as cans and watering cans in white metal. I 3D printed others with my nice Form 2 Formalb.
I hope some of the methods described here will be of use to GAZETTE readers.
