just an update on some progress with the first 'component' model for my 'Smallville' diorama

not much in the way of 'built progress' yet other than finalizing the n scale track layout for the freight yard

took a fair bit of fiddling to get the track sections laid out just as i want - to have an interactive and functional 'switching yard' as
stand alone on this one model, and when plugged with the (future) adjacent two (and more) components, a much larger type
loop for plenty of scale model railroading fun in and around more of smallville

on this model will be one of 3 or 4 freight depots (yet to be named - in rendering 'Depot' is place holder for now)

the following shots show some more detailed / resolved massing and positioning for the structures intended for 'component 1'

here again the computer and google sketchup allow me to explore scale, site lines, and over-all 'balance' of the
various pieces for thissection and ultimately how they will relate to the rest of the diorama



the Smallville Electric Co. (coal fired power station), Otto Bahn's beetlerod factory, one of the Freight Depots and the water tower
elements are now fairly well sorted - all grouped together to work with the n scale railyard - and i added a short section of
g scale rail to allow for a spot to get some 1/32ish freight in the picture too
(i liked how it helped with making the layout a bit looser and more dynamic)



the auto factory was inspired (very very loosely) by an old photo of a vw factory in Germany i came across with plenty of whimsy / tongue in cheek architectural styling added in - my take on some 'what if ' early modernism...
the adjacent freight depot ended up adopting the same language -
so it looks like an adjunct or part of the same complex - plenty of auto parts to ship out and receive from there

water tower and power station pretty basic but as with all of the elements imbedded with plenty of stylized recollections from my past experiences - an stuggling with placing the water tower a bit closer to g scale rail, so n scale rail runs under the water tower structure ... will see when i get it built for real and start to place ... power station has a full interior in the works as well ...





obviously nothing too serious here, just trying to lay it all out together in a visually interesting manner to create something fun
that hopefully seems to make a bit of sense too

several spurs on the n scale rail line will allow for switching and organizing of various freight for recipients in smallville and
to be shipped to points beyond ...



and finally - in the renderings you might also see one of Smallville's resident cable cars -just to prove this will all get
past the realm of computer graphics, and yes i can do some degree of model making other than on a computer



and in the middle of the n scale track setup ... the beetlerod hauler, just like in the renderings too



anyhow there's another long ramble, if for nothing more than to keep my thoughts organized for myself -
for those of you who made the read to the end hope it entertained you!

regards, Ron

Hi all, it has been quite some time since i have posted any updates on my 'Smallville' diorama, but like many of my projects
it gets attention here and there when i find the time and interest

enjoying some much needed and appreciated holidays lately i decided to finally get the first of 9 or so 'component' models
underway -

In summary - to display in an a playful manner, and act as a tie-in for various interests (slot cars, g scale garden trains, vintage plastic vehicles and other oddities 1/32ish etc) i decided to challenge myself with designing a '50s / '60s' mid-west rural city center diorama to some day display my collection or work into an indoor / outdoor garden rail system with several other 'points of interest' connected to ...



no 'prototype' or fine scale modelling here - plenty of whimsy and intentional fun with scale to keep me entertained - essentially trying to creat a feel of density and activity for a portion of a downtown core by distilling all elements to the minimum necessary to best convey the 'essence of' and like any good toys let the imagination fill in the blanks or paint the rest of the picture - in this world, unlike the day job i can make my own rules and do as i wish!

for instance, the veritcal car park only holds 5 cars, the 30's skyscraper is only about a car length wide, the Smallville power station is tiny with huge stacks , Smallgate Bridge not even a train car long ... but all together hopefully they work as a whole and will serve as a wonderful backdrop diorama for dozens of great cars, trains etc etc

the doodling, planning and experimenting have gone on intermittantly for several years (and will continue to do so) via sketch pads and google sketch up, which i find is a great tool for massing and designing before actually building ...

buildings planned so far ... and in the renderings if you know where to look

Atomic Burger drive-in restaurant

Smallgate Bridge

Smallville Diner (on mainstreet bridge)

Tiny's Auto Sales (c/w filling station in rear)

Mother 'F' and the sisters of speed headquarters (smallville's resident superhero - Mother Superior with an attitude ... drives around in a '52 Bentley Continental S named Gabriel, sisters of speed all on Vespas )

Smallville Police Station

Flapjack's car park

Smallville City Hall

un-named 30's tower ... Smallville Railroad headquarters (c/w Smallville Zoo in rear)

Smallville Shipyard / Smallville Freigh Depot (second storey)

Union Station passenger terminal

Smallville Power Company

Otto Bahn's Beetlerod factory

Smallville Water tower

... and yet to be shown - n scale ride along-passenger platform (at working end of freight yard by beetlerod factory/water tower) and secondary freight depot across river behind Atomic Burger

the massing and organizing so all bits relate to each other properly and with the intended vehicles to be displayed is like a huge puzzle, but a good escape for me - i keep playing with striving for a sense of density while leaving enough room for everything to breathe and be viewable too - will look much busier with several dozen vehicles, the large trains and freight, boats and hundreds of people in there .. and who knows what else some day!



always a work in progress and always evolving ... but quick massing renders like these remind me of all the things i need to fix and add! windows, fire escapes, more signage ... the list goes on and on

older renderings are useful to remind me of previuos 'versions' or ideas, sometimes abandoned or sometimes revisited ...

a couple of 'working' images from months or maybe even years back ...







so back to the first 'component' model actually being built

2'-6" x 7'-0", it consists of Smallville Power Plant (c/w the two huge coal burning stacks - considering hooking up some g scale steam units inside those ), Otto (and brother Valter) Bahn's 'Beetlerod' factory, the Smallville water tower and the one end of an n scale model train loop (kato n product c/w electric switches - great stuff!)

here are a couple of much older images showing the early intent for a series of models to 'plug together' ... this works well as space right now is limited and i can work on portions or component models a bit at a time as stand alone projects ...





wanting to have a working freight yard / switching station, and model some 'industry and distribution' type scenery, or at least my fun take on it ... and g scale obviously being waaay too large (a box car is about 17" long ...) i decided to use an n scale set up for working rail - it will have two trains with 1/32 figures on them (1 like a park ride-along live steam kiddee ride, the other a fun 'mini-freight' system for Smallville - with loads of gondolas with containers to run around and organize)



running right through the center of the overall diorama will be a large EMD E8 passenger locomotive pulling a consist of 4 or so passenger cars (USA Trains 1/29 extruded aluminum rpo, coach, vista dome and boat tail observation cars - total length approx 15') eventually packed full of 1/32 passengers and entourage - it and the n scale tracks both cross Smallgate Bridge (inspired by Lionel's classis tinplate Standard version decades ago), the n looping back on its own mini girder bridge,
past several branch spurs and freight depots

- i am having fun with the obvious contrast between the g and n scale stuff

anyhow that is my long ramble on the latest plans for Smallville, now finally under construction and sure to be for many years to come ...
the ultimate goal, good health and fortune willing, to some day down the road enjoy this with some grandchildren (or my children too if i can move it along before they are too grown up!!)

watch out for more progress reports here and there

as always, comments, critiques and suggestions welcime

cheers, Ron

hi all - thought i would post a few images from over the years that i have developed
to go along with my motley collection of all things vintage toyish 1/32

in a previous post under this category ('smallville') i explained some of what was in the works
so here this time are some images that at the very least many of you might find amusing

as i have mentioned before, along with my curiosity and enjoyment of vintage cars ... i also enjoy
learning about and tinkering with planes, boats and trains as well

i had always planned to do up, just outside of 'smallville' the Capital City Jetport - from which Capital City
airlines could deliver race day spectators to smallville, and little Revellside Raceway nearby.

here are some images of Capital City Jetport as currently designed - here i wanted to capture my
interpretation of a '50s / '60s era airport - but keeping it 'edited' or 'distilled' to maintain a toyish
quality - there is a fully thought out, simple interior with control room, ticket wickets and viewing decks too

you will also see a dc 3, sr71 and dc 9 - just some of the craft that i have plans to bring into 1/32 to share the
tarmac with my fantastic Remco 727 in 1/32 scale - i really like the early commercial jet liners and find their
history fascinating.

You will also notice the titan 3 launchpad beyond (and on top of the titan an early lifting wing craft inspired by the x24a - precursor to the space shuttle program ) and yes those will be built in 1/32 as well ...!











well that's enough for this installment - a glimpse into my 'madness' which proves a much needed escape at times
from the daily grind

more on smallville to come ... stay tuned

cheers, Ron

here and there in posts i have mentioned ideas i have for my future diorama(s) / layout(s) and figured
it was time to set up a blog section where i can store them for myself for reference (i have a habit of losing or misplacing things)
- and for the mild entertainment of others who care to check in now and then

over the years my 1/32 slot interests have become married with interests of a wider range -
trains, planes, boats and many other toys and things 1/32,

fond memories of growing up in a small farming community in the center of the continent
have i suppose created my 'vision' of what my slot layout might be,

it most likely started with 'revellside raceway' - a layout that i doodle on, forget and come back to year after year -
designed as a showcase for the full range of the fantastic revell track and accessory system bits and pieces

added to that was a highway backdrop and a couple of railway lines - that allows for the display of more vintage slots and scratchbuilds,
as well as my 1/32 hudson steam engine and some auto carriers and flat cars etc - modelling trains is always fun too

then came a 'dinner train' service from downtown smallville (smallville currently consists of designs for union station
and an adjacent '30s union tower for the rail tycoons, a '50s / '60s style city hall, tiny's used cars, tubby's donuts, salty's subs & drive-in
and the smallville police station ... and growing) to revellside raceway

with the dinner train .. an aristocraft doodlebug to fill with passengers, and a design for a platform stop / grandstand alongside the raceway

enter a love for airplanes and great memories of building kits decades ago - some 1/32 planes and now a design for capital city jetport -
just down the highway from smallville - on the boards to go along with the airport ... scratch in 1/32 some of my favourites ...
a dc3, a dc 9, sr-71 and yes with a compliment of cars ... a bristol superfreighter too

add to that an interest in early aerospace and space programs - and capital city jetport now has a design for a rocket launch tower ...
and a titan iii rocket with an x24a (lifting wing x plane) payload on its nose

this leads to doodlings on 'area 32' - a top secret military base somewhere nearby - with reverse engineering undertaken by the military
on all sorts of x-craft as well as a rumored 'moon base' in testing as well

and threaded through it all an ever growing range of odd and interesting 1/32 slots, areas and characters

ridiculously big plans for perhaps someday a garden railway and entourage - an excuse to exercise some training in
landscape architecture, architecture, 3d modelling and real world modelling -
an escape from the real world where rules don't matter and where my imagination is allowed to roam round and round

so be warned - if you check in here you can't ever really be sure what to expect, except that it will most likely be content most would think odd
for a middle aged man to be spending time on ... but oh well - once you realize you may be a bit different sometimes you just have to roll with it -
and i suppose there are far worse ways to spend ones time!

so welcome to the beginnings of my digital 'sketchbook' for smallville and its surrounds!!

in no particular order of course ...

at hand tonight - some projects for 'area 32' -

a man of mystery - to be left un-named for now - races through the countryside in his legendary d jaguar -
for a rendezvous at an undisclosed location away from prying eyes - test flights have commenced for project code name 'delta wing' -
more of which will undoubtedly be revealed in the near future







the saucer is a current release from pegasus models - and when i learnt of them - couldn't resist as they will fit right in with my 50s/60s smallville world ...
cold war ... ufos ... etc etc

the saucers come in pairs and are a great scale for 1/32 converts - i have a fleet underway - and I will frankenstein some figures / pilots to go within

they are manufactured more like unassembled toys than models - very clean and thick plastic pieces and perfect fit - simple and easy -
with options for landing legs down or enclosed panel in place during flight - very cool!

the other craft is an x24b from a 1/72 dual kit (which i purchased primarily for the x24a - to use as a guide for my scratch build of it in 1/32 -
but more on that later)
at 1/72 i thought this one would be fun to use as the 'delta flight' leader ...

the mechanic is an older marx(? i think) figure and the soldier from a great renwal ontos kit from back in the day -
you'll see more of his mates at the moon base eventually too ...

well there you have it - a short bit of oddness and an introduction to smallville

don't worry - there will be plenty of slot car content here too and plenty of exploration on techniques and possibly development of some products to be
made available to fellow slotters and their versions of smallvlle!

more to come

cheers, Ron