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Detailing the doors. We used 1/16" balsa sheet doubled up for the main doors. Weathering Painting the floor. We used 1/16" plywood for this. Like all the thing we paint, the wood tends to adopt a curl. This disperses somewhat as it dries but the plywood still has a curl that will need...

Painting the underside of the roof white. We used 1/16" balsa sheet for this. Working on the upper row of windows. Like the big windows, we used 0.030" styrene cut on the Cricut. Weathering the corrugated steel on the ends of the building Test fitting the upper windows and doors

Fortunately the machine does the bulk of the work, and the precision is kind of ridiculous. It would be a non starter to do it manually.

Continuing to produce windows, so many windows. Testing fit in the work hall walls The plan was to have support pillars between each window Painted window Painting more windows As we continued to produce windows we turned our attention back to the work hall walls and the support...

So we settled on using 0.030" styrene for the window frames with balsa casings around the outside. We purchased a deep cut blade for the Cricut Explorer Air 2 and set about hours of cutting. After a little trial and error we found that 9 passes with maximum pressure were required to make it...

Mocking up the building

Building the work halls. So many windows. Playing with scraps Mixing a Fall leaf mix. Birch Catkins mixed with Hudson and Allen leaf litter. Cutting windows in the foam core.

A final coat of paint for the main dirt section. While it looks quite different from the dry sections the acrylic paint we are using drys much darker.

Working on the ramps for the railway crossing. We applied two layers of celluclay over the cardboard, allowing time to dry in between. The biggest problem with celluclay is shrinkage and warping so we tried to keep the amount to a minimum for any given application. Applying a coat of paint...

Adding a lighter mix of grass to make it it look wilder, more patchy. Painting the vertical corrugated steel that will cover the ends of the roof of the work halls. A little bit of "testing" The color modulation helps the grass not look like a lawn. There is also variance in...

Adding some grass along the track and lanes.

You and me both..... It's not like we have a lot of diorama build experience so we're learning as we go. Some of our ideas may not work.

A couple test shots Piecing together one of the work halls in foam core. I'm going to use brick on the lower portion of the building with large windows between each pillar. There will be girders holding up the roof and an additional row of windows along the roof. Corrugated steel will be...

Weathering the railway track. For this task I took out the airbrush and applied a thin rusty dirty mix. Applying "steel" wear to the top of the track

Starting to paint the ground. We used acrylic paints and large brushes for this.

Looks good Mike. I'm a big fan of modular scenics. Even the large base I'm working on now will have removable buildings so I can store it flat against the wall.

Start covering the dirt ground areas. These are areas that see lots of traffic. The road that leads to the rail crossing Painting the tracks In order to save celluclay and speed drying we used cardboard for the rail crossing ramps The minor roads receive a thin coat of...

Researching some ideas for the work halls. We'll pick elements we like from various sources and determine if they can be reasonably scratch built. Starting work on the railway crossing Drawing in where the various elements go Adding the raised ground areas. The intent is to cover...

For those who are interested. I've started a "Factory Complex" thread in the Diorama section that will follow along the build of our latest ground work. https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?71629-Factory-Complex

Hi all, We've started work on our latest ground work and it's the most ambitious yet. I thought I would share our progress here. The gist of the concept. I had a 6' x 4' piece of plywood laying around that I wanted to use for a new diorama. Our last effort, battlefield with trench, was 4' x...