¹⁄35

A Final Farewell

The buildings

When I first thought of the idea for the diorama, I was initially going to scratch build the buildings. I was still unsure as to exactly what I wanted to show. Initially, it was going to be a train station but I struggled to find a composition I was combatable with. Fortunately, I found the village transformer house by Plus models at a local model show and this allowed me to add some height to the back of the diorama without smothering the scene. The transformer house was built from the box, I recreated the door using plastic card mainly because the kit one was in the wrong place. The Main station building came from Custom Dioramics and proved to be a small project in itself. The instructions were not that clear and when the kit actually arrived it had broken up in transit. This, I think, was mainly due to the amount of plaster parts that build up the kit and the size of the box they came in. Not to be dissuaded, I spent a few evening putting the pieces back together using 5-minute epoxy glue and interior plaster. The details were redone with a pointed dart and the building finally assembled using toothpicks and epoxy glue.

Balsa wood was used to create the window frames and clear plastic card the glass. Once I was happy with the frames and glass, black plastic card was used inside to prevent the interior from being seen. The kit comes with a resin roof but I decided to replace it with one made from card. The whole roof area was first covered with pieces of card (old cereal packets will do) to create the shape. Strips of card were then cut out of another piece of card stock. These were cut about every 10cm (don't cut all the way across) to create the tile effect. The card strips where glued on to the roof to create a tiled roof effect.