Hello to everyone from the UK, I recently retired but worked as a modelmaker for a while making custom dollhouses for miniature collectors, I also made a few models of mills for a Watermill museum in Somerset England.
The most unusual model I made was a Diorama featuring a floating watermill called a Ship mill or Boat mill, these were common in Europe from late Medieval times up until about 1930 but are now extinct except for a couple at a Museum .
You will see the use of mirrors in this diorama, it gives the impression of the river running on into the distance, there are three in total inc the one behind the bridge ,one behind the rock pathway & another hidden to the far left. This was an experimental idea & it works amazingly well & fools everyone who looks at it !
There is a web page with several photo's showing some of the construction details
http://www.vicnewey.co.uk/diorama/A lot of commonly available materials were used inc builders plaster & white insulation styrene, the water is clear fibreglass cheaply available from boat builders or custom car builders.
The scale of this model is 00 so that I could use railway figures etc. I used a plastic kit of a flatbed British.railway cart & added side etc to resemble carts used in 19th century Eastern Europe, I also added a second horse & adapted railway porters etc to fit the scene. The Diorama is 3ft square.
Another diorama I am working on from time to time features a Click mill, an extinct type of mill that was once common in the Scottish Isles & crudely built & used by the crofter in places such as the Isle of Lewis, this is in 1/16th scale however.
