Granby Ridge Machine Shop

[danpickard]

Hi all,
Thought since I finally got around to joining the forum, I should stick in a few pics as well.  Granby Ridge Machine Shop is the diorama I took to the 2007 Australian Narow Gauge Convention, held in Melbourne.  It was the first NGC I had a chance to attend (was kind of busy having kids at the previous ones...I know bad planning!), so was keen to get some decent modelling done for the competition.  It all started with one piece of CHB stuff I found through eBay.  I think its a familiar story with those modellers that have the CHB gear...get one piece, fall in love, start an addiction to finely cast white metal tiny things.  Anyway, one piece of machinery sitting on the shelf looked kind of sad, so I decided to build something to put it in.  Plus it wasa good excuse to have to buy more of the pieces to fill the shop.  Posted below is a few shots of the finished diorama, which was voted best diorama, and best of show at that convention.  The diorama is now resting in its future home on my home layout.  The diorama is 1:48 On30 by the way.

Cheers,
Dan Pickard

[danpickard]

[danpickard]

Thanks for looking,
Dan Pickard

[marc_reusser]

Wow Dan!...beautifully done, presented and photographed. The overall scene is really nice, and the individual parts/areas/details are very well done. I also like the pallete of the entire project.

...and you know I couldn't leave well enough alone  .......The only things that bug me when looking at it are the yellow grass tufts...they seem too unnatural and thus out of place, seem to catch/distract my eye. The other thing is the little diorama name sign on the front .

Thanks for posting this it was a pleasure to see.


Marc

[danpickard]

Thanks Marc...I hate doing weeds!  These are actually old shots, and the weeds have since been removed.  I have a few packs of silfour static grasses to try out, but haven't got around to it yet.  I imagine that once it gets a permanent home on the layout, I might go over the whole layout with a big grassing session.

Whats wrong with the sign???  Bad font? Over scale? Not enought weathering on the timber?  And whats more, no comment on the straight bristles on the broom!!!

Cheers,
Dan Pickard

[Krusty]

Whats wrong with the sign???  Bad font? Over scale? Not enought weathering on the timber?

I don't know if it is what Marc had in mind, but to my eye the letterforms in the sign look like a printer's typeface, not like the sorts of characters a traditional signwriter (or perhaps more likely on a building like this, a painter) would have created. Typefaces were carefully designed by well-educated arty/engineering types in a studio before being punch cut (for metal) or drawn out (for photosetting, computer type, etc). Sometimes the process took years of refining for one typeface. Signwriting was knocked out quickly with a brush by ordinary tradesmen. There is quite a difference between shapes that can be drawn or cut and those that are easy to produce with a brush, so the different approaches lead to different style letterforms (I used to have a full head of hair before trying to get corporate branding stuff done right in the good old days before vinyl cutters, computers &c). Unfortunately, it's a difficult area for modellers, even if they're aware of the issues. Most decal lettering is derived from standard typefaces and rarely looks quite right unless you're modelling the last couple of decades, but few of us have the skills to produce decent hand lettering.

[marklayton]

Dan -

Very nice work.  Incorporating the open-sided car shed allows the viewer to see inside without leaving the impression that a wall was omitted to allow viewing.  The bellows for the forge caught my eye - I built a very similar one at 12" = 1' for the forge at a local historical site.

How did you do the brick foundation?  The texture gives the feeling of a hasty and unskilled mason, which fits well with the overall scene.

Looks like a brand new broom to me - the bristles haven't worn or bent yet! 

Mark

[Chuck Doan]

Thanks for the pics, Dan! I know the CHB addiction well. Very nice! (I thought the broom was perfect!)

[lab-dad]

WOW, thanks for sharing.
Now that the CHB machines are available again it has me thinking I need a machine shop!
The Phoenix figures look good too, did you paint them?
-Marty

[TRAINS1941]

Dan,

Thanks for the pictures.  Very nice indeed.  An as Marty mentioned now that the CHB Machines are being re-released by Sierrawest i would expect to see a lot more versions of machine shops being built.  I should be recieving mine next week.  I can't wait.

Jerry

[shropshire lad]

No comment on the broom !

  Nick

[shropshire lad]

Sorry , Dan , I forgot to say that you have done a great job on your Machine Shop and I can see that you have put alot of work into it .
  The problem now as I see it is that everyone who does a structure of this nature in future is going to have it compared to Mr. Nolan's effort , for better or worse. Yours , I must add , compares very favourably.

  Well done on your awards . Pity you couldn't have taken it Portland where you might possibly have scraped a third place !

  Nick

[Belg]

Hey Dan, since some of my DNA is on those CHB details I have of course seen your great work before. It is still a pleasure to see again, can I ask do you think it plausable to use those weeds you took out to use as the bristles for the next broom??

Chuck, I guess this broom and my comment about your rocks will probably haunt us for a while or maybe more.

Jerry, can't wait to hear a review of the castings when you get them, I have seen them on Brets site but want to hear from someone first hand, got your email and look forward to catching up, Pat

[finescalerr]

Nice first post, Dan. But what have you done lately? -- Russ

P.S.: Seriously, thank you for gracing the site with your excellent modeling.

[danpickard]

Thankyou all,

Mark,
the brick foundations are from an old trains of texas casting, just cut into thin slices, with joins covered by piles of junk/bushes etc

Chuck,
thanks, in case you hadn't noticed, I had stolen a numbe rof ideas from you, including the broom thing!


Marty,
the availability of the CHB stuff from Brett again is a huge plus, although a little late coming!!  Just means some of the higher prices I had to pay for the hard to find original stuff probably just crashed as fast as your stock market.  The figures (yes Phoenix) are probably my favourite to paint.  They are slightly big (1:43), but have some of the nicest character to them out of whats on the market.  I did actually pick up some new figures the other day by Buffalo Landing (guy in New Zealand, selling sets of westside figures on eBay), which are very nice castings with some interesting new poses.  And yeah, I did paint them.

Pat,
yes again, thanks for that little bit of work back then, the drill press was the last piece to go into the shop, and filled the hole nicely.  And Jerry, I imagine you'll be suitably impressed with the new stuff from Brett.  I recently got one of his Dolbeer re-releases, and the castings were pretty well equal to the CHB original pieces, apart from the use of resin for some of the larger parts.  I dont imagine there would be much, if any, resin in the machinery series.  Have fun with the fiddly bits...

Nick,
Nolans stuff is alright , I guess I owe him like I owe Chuck for stolen ideas!  Did have some issues with trying to squeeze this on the plane as hand luggage...although may not have got third, given the mention on another forum that some entries were disqualified from the section because there weren't enough entries to make up all the neccessary placings to make it a competition!

Russ,
I won my best of show, I've put my feet up and retired now (at age 33)...nah just kidding.  Been busy getting a new layout ready for showing at the next Oz NGC in Sydney 2009.  Myself and modelling mate John Hunter are building a reasonably prototype Dolly Varden Mines Railway.  I say reasonably prototype cos its On30, not On3, but its probably more closer the actual setting than what we've seen in other layouts.  Its been fairly common to buils some of the structures from DVMR, but haven't seen too many representations of the actual area...its getting there.  Might get around to some pics later.

Cheers,
Dan Pickard