downtowndeco

I made a Coca Cola billboard for my Le Mans circuit. While they did have some of the "classic" Coke logo billboards, in 1970 this more plain version was also seen at the track. I used styrene to create it, spray painted it white, and then aged it a bit using flat tan & primer gray. These are both just sitting here loose yet, I need to trim the bottoms to fit the terrain & glue them in place.

An overall shot of the layout. Still need to replace the Dunlop bridge with a more accurate model and add a lot more figures. Getting there.

I'm making a few billboards for the layout. This one is replicates an older, metal one. I made it out of styrene, and then painted and aged it. The rust is simply acrylic paint & chalk. Not 100% sure where I'll place it yet, so I just set it on this short straight for the time being.

I was able to get more parts to make crowd control barriers so I made dozen of them in one sitting. I painted these light gray & then added "rubber" tips to the legs by dipping the ends in a drop of black acrylic paint. I'll make a few more of these up & list them on eBay if anyone wants them.

I needed some larger trees for my Steve McQueen Le Mans Tribute layout, so here is a step by step tutorial on how I made them. Start with a standard twig, and narrow a bit towards the top. This is about 14" tall. The trick is to find one that is fairly straight. Next I drilled a bunch of 1/16th in holes in it, including the base. The holes in the trunk are for branches, the hole in the bottom is for a piece of wire to stick into the layout foam. You might find that for some branches you will have to ream the holes out a bit to make them bigger. I super glued the wire in place. Next I added branches using a natural material marketed as "SuperTrees". It is sold by Scenery Express. I used gel super glue to glue the branches in place. Next I sprayed the whole tree with flat, dark brown spray paint. Next I spray painted the foliage parts using flat green. Don't worry if a little gets on the trunk, you can just mist the trunk a bit more w/the brown. Finally, a misted on some spray adhesive & sprinkled on some "leaves". I got the leaves from Scenery Express. Placed on the layout. Looking up at 1/32 scale figure eye level. Any questions?

Wide World Of Sports is following the action.Officials making sure everyone follows the rules.Looking through the trees.Nuns enjoying the day out. I made their out of construction paper.Helicopter view.Questions?

A little more progress. I added some bushes & trees to the landscaped section. These sections are not glued in place yet, so I can remove them for further detailing. I still need to add more trees & some clusters of spectators. I am trying to place the trees so that tehy do not create view blocks. Any questions? ​​​​​​​

I scratch built some cameras too.

Will be using these to place my TV crew on. I used Evergreen styrene & matt board jigs. The planking is styrene covered with real wood.

Did a little more work on the layout. I still need to add some signs and figures to this area. The second photo shows a temporary cardboard backdrop I'm testing out, to see how basically looks visually. This section of the layout will be a part of the "forest" section of Le Mans. Since I don't have room for a forest, a few trees with a "forest" background will have to suffice. I want to have at least one section that has the bottoms of the trees painted white, like they used to do on the circuit. Questions?

Different angle.

Final pics for now of the Wide World Of Sports crew. When I officially place these on the layout I'm going to build some scaffolding for the cameramen to get them off the ground. The figures are pit crew members from History In Miniature. ​​​​​​​

As the layout stands today.

I scratch built these out of Evergreen Styrene for my Steve McQueen Le Mans Tribute track..They measure about 2" tall. The "lens" are simple small drops of 5 minute epoxy. Any questions?

Making hay bales, I started by making some bales out of modeling clay. They measured a scale 18" x 18" x 36" . I used the clay shown, but to be honest, I didn't like it that much because of the texture. In any case, I used it anyway because it was what I had on hand. ​ ​ I added detail using a wire brush and a small piece of 22 gauge wire (to emboss the baling twine). It was hard making them all the same size, but I figure I'll use the good ones up front & on top & the lumpy crappy ones in the back & on the bottom of the stacks. ​ Next, using the clay master patterns of hay bales I made, I made a silicone rubber mold. Now I can cast 1000 bales if I want to, and won't have to sculpt every single one.You can skip this step if you don't need too many & just want to sculpt them as you need them. OK, so I cast some hydrocal plaster bales. ​ When dry, I spray painted them flat tan. ​ When that was dry I gave them a burnt umber wash. ​ When that was dry I gave them a dry brushing with a very light flat tan. ​ Finally, I rubbed some glue on them & rolled them in some sawdust. It wasn't important that every single bit of the bales got covered, but just enough to add some texture. ​ ​ ​ This was my first attempt at making these & I'm pretty happy with the way most of them turned out. Now, I only have to make about 500 more. ​ Any questions?