Completed October 2019
Whilst making wedding cake ornaments (the figures and stuff that go on top of a wedding cake) for a biker buddy of mine, I came across the photo shown on the right:
(Disclaimer: please don't mail me - I have zero affiliation/interest/etc with this place).
As I have written elsewhere on this site, I get inspired by things I see and this immediately inspired me. You see, a while back, I bought a 1/24 scale Hasegawa Mini Cooper S Countryman as a speculative buy. It was marked down on the website (overseas) but when the guy who imported it for me sold it to me, I did not get that price. As I was by no means inspired to build a model Mini Cooper S Countryman, and had no way of finding a buyer at the price I paid for it, I was stuck with it. However, the photo of the bridal shop gave me an idea and so this diorama started forming in my mind….
The story: Suzie’s getting married, and on her way to a meeting, decides to swing by the bridal shop to check on her dress. In her haste, she parks in front of a hydrant. Traffic cop Joe rides past, sees the violation and decides to give her a ticket. She rushes out to beg for mercy, but none is forthcoming. Realising she’s going to be late for her meeting, she makes that call…. “Hi. I’m going to be a bit late”.
And this is how I did the build......
The base
As is my custom, I started with the base. Once designed, it was a relatively simple construction. I used card stock, thin strips of wood, and wood for the building. For the window, after having first tried using plastic film (as used for binding), I finally used Evergreen sheet because the film had some ingrained blemishes.
To recreate the illusion of depth for the store, I firstly gave the sides some depth, then rescaled the picture and pasted that on the back panel. Masking was tedious, but eventually I got everything painted.
The shrubs were made from the seed of a tree (sycamore??) that I saw whilst out jogging one day. It was perfectly round and perfectly suited for a pruned shrub.
After covering the seeds with wood glue, I covered them with Woodland Scenics "fine turf green grass".
I used 100grit sandpaper for the road.
I made the "curtaining" from corrugated card that I airbrushed a silver/blue colour.
The paving was cast using a mixture of cement and Crete stone.
I asked a young lady at work who was about to be married (and therefore looking at a lot of wedding books) for ideas for a name for my shop, and used her suggestion – and her name. She was very thrilled.
Then on to the figures.
Joe - the cop.
I had heard a lot about Verlinden, and had always been under the impression that these kits and figures were TOP class. But was I mistaken. Though the detail was crisp (after all, it is a resin kit), the peak was broken and I had to remake that, plus the epaulettes had NO detail and were not aligned between left and right, so I had to sand them off. I printed the epaulettes on a laser printer and put them in place using wood glue. The rest was easy.
After priming with Tamiya grey, I used Vallejo to paint the face and arms, and Tamiya acrylic for the uniform. I remoulded the
Suzie – the bride to be.
Suzie is from a Masterbox kit. Sometimes I have been lucky with the quality of a Masterbox kit, other times not. This time I was lucky and it was a beautiful kit, good fit, crisp details and a pleasure to assemble. Not having painted female coloured flesh before, this was a challenge and I used mainly oils to achieve this. Once dry, the shading etc was done using thinned Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics.
peak and painted that using Tamiya matt black – after which I painted the entire helmet with a high gloss enamel.
The car. Mini Cooper S Countryman
What a pleasure to build this Hasegawa kit. Everything fitted perfectly, the detail was nice and crisp, and the windows were neither chipped nor scratched. Painting was a challenge because I am not into painting shiny cars. Nonetheless, Suzie is a classy girl, so she drives a nice, shiny car, but because she’s been busy planning the wedding and rushing around for work, the car has a bit of road dust on it. Nothing serious. (I love dust!)I painted using Tamiya primer, Tamiya black rattlecan for the roof, over-coated with gloss. (Man these minis’ roofs shine!) The body was painted using Tamiya TS-7 Racing White (no idea why they didn’t just call it CREAM!)Chrome work was done using Tamiya chrome sheeting.
I enjoyed making this diorama.
Deviating from the box art, I painted Suzie's outfit according to a photo I saw online (except for the hair colour) and to compensate for my much-needed face-painting skills, I added small details such as painting the nails, fancy watch, neck chain....