Where She Sleeps: an animated diorama

[DKS]

I know I've said that I've given up modeling, but it's tough letting go of something you've enjoyed for over 50 years. What convinced me to give up was a pair of attempts at getting back into the saddle: both times I wound up breaking the models I was working on, and that was pretty discouraging.

Later, I took a hard look at what I was trying to do, and realized I was going about it the wrong way: I was jumping right back into the really hard stuff, like a former gymnast expecting to do all the crazy stunts on the parallel bars that got him his gold medal. You're going to fail. Miserably.

First, you've got to do some stretches to limber up, and maybe start jogging a little. Then just try a few simple swings to get back into the groove, and leave the fancy stuff for later. And if you still can't do some of the fancy stuff, enjoy the simpler stuff while you can.

So I had at it once more, and just did easy things: weathering models, planting weeds, wiring controls, shooting vids.

Thus at long last I've completely finished the first of a half-dozen or so animation dioramas. To be fair, this one was pretty far along already, so it didn't take much to wrap it up. I didn't have to do much of any actual modeling; I just had to wire all of the animation devices to a new control panel, weather some models, touch up some paint, and get it all working.

"Where She Sleeps" is the engine terminal from my last layout, chopped up and finished off with a nice display box. It features the following: (1) water tower with animated spout; (2) scratchbuilt sanding tower; (3) enginehouse with working doors, welding effect, and exhaust fans; (4) oil column that swings out and back; (5) pump house; (6) oil tank; (7) scratchbuilt yard office; (8 ) model T with working head- and taillights.



The track running into the enginehouse is powered by a throttle so that a locomotive can be posed anywhere along the 10 inch stretch of track.

The starting point was a chunk of the layout:



I built a 7" x 11" box for it to live in:



Then I finished up the detailing.



Here's a vid highlighting all of the animation:

There is lots more information on this web page: http://davidksmith.com/modeling/layouts/AnimationCollection/anim-2.htm

I don't know how much further I'll get with the 4-5 other dioramas I started, but I'll post whatever I get done.

[eja]

Very creative and enjoyable....


 ...... thanks for posting.

                             eja

[TiogaTracks]

That’s awesome!  I love how you picked the concept you wanted to follow, and disregarded all of the “conventional” layout design ideas to stick to your idea.  Just enough track for a roundy-round?  Nope.  Just enough to make it a fiddle yard?  Nope.  And I love the density of detail you achieved, I think it speaks to the strengths of your focus.

I could really benefit from your example of planning small, rejecting project scope creep, and FINISHING SOMETHING.  Thanks for sharing, I hope you keep finding projects you enjoy!

-Steven

[Angus Shops]

You can build whatever strikes your interest; it’s just nice to see you back on TRW. It’s not the same without your posts.

[Sokramiketes]

Very cool.  Can't wait to see the rest, including Men at Work.  I think your original dump truck mechanism was spot on though... those doors do catch, swing, and bang loudly.  They are only gravity open, so the smoothness you imparted into the mechanism is too good.

[DKS]

Very cool.  Can't wait to see the rest, including Men at Work.  I think your original dump truck mechanism was spot on though... those doors do catch, swing, and bang loudly.  They are only gravity open, so the smoothness you imparted into the mechanism is too good.

Thanks Mike! I agree about the gate opening action. But the problem has to do with physics vs. N Scale (or any scale): the model door jiggles far too quickly. Choosing between a toy-like jiggle and a "too good" smooth action, I'll take the latter.

That said, I'm actually working on an all-new, revised version of this mechanism that just might feature a more true-to-life swinging action. Time will tell if I can nail it. (The aggregate that gets dumped obviously cannot flow at the proper rate, but there is nothing I can do about that.)

[CRL]

Spectacular!

[StewRRFan]

Stunning.  Amazing work