I printed out the temporary backdrop and stuck it loosely around the base of the diorama. I am about to start modeling and need it to help me to position elements such as the road. Although a high quality printed version is on its way to me I may still refine the backdrop further.
The backdrop frame is built for the base to be moved into place when the modeling has been completed.
The backdrop – although a poorly printed temporary version – really helps me see how thing are coming together. My printer is not particularly good – the colors are not accurate – and as I intended to ‘bounce’ many of the backdrop colors onto the model I need to have a higher quality picture put in its place. As mentioned above I have a printed version with more accurate colors being mailed to me. However I think I may make more changes to the backdrop so I’m not finished with it yet.
I’ll be starting on the road first. I will have to match the roadway fade which means modeling a sandy colored dirt(ish) road. That wasn’t my original intention as I really wanted the road to be a grey asphalt. Nevertheless I like the sandy color and will build the road on the desktop and keep working at it until I get it right. I can take as long as I need to get the texture and color right. I’m in no hurry. Looks like I may have to move the road up a bit to match the height of the model road – an example of some of the changes I may still need to make.
I may also move the mill a little over to the left as the whole scene seems a little unbalanced.
The sky is a little too dark. I can swap it out for a lighter version taken from another picture if necessary but I’ll wait until I get the printed version before making such big changes.
I’ll install the printed version in a couple of weeks – after the holiday.
Modeling
I glued the foam base to a piece of hardwood and first step is to build the road and the ditch alongside. I’m trying to figure out if I should stick the track onto a card base or just lay the track directly to the foam.
Here’s a birds eye view of most of the elements I need to build. I’m going to start with the road and the ditch. The carpark will be in asphalt. I also need to figure out what kind of track weathering I want to do.