California Dreaming

Each year in November my club, The Utah Miniature Automotive Guild, puts on a public contest in Salt Lake City.  At the contest members of the club display some of their work and discuss building methods with interested people.  As this year is the 75th anniversary of the 1940 Ford it was decided that each member would build a 40 to display.  


This is the beginning of a small diorama that I am building to display.  I did not do a WIP as I just built a 40 Ford a few months ago and could seen no reason to duplicate the documentation.












I will be working on this off and on between now and November and will post as appropriate.

Thanx!  I remember it, nicely done and am glad you're taking her out to show it off.  Good luck and have fun at the show!

Cool, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

I'm finally making some progress on California Dreaming.  The second coupe will be a tricked out version of the same car.  So far I have the body painted and the interior ready to go.  Here is the first mock up of the coupe.







I'm pretty happy with both the color and the stance so far.  I decided to go with steelies as the era is the late 50s/early 60s.  Also notice that I stayed with skinny tires.

I did a tuck and roll job on the interior that is supposed to represent a leather interior.



Okay, now here is how the diorama is supposed to go together.



The box that serves as the base is finished.  There will be a grass surface that the cars are on in approximately the positions they are shown.  The gray coupe will be sitting on the grass.  Between it and the yellow coupe there will be a Fonzi-like character giving a thumbs up sign while looking at the yellow coupe.  The yellow coupe will be raised approximately 3 inches and will have the appearance of floating in a cloud.  

Obviously the yellow coupe is the figure's dream car.  Hence the name "California Dreaming".  I have never attempted anything like this before so wish me luck.  

I'm thinking of placing a tree between the cars at the rear of the base and am interested in whether or not you guys think that would be appropriate.  

I have to have this diorama ready by the first week in November so you will be seeing frequent updates over the next several weeks.

I admire any builder who can do multiples of the same kit.  Looks like a fine beginning to a dio dream!

I like the idea of the tree. Maybe even have the Fonz laying under the tree in the shade dreaming about the car.

Looking forward to this John, tree or large flowering shrub a great idea.

Love the colour and the concept John.

Maybe even have the Fonz laying under the tree in the shade dreaming about the car. wrote:

That's a great idea Buck. Go for it John.

Going for a diorama then eh??

I like the idea, should look unique

Happy days !! (see what i did there lol)

Okay, here is the first mock up of the cars on the diorama base.  You should be able to get a better idea of what the dio is supposed to look like when finished.











Obviously there is still much to be done.  I think the cloud idea is going to work, BUT I'm not really happy with  the legs the platform is sitting on.  Short of coming up with an anti-gravity machine I have to have something for the car to sit on.  If any of you can think of a way to either support the platform and hide the legs or can come up with another way to hide them let me know.  I'm kind of up against it.

That's it for tonight.  Another update when appropriate.

Nothing is goiing to be invisible John.

I'd suggest using a centrally mounted tri-pod of clear styrene rod. Maybe matt clear coated?

Or how about a this?: Make the four legs in say a 1.5" square and mount them centrally.
Then form your cloud in a mushoom shape from the ground up.

Skid wrote:
Or how about a this?: Make the four legs in say a 1.5" square and mount them centrally.
Then form your cloud in a mushoom shape from the ground up.

Bro: I like that idea. I'll give it a try today.

A single clear rod would be harder to see

If you are having a tree in the dio you could use a "spur" from that to attach the car to

Maybe a diorama back drop, possibly a wooded image, then have a rod pushed through to attach the car to


No matter what you do, it wont be 100% invisible and people will always try their hardest to "work it out" anyway.

Cool idea.
A dream version of MY pristine stock 40 would have it quite a bit more customized than the one I already have.
I like the way you're going about this, though.

JohnJ wrote:

Bro:  I like that idea.  I'll give it a try today.

Good gracious John, it's 3.05 in the A.M. where you are. GO TO BED!!!

It's called insomnia Al. Hits me two or three time a month. Might as well get some modeling done!

I like the idea of this dio. Just really cool. I agree with the suggestion of the centrally mounted clear pedestal. Should turn out great!!

John, I was thinking if you designed the tree right a branch of the tree could support the model and the cloud would hide the platform. That would give it the illusion of floating on a cloud. I guess to pull that off you need to figure out how to make a tree. I doubt there are any out there in scale that would work. Just a thought.

I really appreciate the suggestions guys. I'm reluctant to try a tree as a platform though. Every tree I have ever made has come out looking like a board with green gobs hanging from it. For me to say trees are a weak spot is the under statement of the year.

I think I'm going to give the centered support a try. If that doesn't work, it's back to the drawing board.

I love the idea John.

What about adding plexiglass to two sides of the box with a plexiglass shelf with the cloud material on the bottom and top.

Geezerman wrote:Cool idea.
A dream version of MY pristine stock 40 would have it quite a bit more customized than the one I already have.
I like the way you're going about this, though.

Clay:  I gave some thought to a heavily customized coupe, but decided to go basically stock because that is what I had in mind back in the day.  Bare with me though,  there is a chopped/lowered coupe in my future after the first of the year.

So many clever ideas I wouldn't think of!  Proves what a talented bunch we have here!

Okay, the diorama is just about finished.  Only a few minor adjustments left to be made.  I came up with a support for the yellow car that I think is much more acceptable.













This will be my last entry on this thread.  I will start a NMA after the adjustments are made/

Looks great John, love it!

Excellent. Looks great John.