The photos shown here are all after the work was completed. But this job was a two part project really. Part one involved the building of the Big "T" Ford Model in 1/8 scale manufactured by Revell. This was a very large kit that involved a good deal of work, but no where near the amount of work that was involved in part TWO of this project. That involved the building from scratch of a classy looking work garage complete with a full ensemble of tools and decor. Have a look at the photos as I fill you in on some of what was done...

With regard to the car model, that was customized a bit as well. We of course couldn't leave well enough alone so we built a battery pack into the car's rear compartment to house the power source needed to light up the bulbs that we installed into the headlamps, side lanterns and rear tail lamp.

As for the Garage itself, we started with a simple wood construction base and two walls, back and right side. Windows were cut out and window framing was also constructed. For the bricks, both walls were entirely puttied with a 1/16 inch layer and while it was still somewhat damp, basic lines were scribed into it using a ruler to keep things straight. That followed by cracks using a small hobby putty knife added the right realism we wanted. Then after the putty dried, more brick details were put in. Since the putty dries very hard, in some ways it had a brick like consistency which was great for chipping and adding fine random scratch details. The walls were then painted with thinned mixures of various colours such as red, brown, black & sienna. Finally, after the paint dried, we re-scribed the basic lines again to reveal the original mortar color underneath which added just the right finishing touch!

The shop floor was made of actual black and white ceramic gloss tiles in one inch size and installed the same way they would be normally. Support I beams were added across the front, left side and front left corner of the room to give it dimension and stability. Looking closely, you'll also see lights all around the shop. The power source for that was safely hidden away in the bottom drawer of the tool chest shown in the photo above to the right. But with all this lighting comes a great deal of wiring as well. That was neatly run behind the walls as seen in the bottom left shot. One of the really neat features regarding the wiring is that the shop lights actually work off of the dual micro switches which look exactly like real scale wall switches after we cutomized a chrome cover plate to go over them. They can be seen on the right shop wall in the photo above to the left.

Of course, it should be said that we hunted high and low for the shop tools and finishing touches. These things included an impressive collection of miniatures such as a tool chest, shop cabinets, work bench, wall shelves, a full array of hand tools, telephone, Fire Extinguisher, Pepsi bottle, Racing trophies, Power tools, Console PC, Laptop PC, wall hangings including an actual working saw clock, hand made calendar & Hot Rod Photos and lots of neat hand made auto parts and fluids containers such as fan belts, springs, oil filters, fuel treatment bottles and more. The whole diorama was carefully enclosed in a custom made plexi glass case that fits perfectly over top the entire room. The only way to really appreciate the details added to this diorama is to see it in person as these photos don't do it justice at all. 

This was without a doubt a very fun project to make. I hope you enjoy viewing the final results. Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you think! :)