Hi all:

Well, I thought I would post a picture of the latest project I was able to create for work, before I moved into my new house.

This image, along with some others, will be featured in our next HO Scale Reference Book. It took me about 90 hours to complete. It was built on a piece of pink insulation foam board approximately 2 ft. x 3 ft. I had to weather the trains, build and weather the structures, build & paint the people, and build and paint the military vehicles. Not to mention actually building the groundwork as well. I'm sure it is riddled with historical inaccuracies, but the purpose of the diorama was to show some different products our company is going to be selling.

As always, your input is important to me. Let me know what you guys think.



Thanks!

John

now if that photo had been black and white and you had not already told me it was HO scale I would have found it hard to tell.

You have done a fantastic job on both the figures as well as the equipment in this diorama.

Awesome job! I agree with Roo, that's about as close to photo realistic as anyone can get.

Great Dio, love the trains

I love it! I model railroad as well and I have to ask, don't you love the fact that you can do so much more in a much smaller space! My Modern military layout in N-Scale (1/160) should yield about 50 miles compressed when it's finished.
Again, I love the dio!

Rockin' on the Rails!
Cuhail

John, you have done an outstanding job. I would love to see some more pics but understand if you can't post any more with the book coming out and all...

The HO scale, is that closer to 1:87 or 1:72?

What kits/models/figures did you use to create this dio?

Thats a really nice scene you have there. I been wanting do something in HO but It seems hard to find military models for that scale.
I too would like to know this info.

Thanks for all the kind feedback! I really appreciate it.

Cuhail: I do like the smaller scales for creating large scenes. Normally I model 1/35th and am even building the 1/16 T-34, but HO scale allows for some greatly expansive stuff! I'd love to see your N Scale dio. Any pics yet?

Marty & Keenan: HO Scale is 1:87th scale. All the kits I used are available from the company I work for (walthers.com). There is a combination of Fleischmann trains, Faller & Pola buildings, Roco minitanks, and Preiser Figures. All the different things I used to make this scene are going to be available in our next Reference book in various bundles (except for the structures which we carry, but just individually.) Believe it or not, the figures come as kits and you have to assemble the heads, torsos, legs, arms, and gear and then paint them.

Very nice diorama. Great visual candy. There is stuff everywhere.

Great stuff.

great dio! really, it's stuff like that that got me into modelling awesome dramatic scenario!

Wow! I can only echo what others have said: It's about as real as you're going to get! Oh, I know this is , but could somebody turn all of the train scales into model scales? i.e. N=1:?, O=1:??, etc. Thanks for your time.

Thanks for the positive feedback MEBM. Here is a breakdown of common train scales:


G 1/22
O 1/48
On30 1/48
S 1/64
HO 1/87
N 1/160
Z 1/220


HTH!

John

John
Great job! I have your 2002 Catalog somewhere in my model room (and I don't even m/r anymore).
Did you do any of the dio's in that catalog? If you did I'm gonna have to did it out. I bought it just for the pics.
Amazing work.
Chuck

Thanks Chuck!

This is actually the first diorama I've done that's appeared in our catalogs. I've been with the company for 11 years now, but haven't lent a hand in the modeling aspect until now.

Last year we featured an Engine Servicing Facility in our 2004 book. I did the weathering of all the locomotives and freight cars for that, but didn't build the diorama.

Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do some more in the future.

John

Cool photo and nice work on the dio.

Coincidentally enough, I got a Walthers catalog today (out of the blue) and was thinking how cool it would be to see a military layout.

Looks like I got my wish.

Nice job.

Is this Marklin??

looks pretty impressive John and the background is really nice also. Good work u have done there , and was worth that they let u work on a modelling project for the company !!!!

Wow, I missed this one when it was posted this summer. Great job on the project.

Breathtaking scenery. Absolutely briliant.

I'm Absolutely taken back that is mind blowing the detail you've achieved for the scale is amazing well done indeed.

Ron

i love this scene..looks so real. I really like the small scale..but i think i'll stick with 1/48th..I don't think my eyes would allow much smaller work.lol
Mary (++)

Wow John,
I'm not into Dio's at the moment, I'm still trying to get my head round figure painting but this is fantastic!!!
It all looks so realistic.
I viewed it in grey scale and It could have been an actual Photo from 60 ish years ago.

Excellent,

Vic

Hi John,
you do a very excellent work here. Congratulations
regards
Carlos

Ola John

Well I Couldn`t say it better then what Cliff had done


And to backup this quote I took the liberty to work some photoshop magic on it. The detail is so good you actually might think you are looking at a real scene. Great job on that

that is purely amazing