coach joe posted:Frank so each individual structure is on a removable base section and can be switched out. Was thetransformation of the valley done over a long period of time? They seem more like the valley transitioned from one scene to the next rather than being changed between industries or time periods and back again on a somewhat regular basis.
Each structure has its own baseplate (1/4" acrylic) which includes all the details, such as foliage and groundcovers. I got tired of a loss of such items when I had a notion to change a scene, so having everything glued-fast to a base helped with minimizing waste. Plus, the use of bases helped me with installation, because I am not a small guy, so crouching my frame into and around that valley's overall space has always been a challenge, which the use of the all-inclusive baseplates helped with immensely.
Yes, the changeover took place over quite a period of time. The photos proceed chronologically, from top to bottom:
(1.) the factory-dominated incarnation of the valley existed in 5/2006 - 2/2007 (top photo);
(2.) the more rural version was completed in 7/2007 (2nd photo);
(3.) the suburban houses version came in 7/2008 (3rd photo);
(4.) the mixed-small-businesses interpretation, which includes the "urban renewal" lot being cleared, was begun in 2012 - to the present. (bottom photo).
For me, in addition to the increased ease of movement afforded by using the base-plated scenes, the end to buildings getting beat-up and ingredients for details getting wasted, as well as more easily applied/crafted into place and preserved, has been my biggest motivation.
If you take a close look here, below, at this trailer park, you can discern that the entire vignette is on two separate baseplates of Masonite, one for the main level, and one for the lower level, right up to the roadway (made of "3M stair-tread tape). I was able to create the scene at my worktable, comfortably, then move its two sections to its site. Plus, it is , also, readily available to be moved to another site if ever desired....
These other two scenes are on baseplates, partially noticeable under the "apothecary - pizza parlor" scene, below , which allowed for great flexibility in my use of them and ZERO loss of ingredients and damaged to buildings when the scenes were moved around until finding their optimum emplacement.....
Perhaps, in this scene immediately below, you may be surprised to know that the seam between the 2-story frame store scene and the stone building on the right runs right alongside that Studebaker and the shed, included and affixed on the store's baseplate, with the trees on the right, the rear loading-dock, and the stone building being part of a neighboring scene, now wedded to it....
A portion of the black acrylic baseplate can be seen under the left half of this scene, below...
FrankM.
P.S.....
