Hi, my diorama building to date has been limited to a couple of ships at sea and an old Ford Trimotor plane in Antarctica, but this time for my first ever car diorama I'm planning to create a scene from a famous Australian car rally of the 1950s, called the "Redex Trial".
The Redex Trials were a big hit in the early 1950s. It consisted of ordinary cars driven for thousands of miles across the continent, with roads ranging from some tar on the main highways, dirt everywhere else, and for some very long stretches not really any roads at all. Lots of river and creek crossings, lots of sand, and lots of broken cars. They held several of these "reliability trials" in the 50s, but the first one is probably still the most famous one.
There were 192 entrants, and 136 finishers, and the winner was a pharmacist (Ken Tubman) from a country town (Maitland, NSW) in a humble little Peugeot 203. Also doing well in the rally were a number of Holden 48/215s. For both car brands, their Redex success saw sales take off in a big way. So my diorama will feature the Peugeot 203 crossing a creek, while the Holden waits on the road behind, to take his turn.
One extra detail for my diorama is that there's a film crew there to shoot the action. The real-world film crew from Cinesound, which did make the documentary about the 1953 Redex Trial, did the whole 6500 miles of the trial, and they did it in a Peugeot 203 Commerciale (ie, a wagon or estate car).
For the diorama I am building a Heller 1/43 plastic kit of the Peugeot 203 sedan, and modding a diecast 1/43 Peugeot 203 Commerciale for the film unit's van, and also modding a 1/43 diecast Holden.
Here's a few photos to set the scene.
The 1953 winners with their Peugeot 203, Ken Tubman (right) and his navigator, John Marshall, who was the owner of the car.
The Holden, which came 10th overall but I chose it as it was the first car to cross the line at the finish.
The Cinesound Film Unit Peugeot 203. My model doesn't have roof racks, so I'll need to add those, plus scratch build the hand-wound winch mounted on the front bumper bar.
And of course I have a stack of decals to design in Indesign and Photoshop to dress up the cars.
The Heller kit is ultra basic but it's the right car, the early model Peugeot 203A. The top of the box says "36 pieces" and the side of the box says "40 pieces". I bet you the correct answer is 38!
I've never created a diorama on ordinary "land" before so I am sure I'll have steep learning curve and will make plenty of mistakes. I'm going to include some spectators, the film crew. lots of gum trees and rocks, sandy roads, hopefully a kangaroo too (if I can find a 1/43 scale one). It should take several weeks, but I am sure it is going to be fun. I'll post some updates when I have news to report.