Vehicles
I'm trying to build the diorama from the ground up, so now it is time for the vehicles. I wanted to try to give the barren center section of the diorama the feel that there's been lots of traffic from customers and delivery vehicles. I used Bragdon Enterprises' weathering chalks to indicate this. I am not 100% happy with the results, but I can always improve this later.

Several period vehicles have been installed. I sprayed them with Testors Dullcoat, and then glued them on the diorama with 5-minute epoxy. The large truck in the foreground has wheels that fit rather loosely on the vehicle, and had a tendency to show the wheels axles mis-aligned. Before gluing that one to the diorama, I put a dab of superglue on the axles to hold them in place.

The two passenger cars either belong to customers or employees.

The delivery truck near the main building is loading several large crates. I have two on the loading deck of the building, and a third crate will be glued to the truck's bed later.


I couldn't resist including this dramatic low-angle shot below.

The flat-bed truck is being loaded with crates.

I started building some junk piles. This is shot of the lumber storage shed. There are two large tree trunks, some chain, several weathered boards, a barrel, and a couple of smaller trunks.

My wife and I drink a lot of herbal teas. There is a great store here in west-Houston that sells fresh herbal teas "raw". The tree trunks came from Echinacea tea. They're probably Echinacea roots.

The reason why I mention this is that you can find useful things for the model railroad in just about anything. Keep an open mind and think outside the box.