Ok here goes, worked this thing down from 4' x 8' to 3' x 4'.
Totally changed the pieces arrangement.

Pic. # 1 - Overall lay-out. Instead of having the barge coming from under the bridge to the docking below the beer hall, I chose to have a river running along the forefront of the dio and the bridge will be set back and a little up from the river. I'll have a rocky, mossy stream flowing down to the river past the beer hall and castle - keep thingie.


Pic. # 2 - On the beer hall, bridge ground level will be cobblestones, a fountain and I'm dying to put a Panther A late there with all the trimmings. I would also like to put some recon type vechs. if there is room, maybe a sapper group working on the destroyed bridge in front of an impatient tank commander.


Pic. # 3 - The barge will be moored to a dock - pier area unloading.


Pic. # 4 - The beer hall cellar area is open and will be lighted with a comm. and warehouse area.


Pic. # 5 - The castle - keep thingie will have a broken down effect from age not battle.
Many thanks to Jackhammer for the wall thickness issue.
Also thanks to Henk for the river chain idea to give the impression of an old toll castle - keep thingie.


Other pics.




Thanks for looking and all critiques and suggestions are most welcome.
Cheyenne

Cheyenne, Its amazing all this work that you have done. And all of it is fantastic work too!!! I can almost semll the river air and I look very forward to seeing this progress. If ther eis anything I can do to help in anyway please feel free to call on me. Great work Kevin

Awesome work Cheyenne, In my opinion you have the layout spot on. I just have a couple of questions.
What did you use for the grout between the cork bricks on the tower? and whats the roof on the beer hall made of?
TIA

Cheyenne...there is so much going on there..all the scratch building...i am in awe at the moment. What a massive scene. Very impressive. I love the buildings. I hope you keep us posted on this one. I really want to see how this progresses.

WOW...Great work so far...

Mary

Thanks Kevin and yeah there is something you and Mary can do - all your excellent ground work for me !!!! [l.o.l.]
Hopefully this Fall and Winter will give me enough time to make some more progress.
Either that or I'll have the wife whack me in the other knee for some down time.
No La. work don't want to go I'm staying home this Winter with the wife & kids the pay would be good but my family is better - besides I'm gettin to old fer this sh*t.
Cheyenne

Thanks Andy, there is nothing inbetween the blocks yet thats white stiff poster board.
I plan on using either spackle or wood putty for that.
The roofing is done in balsa with a lap-strake effect - than using a hobby saw putting in the grooves between the shingles and cutting off a little here and there to make the lengths irregular. Its alot easier than gluing individual pieces.
Cheyenne

Thanks Cheyenne, Crikey I thought your roof was just basic corrugated effect lol.

Wow that is going to still be huge!! I remember the barge.

Wow, what to say! great progress, good that I have an idea of how this is going to look!

You're welcome Cheyenne, glad to have added my little input to your massive project. Most impressive is that you are still working on it. It's all to easy to start on an ambitious project, (which in your mind is all but finished :-) ), only to get either bogged down or to lose interest. Glad to see you're busy with it, and looking forward to more progress.

Cheers
Henk

Wow-

Anxious to see this one done. I have aalways admired and been in awe of "monster" dios!

Keep on it!

Jim

Cheyenne I have been watching this develop with awe over the last few months. I have to say all credit is due, not just for the imagination to think it all up in the first place, but the application & dedication to follow it through in the way you have. We are not worthy!!!

OMG!!! I love your work mate..

Jeezum crow! That looks incredibly beautiful Cheyenne.

Everything is so good. How did you make the barge? Can you show me how? Measurements, patterns, etc.?

Beautiful. Very beautiful.

Angela

absolutely magnificent work

wow, that there's looking damned impressive!!

feels like you could climb onto the diorama and have a browse around :-)

I am really looking forward to seeing this get a lick of paint to bring it all together and into scale. I am willing to bet that it's going to look fantastic!!

The modeling is fantastic. Very well done.
When I look at it though, the way the building sits directly on the edge and the way the barge is 100% parallel with the edge leaves me 'flat'.
If you could tweak the whole setting about 2degrees of square that would make a huge difference. Or, if you plan on doing something 'distractive' or 'different' with the base edge it will make this project even better.
My thought on distractive edge is to make a 'wavey' boarder along the canal out of MDF. Not as part of the dio,but a frame/edger. Even if you set the buildings in even .5 inches off the edge that would 'bring the piece together more'.

Just some thoughts.

Oh - by the way - "have a National Geographic!!"

That is certainly one monster dio you have there cheyenne. The amount of work that must have gone into this so far must have been huge!

What vehicles / armor (if any) are you going to be placing on this dio?

I'm looking forward to see how this develops. Thanks for sharing

I have no other words than impressive!
BTW, where are you going to display it when finished?

Erik

Scott, I was thinking about that also. After bringing the whole thing down from 4' x 8' to it's present 3' x 4 the barge does make it look "not quite right ".
Since the barge and water level will be lower than the present 3/4 piece of plywood I think a little addition of 1' for that level would be in order to make the whole thing 4' x 4'. I'm also considering a slight shift or maybe a total rearrangement of the structures because your right about the parallel thing with the dock.
This is going to be a walkaround type dio so I would like to stay away from to many straight - visual - lines.

The National Geo's are a great source of info and pics. from around the world alot of the ones I have are from the early 1900's, WWI, and WWII.


Angela, I'll see if I can draw something up.

Eric, hopefully I'll be moving to the boondocks in Penn. in a yr. or 2 at the most, 2 car garage full basement , storage, model displays , no problem - come on retirement.
Cheyenne

I'm with Slodder. Angling the buildings slightly would look more natural.
Tom

Cheyenne:

two words..Holy Crap. Great work

Amazing stuff so far.