Ian McQue style diorama

[kerick]

I'm starting a new thread for the Ian McQue project I've been working on for a while now. It seems its been so long without an update folks have forgotten what it was all about. So I'm collecting previously posted stuff in one place to make it a bit more organized.

I started with a tower made from a tank from a 1/24th scale truck trailer and some CD discs. Then I built a construction style monster generator set from a shelter from a 1/35th scale US Army truck.

Here's the pics I promised.

[kerick]

A little progress.



Here's the generator, the tower and the base of the jib crane on top. The tower is made from the tank from a 1/24th scale tanker truck trailer I've had laying around for 40 years or so. The platforms are CD discs.







The top platform I rebuilt using sheet plastic and Evergreen I beams. The device on top is a polystyrene shot glass sanded to sit at an angle so that one side is vertical and will get a door added to it soon. Waiting for a package from Hobbylinc with open web truss beams to make the jibs from. The package from Micro Mark is waiting at the post office if I can get the rest of the family out of the house I can pick that up. Waiting for the sun to come out so I can UV cast some extra parts.

[kerick]

Construction crane is nearly done. Added doors to two levels of the tower.





Paint soon and then rust and dirt!

I made a Grumpy's Gas and Grease sign by bringing in the image into power point, sizing it down, copying it several times on one page and printing it out on paper. I cut out one image and used Tamiya glue and glued it to the thinnest plastic I had. I then glued another to the opposite side and trimmed it down. Surprisingly the glue didn't change the colors at all. So once I paint the boom I can add the sign.
Working on the tower now adding lots of details and greeblies. I bought a can of iron oxide primer for a base then I'll try the salt method to have primer showing through the topcoat. Going to try adding conduit made from old sprues that have quarter round corners. That and different size sprues from different kits should give variety. I was thinking of painting them yellow for fuel, red for electrical and orange for communications to add some color just like the utility color codes. Might happen yet.

[kerick]

Built a forklift type device for the construction crane for lifting pallets. Pretty sure I've seen similar devices at construction sites but it's been awhile. I need to take and load some pics. Weather is supposed to be warm tomorrow and Wednesday so maybe some painting.

Here's the pics as promised.

















I painted the trolley and forklift with Testors yellow chromate primer. I don't know if its a good chromate color but it gives a nice "used" shade of yellow. I added several conduits made from sprue using the curved corners of the set without ordering bunches of curved Plastruct elbows.

[kerick]

My daughter suggested I use a figure she gave me for Christmas last year on this current project. Its the Hasbro Star Wars Mission Fleet figure of the Mandalorian and The Child. Not sure of the scale but bigger than 1/35th. The pilot figure is 1/48th.



I may have to reevaluate the scope and scale of this build!!!
The figures are pretty good but the speeder bike looks like something made from Legos.

[kerick]

Well, back in December I promised paint and rust. Finally it happened! Krylon white, Testors red and Micro Mark Rust and Dust. Not too shabby. Especially since I bought the Rust and Dust years ago and it was still fine. I found that putting on a second coat the first coat would sort of brake loose and form a more patchy rust look. It worked well over the white and yellow while dulling down the red. Tell me what you think.



I hope this all makes better sense now. All future updates will go here. The complete sequence is under my Strange Observations thread.
Also thanks for all the kind and constructive comments I couldn't figure out how to move.

[Old Wombat]

I'm starting a new thread for the Ian McQue project I've been working on for a while now. It seems its been so long without an update folks have forgotten what it was all about.

That'd be me.

Thanks!

[NARSES2]

Some terrific scratch building going on 

[Madhatter]

Ive always said that I admire those who can scratch build, and this is looking super cool.  What flying rig will you be using?

[kerick]

For the crane I have the yellow trolley and a pulley set up with a hook. I'll have two "boats" docked at the decks for cargo unloading and repairs. You can look up Ian McQue to see what I mean. It's worth looking at his stuff. He's really good.

[Wardukw]

Ok ive never this thread before and i am glad i now have..lovely chunk of scratch building matey  and since i didnt know about this at all i didnt forget anything 

[kerick]

It's kind of on the back burner for a little while as I have a couple others to finish. My club has a show on 15 Oct so I would like to get something done by then.

[kerick]

Wow! It's been quite a while since I updated this! I'll have to take more pics as I've added a number of features to this project. The latest one is a 1/48th shipping container. Different O gauge railroad companies had them and they were either low on detail or $20 for one! So I checked the materials stash and discovered I had all the stuff to make one. So a few hours later I had this.







It's made from Plastruct and Evergreen sheets and shapes with a couple of dark colored tank parts, a door frame from from Tichy Train Group, clear and very thin PS from a food container and some etched brass someone gave me. First time I've used etched brass and I figured this was a great place to try it. Not too bad other than the lack of being able to adjust the position of the part because of the CA glue grabbing so fast. I've since painted it grey and will be weathering it with lots of rust. I'll take a few more pics of the whole set up and post soon.

[Old Wombat]

Nice!

[zenrat]

Yes, I too discovered the price of 1/48 (or equivalent/close train scale) shipping containers is way too high.
Good work making your own.