Hi Martin
That's not construction it's a lesson of technical, you can still make a roller," digging" a pipe from pvc, for bigger surfaces,but I think you'll have better control with your stamp, I'm anxious to see it finished
Dim

Me too Dim, me too. Cool addition to the Anthro jukebox Glenn, next selection has to be ZZ Top. Few things could be further away from LaGrange than this image but it was a handy find. No sign of their giant stamp though…



Final rails test-fit…



Remove rails & muster cojones…



Ruined!..?…





But wait…



The dark powder-paint wash did actually settle in between the cobbles OK, so now to wipe it off the cobbles with a damp cloth…



…& then with a semi-dry brush apply cobble shades with more p-paint, then lighten with pastels until…ruined again?



That’s under a blazing noon-day sun yet it looks like a hard frost in Prague. However, down at 1/35–eye-view…







Maybe it’s better than the aerial view suggests but not close enough yet. Apart from many touch-ups there needs to be some subtle variations in the cobbles with paint and/or pastel, some slightly sandy & others slightly blue-ish. Then a final decision whether to tackle the overall frosted appearance – tricky, the camera tells fibs sometimes (no photos above have been manipulated), opinions welcome. Lastly there’ll be some restrained moss & weeds particularly near the drains, lamp-posts & along the wall, after its cement base is done. Monochrome looks OK for tones…



No attempt made to close the chasm there. Rails next stop…

Go,go,go...

Compared to de stones on the picture you posted first, this masonry look just fine to me!

You always have to take into account the "too on top of it" factor Tim.
Because to the regular observer at home I think this looks the biz. Right on the money!
Truly epic work.
J

Hi Tim,

Your build continues to amaze and delight, it truly is a work of art in progress.

Cheers, ,

G

Tim, this is a real work of art.

It´s amazing what youa have built.

COngrats and go on!!

Looks great Tim , maybe some burnt umber and raw sienna dabs and wash schmeers here and there ?

Don't know if your on lockdown like we are but I'm sending you some delivery anyway .......



Don't know if this is a real photo or not but I do believe Little Ceasers [ sp ? ] goes back to the 20's or 30's .

Tim, I’m absolutely flabbergasted! The ’Mean Street’ is coming to life!


Hey Cheyanne, Was ist das?... ein Knockwurst-Burrito? 🥖🤔

May the wellness be with you. 🖖😷
—mike

Many thanks fellow hermits, much appreciated & yes Jerry dead right about being too close to it, doubtless we all suffer that syndrome at times. If any newcomers wonder why the base IS so big on the non-garden side, it’s because the grenade-throwing agent (Kubis) escaped by running around the tram and across to the far corner where he’d parked his bike, & pedaled away. I hope to show this in the final photos. Anyhow Glenn – that’s one weird photo & I’m trying to imagine what key words you Googled to get it?! So I’ve painted some random pale sandy & blue toned cobbles to moderate the frostiest areas but left most of it as is…



Nope the camera’s not really picking it up but there is some subtle variation, maybe it’s visible somewhere in the following. And now the rails - not much to say other than the 14 junction points were an absolute…well, several words beginning with “b” & I used all of ‘em at least 28 times…



I re-used the balsa jigs for gluing the rails to paint them, strips of Evergreen to ensure each new section followed on from the last without misaligning, and anything heavy to keep them in place until the glue dried. Result…







That’s another 40 hours (track-making, painting, laying) of my life I’ll never get back. Now they’re all glued down they’ve revealed a bunch of places where the cobbles still aren’t flush with them, so there’s another perfectly tedious self-isolating job to do over the coming weeks…



Crunch time # 27: I measured/drew up the track gauge (4.1 cms) on the base probably 6 months ago now & all through the processes since I’d never had the guts to unpack the trams to test they’d actually ride on the rails. A strange syndrome, the confident half of me kept on telling the doubting half that I’d done it right, checked every section 5 times, and to stop worrying. But I just didn’t believe me…until today…





I thought I was taking blurry shots until I realized I had tears in my eyes, wadda wimp. Not only did Tram 1 roll cleanly all the way along both straights, Tram2 & Trailer managed to hold onto the curved section – only just (they’re wedged in) but who cares, I was sure I’d have to cut off wheel rims…









Some variable social distancing there. The acid test…





It was all going so well until oh baby...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QWW4_pGIiI

Ηι Τim
It's easy to construct destructive dios,but it's clearly more difficult to compose"clean" structures.I admire your methodology and patience.

Dim

Once more you make nice progress. It always seems to me that when you are trying to get things together, some part you previously thought fixed solidly and permanently comes off somehow...

Hi Tim,

Love the way your cobbles are looking...and no, that's not a euphemism, . The way you've highlighted and emphasised the detail is truly amazing...to be honest I wasn't sure how you'd make such a large area achieve uniformity, but you've managed it with spades, .

And with the trams on the line it is really starting to live...following this build is such an inspirational and pleasurable task, .

Cheers, ,

G

Coolness factor=off the charts,
J

Impressive work! Could easily become one of those "classic" dioramas.

Ahhh, that tram in-situ moment! 🍺🍺🍺

—mike

Looks fantastic Tim , very cool with the rolling stock , shame about the electric thingie mishap tho , ........
Almost there man , so let it roll ....

https://youtu.be/9IyRNKleyyg

hey Tim,
not enough superltives for decribing your work...
but... what colour have you in mind for the cobbles?
cio
edo

Thanks guys for staying on board through what’s been hard/dull/slow progress, glad you like the views so far. That’s a bold claim Dim, I’ve always felt it was more difficult to make a convincing wrecked tank than an operational one. Yes Erwin someone ought to start a thread-clinic on breakages, mine was an easy repair compared to most - a star-antenna for example? Gareth – the cobbles metaphor reminds me of that old Eddie Braben gag from Morcambe & Wise’s Cleopatra skit c. 1974: Do you have the scrolls? No, it’s just the way I walk. Anyhow for Edo the cobbles uniformity is too uniform (mio amico che è il colore) – yep guilty as charged, the colour variations are still too subtle so I’ll keep on tinkering with it.

Meanwhile my mate Alistair just mailed me some great 3D-printed lamp-post bases based on some very sub-CAD designs I sent him…



Left to right: two original Mini-Art versions, two cut-down, one converted/rounded with Evergreen strip, three 3D Prague standard(ish), four 3D Prague bulbous. Photo-refs show at least the latter three types amongst the 13 in the scene (plus a couple of timber telegraph poles) but they all need some more work. There’s hardly two alike in terms of their tapering/telescoped posts, so all up a bigger job ahead than I’d realized.

I had a brief opportunity to be at large mid-week without being fined A$1,000, so retrieved the Merc from remote storage at the same time - surely an essential diversion after all. I/we haven’t seen it since July 2018, how time flies…









On site for the first time & in its pre-grenade condition, seems to sit OK on the uneven cobbles with a little wiggling around, shame I forgot to dust it first. I’d intended to take some monochrome test shots outside today but it’s way too windy. As well as attempting to mimic some of the original crime-scene images, I might take it a step further after the final shoot to make them look more like 80 year old original prints – regulars from a couple of years ago may recall I’ve got previous…

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/features/7651

The car is like real, beautiful reflection of the cobblestone in the last photo.
Modeling is a form of art that contains ,history, techniques,painting,photography,directing and more, do what you like and please.

Go on,Tim

Thanks Dim, yes I liked that reflection too…but then noticed the big window in front of it has been bent - presumably by the packing intended to protect it! Incidentally, the Merc has been in a Tupperware box for around 18 months, in theory air-tight, in a cool dark concrete garage. Inside the box it was surrounded by thick clean folded paper towels, and when I opened it those towels were stained a pale pinky-brown shade all round the bottom. Prime suspect is the red real-leather seats, does anyone know if leather emits some kind of vapour?

Beauty pics man .
Real leather is tanned , real leather untanned will rot . Chems and natural substances , vegetable greases , animal fats etc are used . Real leather coats and such need to be oiled after awhile to keep the leather supple and avoid rotting .

Tim,

As always outstanding work, but especially good to see the Mercedes - God - was it really that long ago?

Apropos of nothing very much, and certainly not in the scheme of micro-managing what you're doing, I just wonder if one of the latest Miniart figures - guy with the hat - is of any use to you as one of the Anthropoid team perhaps?

https://www.armorama.co.uk/news/35154

Just a thought(!) - keep up the outstanding work.

Brian