Diorama Update 13 - Maintenance Depot

Update – February 5, 2025

I’m still working on the detail items on the Diorama. It’s interesting that as soon as you start to add the little touches it starts to become more alive.

I reworked my 3D print file for the oil drums and crates to give them more detail. If you’re interested, you can buy them printed from my shop, in HO, OO and N.

The new oil drums come out well on the filament 3D printer too.

Here are some of the oil drums painted and on the diorama.

The oil drums are thinner in the sidewall.

This picture below shows the difference in detail between the old and the new version. (the red is the old one)

I also airbrushed my 3D printed fence.

You can watch some of the fence install in the short video below.

I also reworked my 3D print file for the water pipes and included a longer version. If you’re interested, you can buy the printed pipes from my shop.

I was going through some of the boxes that housed my models and I found some real coal bound up in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag. Clearly I had taken a piece of coal from my sisters house on one of my trips back to England. I crushed this up and added to the Coal Staithes. The printed coal staithes are available from my shop.

You can’t beat the shine on real coal. I maybe need to crush it a bit more though, the lumps look pretty big.

The big change since the last update is the placement and gluing of the brick wall with tunnel portal on the left side of the Diorama.

I chiseled out some of the ballast and test fit the foamboard.

The tunnel mouth is one I 3D printed from the Cults website.

Next I wrapped the foamboard in ScaleScenes Aged Red Brick paper.

It makes such a difference seeing this wall in the pictures.

Here we have the tunnel mouth glued in place and I added some weathering powders. I still need to build the tunnel interior and block it off to avoid seeing through to the garage door.

The 2 pictures below show the newly installed fence and the new ballast.