Arizona Desert Diorama

While at GSL in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago, in the vendor room I came across a couple of bags of assorted parts. Because they were really cheap I bought them. When I sorted the parts out it turned out to be a pretty good buy. I picked up several sets of wheels and tires, a number of bodies and assorted other parts. There were two almost complete 32 Ford five-window kits. One of the kits was so badly warped that not much could be done with it.

I got to thinking though that the warped body would be ideal to use as a rusted out hulk sitting in the desert full of bullet holes. I have started on the diorama and wanted to show the body as it is now. There is more weathering to be done, but I think it is coming along pretty well.







The projected diorama will consist of this car, an abandoned windmill and abandoned water tank. I'll be working on it along with the "Ruth's Diner" diorama.

Looking good John! I wondered what you were going to do with those bags of parts.

Excellent start. I like idea you have for this one.

Lookin' good! Sounds like a master plan has been hatched. Can't wait to see more.

Title suggested to me a large field of rusted iron carcasses.
This coupe looks great !!

The car is ready for placement on the diorama.











Next I will scratch a water tank similar to this one that I completed in HO scale for a model railroad layout.



Hopefully there will be more progress during the next week. Also, Ruth's Diner will have an update in the next few days.

Looking good John, That derelict car is awesome, with great detail. Keep it up!!!

Looking good!

Liking this one a lot. That old shot up Ford is looking great.

Man, That for looks perfect! Can't wait to see the Water tower! That is gonna be awesome! Keep up the great work! I like this!

Thats sweet as, i love these rusty projects!!

How on Earth did I miss this!!!!

It looks great John, you are getting to be a dab hand at this junker lark. 001 

Most of all I see great work on the surface rust. Hard to get just right and your work is super. The flat tires are very good too. Weakness may be undamaged grille and headlights. They'd be early victims. Someday maybe I'll get my ancient, abandoned Revell '29 Woodie up here. Rust back when I did it was pretty basic and that's my model's weakness. Thanx for a great idea and we'll all enjoy more from this corner of deconstruction.

Really like the flat tyre, tutorial would be interesting on that.
Looking great.

Great work, John.

GaryDainton wrote:Really like the flat tyre, tutorial would be interesting on that.
Looking great.

Agreed, please...

Hi John,

So sorry for my lateness, I too seemed to have missed seeing this, sorry, looking great so far, I do like seeing rusted models, plus, with all the extra ventilation in yours, maybe it's last owners were 'Bonnie and Clyde'...

More please...

Andy...

I was going through some old work looking for something when it dawned on me I never showed the finished diorama on this thread.  So, just in case somebody is interested, here it is.





Gary:  If you are still interested let me know and I'll put together a quick demo on how I flattened the tires.


Sometime along the way I decided not to do the water tower.  I'll try to incorporate it into the next time I do something in the desert.

I am interested in how to on the flat tires. The dio looks spot on. Eastern Washington State is a desert and I have seen quite a few old cars that look exactly like that. Great workmanship.

Looks good!

Way back when I built, flattened tires were done with wheel fully attached. Get a piece of flat metal, or an old resale shop iron pretty hot. Press the wheel/tire onto it and if the temp is just right, it melts. Sometimes it's good to have something to scrape the vinyl off the hot metal. Too hot and the tire goes beyond melting and too cool and there's not much flattening done. The smell isn't pleasant, so best done in a ventilated area or outside. It worked for me. There may be tutorials on some of the other model forums.

 

Hi John,

I too am still interested in seeing how to do the flat tyre look Sir, love the finished dio, I bet it's now the home of some Rattlers...

Andy...

I like that ......... very sparse and yet a fair bit to catch the eye.

yes please to a tyre flattening demo!

Still looks good John. Nice one.

You guys who want to see how I flatten tires, I haven't forgotten.  Just haven't had time to take the necessary photos.  I'll try to post the info sometime this week.