Building display dioramas

If you want to make a simple girder bridge like that one it really is quite an easy solder project, remember everything is built as right angles at 90 degrees, also everything is a mirror of itself so once you have one side made up you just make another. The way I work is to draw out the design with measurements showing, then cut the main pieces of brass, before soldering anything together I always scribe lines which act as indicators for where other pieces will need to go. If you don't do this at this point then it will be near impossible once you start assembly, details such as the top gusset plates of the girder beams or the strengtheners on the girder webs will not look in proportion otherwise.

The best advice I can offer is always check your brass work for true and level against a flat stone, I use offcut pieces of conglomerate marble as used for kitchen worktops as a flat stone because they are heavy and so won't move easily and they also have a polished surface with helps. Remember too much heat will distort the brass so when making sub assemblies always start in the centre and work outwards and use a heatsink to dissipate any thermal build up. The other thing is don't try to be over ambitious... keep the project simple to start with.

Any problems just fire in a question and either I or someone else will help with advice. Best luck Steve.

 

So here are the next diorama projects before I start the big one which I'll announce later once I've thought it through a bit more, so the first is a very small portable facsimile of the stone retaining wall and part of the station overbridge with metalwork at Dundee station... no pictures as yet because the possibilities of this has only just been talked about. Again I'll announce more later. Now the second diorama idea is one I had for a while but dismissed as not being sufficiently interesting, however I revisited the idea and came up with this :-



The Cone Tunnel just north of Leekbrook Junction on the disused Leek section of the Churnet Valley line and one which may well see rails relaid through it quite soon. I can't remember the exact length of this brick lined tunnel but I really like the symmetry of the portals and the exposed steep sandstone cutting slopes. In this form as a short diorama scene this can be used as a "plug in" to add to other dioramas creating a modular set up featuring all the interesting bits whilst avoiding problems of length, a sort of foreshortening and a tunnel make the perfect curtain between differed scenes.

 

Drat I was hoping I could sub-contract these builds to your good self... as I'm way to busy working with loco kits.