I should have started the new images here , no sense having them on 14 pages of nothing then starting anew .
Stupid on my part , thank God stupidity is only a hobby of mine and not a career .

Jerry , Folkart acrylic crackle medium from Michaels .

Mark , thanks man .

Cheyenne, glorious pictures via your new host, & endlessly fascinating interior vistas – you recall I was first to express an interest about moving in (to it), what’s the rental? 1/35th of normal eh? Just need to reduce myself to suit…

No words.

Cheyenne Simply put this is beautiful, everything is spot on. What a great imagination: scratchbuilding X10.

Sincerely
Dave

Tim , move on in , the beers are in the cooler on my patio .
Alvaro , thanks fer lookin .
Dave , thanks man , I think the 60's had something to do with my imagination .............

Small update , the brickwork is made from diodebris.com products .
Their molds are fantastic , no affiliation just an extremely happy customer .
Wish I could afford all their products , a lot of their stuff is used here and there in this entire build .

Sorry , that's dioramadebris.com

I love that chip on the concrete steps. Nice detail.

DITTO! ... Cool details!

—mike

Jerry , Mike , thanks guys much appreciated .

The catwalk over the courtyard will lead to the bakery owners destroyed residence .
The lift bridge I built about 20 years ago and may or may not be incorporated in the dio .
A little dusting and rivit replacement and she's good to go .

Ayayay your craftsmanship nearly moves me to tears. Thanks for the beers bro

Thanks Tim , there are no tears in modeling , ........... of course unless you xacto your leg trying to catch a falling knife , super glue your fingers together , drop and smash a nearly completed model , take a sip from your beer can that has a dead ciggy in it , clear the table on your first go , then scratch on the 8 ball , your wife picks Sundays football games according to her fav team colors and or mascots ........... and has more wins than you ........

Ok , there is tears .

Very impressive update and as usual all the work is so nice !
My favorite though,is whatever that gray thingy is at the end.
J

Outstanding work! This is undoubtedly the most awesome project I have seen, and I have seen many in my time, but your attention to the small details really adds to the realism. Everything from the chipping paint on the yellow door, the roof shingles out of place, the broken concrete stair with the rebar showing - all amazing...and very inspiring.

Great job!
Cheers,
James

Agree with Recon. Exceptional work all around and an incredible eye for even the smallest detail. Not to mention your photography skills in showing all your fantastic work. A couple items in the background of a few pics also look pretty interesting. Superb craftsmanship, thanks for sharing!!

Cheyenne,
This is a wonderful account of your extraordinary work of art. Thank you for taking the time to keep this thread alive.

Cheers!🍺
—mike

Thanks Jerry , the grey thingie is a canal lift bridge half raised .

James , thanks for the compliments .
It's always nice to get kudos from someone whose work I admire and consider a great dio builder .

Jack , thanks man , yeah that's my hide out room , I've got all kinds of knives , antique guns , weird nick knacks and junk I've collected all my life , even got a freeze dried rattle snake from Texas when I was building cable tv systems back in the 70's . The wife calls it warehouse 13 like the old tv show .

Mike , thanks buddy the beer's are on me , provided you can beat me in 9 ball ..................... just kiddin , back Mike up bartender he'll have a beer and a shot of Baronjager .

Like Tim said Cheyenne , absolutely mind blowing .

Kurt

Thanks Kurt , much appreciated .

Pour and mix plaster , pour into mold , let dry , repeat , repeat , repeat .
Gotta say once again , love these dioramadebris molds .
A few pics down I removed the Plastruct textured stone flooring and I am using the stone by stone method , tedious , boring , time consuming .
Good thing the LLBWS is on . I've always wanted to watch every single game , now retired , scratch that off the bucket list .

well you're either a genius or totally as mad as a fruit cake

Fall is my favorite season so not much modeling gets done .
I'm retired .
The tourists are gone from L.B.I. after Labor Day , the beach belongs to me and the local surf fishermen .
The bay belongs to us local fishermen .
Thursday night , Friday night , all day and night Saturday , college football .
Monday night football , Thursday night football all day and night Sunday NFL .
Not making excuses for my progress but dam I'm havin fun.

This is an older building I'm now remodeling for the dio to go alongside the bakery ,
It was a train station and may well stay as that .
Anyway what I've done so far .

If I were you, which I am obviously not so take these comments for what they are worth ..
This image:

I would try to lay the stones to avoid short edges lining up.
If the stones overlap there is less risk of the stones shifting, in real life ...
Another thing. I would have enclosed that circular lid with a ring of slightly cut stones, straight edges on the outside, cuts to make a "smooth" circle on the inside. Maybe 6, 7 or eight stones to go around. The stones butting up against this would be cut at angles to fit. Avoid small bits by cutting a little from two larger stones (instead of one whole and one tenth of a stone use two stones cut to 5 tenths and 6 tenths respectively). This is important for stones laid in sand, if they are mortared down then it is more of a cosmetic thing even if there is a small difference in strength.

Brick walls: Check real brick walls. In most cases (bonds) the bricks are laid so that some stones have a short edge showing on the face of the wall. This provides bonds through the wall so that it becomes one wall instead of vertical slivers standing close to each other loosely held together with mortar.
How these things are done varies between countries so my comments are based on my local experience (bricks in walls must be done with cross bonds, otherwise the structure will fail, low garden walls might be simplified).
Corners: If a half brick or whatever is needed to make up the correct distance the small piece does not go on the corner. Lay a whole brick on the corner and put the small piece a brick or two away from the actual corner.

This image:

Is that balustrade standing on the floor? Looks like a dark gap under the lower beam ...

Boulangerie: Where are the loaves of tasty fresh bread?
Has the baker stopped baking and started brewing moonshine instead

Outstanding work! I am impressed!
/ Robin

Your usual cool stuff all over. I specially like the large ad on the side of the new building. Transfer or hand painted ?
J

Robin thanks for checking in .
This building was built , oh 15 or so years ago and my bricks were made out of crude molds of my own design .
They were supposed to be cut stone more than bricks .
I used Evergreen/Plastruct rough brick plastic sheets for the other brickwork between the corner stone/brick work .
Needless to say very iffy .
I'm remodeling the building
to try and use it on the current dio build .
The paver stones are glued down and I can't really do much to change them although I do like your thoughts and wish I thought of the pavers in a concentric circle growing out around the medallion .
The railings around the opening do not go all the way down to the floor there is an intended space between the bottom and floor .
I have quite a few loaves of bread to add along with the Jaguar baker figure .

Jerry , thanks man , the Absinthe ad is intended to be a painted on ad and was created by printing the ad on a thin piece of tracing paper then using a kids glue stick to adhere it the the brick wall .
My hope was to see the relief of the bricks through the ad to make it look painted onto the wall .

Oops , almost forgot , Robin you're correct on the pavers not being placed so as not to leave a seam , bad move on my part .
Like I said though the whole area is filled and glued and complete so hopefully grass and rubble will hide most of the discrepancy .

Cheyenne, Outstanding project, just scrolled thru and must say I'm in absolute awe!

Question: Sayin' this is a concerto or something similar, you play by ear, or are classically trained?
Eyeball and winging it on the go w/ some fudge factor included as time and focus allows - or - scale drawings w/ measured dims etc and fairly precise fitting?
Not bustin' bawlz, just curious w/ all do respect to your mad skills dude.

I gotcha on the 60s' imagination origins, myself being of the 70s' imagination origins (the 60s' kid-brutha).

OBTW - I'm less than an hour from the Everglades, so I gots ta say be careful w/ that sneaky bench gator, the ultimate lurker!

Regards
...and Cheers to your epic build!
Dave