I've been continuing to work on the diorama for my 12'-by-8' layout.
The next step was to clean up the look of the base by adding a basswood strip to each edge. The basswood strips were held in place with masking tape until the glue dried.
At this point, a gap remained between the right side of the stone wall and the hill, so I cut a short piece of stone wall to fit, painted it, and glued it to the layout. This piece also serves to positively locate the base on the layout. Despite my best effort to cut the piece accurately, there remained a gap at the bottom that I concealed with ground cover.
The next two photos show the diorama base as it is currently. The stone walls and rock-faces have been painted with earth-toned colors, ground cover has been applied at the top of the rocks, and additional ground cover and ballast conceal the gap between the layout surface and the bottom of the stone walls and rock-faces.
I can’t do any further work on the diorama base until I build the structures for the town scene. So, I put the base back onto the layout and placed two house models on it to see how it looks. I built these models after the 12’-by-8’ layout was completed and before I began work on my 10’-by-5’ layout – a period of ten years. As it turned out, I didn’t use them on the 10’-by-5’ layout, and I’m not sure I will use them on the diorama. Meanwhile, I’ve begun to build the first of several structure models for the diorama. I expect the scene will include two new background buildings, a short street, sidewalks, some people, a billboard, and maybe a car or two, but I won’t decide on the arrangement of the scene until the structures are completed.
MELGAR
