Freelance 2014-1

[Ralph]

I believe it means transmissions and alternators.

Ralph (who completed a minor in Spanish in college and has forgotten mucho in 33 years!).

[Gary S]

Reinhard, your scenes are on par with Lance Mindheim. All the layout transformations you have done in the past several years has perfected your modeling techniques. Very impressive.

[torikoos]

Very nice Reinhard. :-)

Koos

[faraway]

Thank you for the kind comments.

A little paint and a new sign recovered another "slum" building quite fast

[torikoos]

Really nice Reinhard, I love the feel of the area (not that I'd like to live there, but it has all the elements that make it look realistic).

Well done.

Koos

[jonte]

It's so good, Reinhard, I feel I have to model it

Jonte

[Painkiller]

It is very intersting to follow the developement of this thread and also it is a striking experience how the small buildings seem to make the scene larger and how the large and high buildings dwarf up everything. I like them both ways and maybe you should have an online clinic on how to do those signs of yours. Keep it up!

[faraway]

Painkiller, I am not sure if I understood your correct.

The buildings are made of cardboard and Google street view captures printed with my HP inkjet on standard paper.

The raw captures are modified with DxO (a Mac app to remove the perspective) and Photoshop Element 10 (to cut the rectangle and to modify colors if required, in my case are prints much darker than the image appears on screen, they do also look to green, I have to add red to get a balanced printout). They are printed on plain paper with my HP Photosmart 2575 and covered with cheep rattle can dull coat from the home improvement market.
Front sides need usually three copies. Glue each of them to card stock. Two thin (.3mm/0.01") and one thicker card stock (1.0mm/0.04").

The first thin is the base and gets no further modification.
The second layer is the tick one and gets glued on the thin one after doors, gates, windows etc. are cut out and the edges ave been colored (mostly black with a felt pen).
The third layer are signs etc. cut out and glued on top of the second layer. Don't forget to color the edges with a felt pen.
A fourth "layer" may be parts like downspouts made from styrene, painted and glued on the second layer too.

That is all you need to do to get my type of front pages.

The first step of capturing building fronts will change your likes and dislikes You start hating parked cars especially trucks in front of buildings. You hate city administrations that ruin fronts with lots of traffic signs and worst are trees planted on sidewalks just in front of "your" building

[jonte]

A great idea with great results, Reinhard.

Thanks for sharing,

Jonte

[faraway]

The card stock is only the second best solution. I would prefer styrene layers but the required glue in a rattle can to mount paper on styrene sheets is not suitable for indoor use in winter. It stinks like hell and it ruins at least a 3' diameter area.
I tried it ones on my work table and had long hours to clean up the tracks of my staging yard immediate behind the table. Not to mention the "nice" comments of my wife about the smell in all rooms of the apartment for the next two days.

ps. I use a Pritt glue stick to mount paper in card board. It is very nice to handle and has no odore. http://www.prittworld.ca/en/consumer/par...stick.html

[Tyson Rayles]

Very nice, has that gritty big city feel for sure. Reminds me of why I left an area like that for where I live now.

[faraway]

Update to the rattle can glue:

I searched the web and made a trip to the home improvement store. The German brand UHU as well as 3M/Scotch offer a glue suitable to mount paper on styrene in a normal standard ventilated (open window for 3 minutes in winter) room.
The one from UHU is named "3 in 1". Both have a typical description that they are useful for 3 use cases
1- permanent (both sides, wait 10 minutes)
2- correctable (one side join immediately)
3- removable (one side, wait 10 minutes)
That kind of text identifies the same or a similar product. It has only a very light odor. The brand name may vary in your country.

I am currently working on a small styrene test building covered with Streetview image.

The front wall uses the same 3 layer technique as used with cardboard. The corner is different. Styrene permits to sand a 45° angle and results in a better (but not perfect due to my "special interpretation" of 45° ) fit.
Styrene is much better suited for larger walls because it does not warp like my cardboard does. I do also prefer the short set time of styrene glue (solvent) vs. cardboard glue.

[scubadude]

Amazing results...such a cool and creative way to show how buildings and cities evolve over time... Can't wait to see the next one

[faraway]

Richard, thanks a lot.

That's it. A quite simple building but it proofs the method to do styrene buildings with a Streetview skin. That opens some interesting opportunities to do more complex shaped buildings with skin.

[faraway]

In case you get lost ask the friendly cops in the Chicago PD patrol car.