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Old 07-08-2016, 07:20 PM
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beckychestney beckychestney is offline
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Impressions of Disneyland

I didn't know exactly where to put this, but since my little Disneyland is at heart a toy train layout, I figured this place was as good as any.

So. Why Disneyland? It all started way back in 1979 when I first saw Walt Disney World. I was so taken with the place, that upon returning home I almost immediately tried to build my own version on a ping-pong table in the basement. Over the years it evolved. It even got it's own name "The United World Kingdom" before it all came down. This is what it looked like:



That was about 1988. Flash forward to 2006 when I discovered the world of downloadable paper model kits and most importantly Robert Nava's Disney Experience. In 2009 I built his Main Street Station kit and used it with my Christmas trains:



I can't say exactly why, but in June 2011 I decided to build as complete a Disneyland layout as possible and have it running by Thanksgiving Day. This is what it looked like that first year:





So how did it get there in 6 months? That's what I hope to describe with this thread. I also will show you the new stuff as it gets built.

We'll start with the Matterhorn.



It's just a big wedge of foamcore board when it all comes down to it. The skeleton was stuffed with crumpled newspapers over which I laid out about a mile of masking tape to give me a flexible shell:



Then I glued on brown kraft paper to create the paintable surface. Onto this I sprayed polyeurethane expanding foam to create rock outcroppings:



The "rocks" were then carved with kitchen knives, X-Acto knives, saw blades etc. until I had a reasonable shape. Gray latex acted as my base coat:



Thin washes of black, gray and white acrylics went on followed by spackling to create the snow drifts:



The last step may surprise you:



The icicles in the skyway "grottoes" and the waterfall is just hot glue while the water was just laminated cardboard painted blue.

The Matterhorn has evolved quite a bit. First came the bobsled:



A very rudimentary color scheme. I'll admit I wish I could have done better than Metasequoia's basic palate.

Last year the Monorail came through and the lagoon got rebuilt:





The new "water" is a sheet of thin card painted with acrylics. The Nautilus is of course the Disney Experience kit but to make a waterline model I only built the top half. It's also 1/4 the size the kit normally builds. When the sub and dock structure were completed, I made the water using a technique I've recently been experimenting with. It's just hot glue spread back and forth as fast as I could force it through the glue gun. The rocks around the lagoon are scraps of expanding foam that I carved, painted and ran washes over.

So that's the Matterhorn story. Next time I think we'll tiptoe through the tree house which is always a crowd-pleaser!



You aint' gonna believe what this thing's made of!
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Old 07-08-2016, 09:04 PM
elliott elliott is offline
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So you did it. Great! Enjoyed the Matterhorn story. As an armchair model railroader many of your techniques were familiar. I like your use of expanding foam and hot glue. Who'd a -thought it.

Really looking forward to the Treehouse story.
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Old 07-09-2016, 02:08 AM
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Marcin Jakubiec Marcin Jakubiec is offline
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I'm speechless! Your imagination and creativity are impressive! We all have a little child inside, but you have five or six of them Fantastic models/dioramas. I like the way you use different materials to build all those objects! I'll show your work my daughter, She likes to build lunaparks using lego bricks, papreboxes, wires and lot of other stuff.
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Old 07-09-2016, 05:00 AM
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SCEtoAUX SCEtoAUX is offline
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Very good explanation and result. Disneyland and Disney World were always fun places to visit. You are doing a great job in recreating the look and feel.
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Old 07-09-2016, 06:34 AM
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eatcrow2 eatcrow2 is offline
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Stunning work!!
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Old 07-09-2016, 07:54 AM
Richschindler Richschindler is offline
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Absolutely amazing. Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing with us.
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Old 07-09-2016, 07:18 PM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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What fun to see this wonderful diorama/imaginary world! Many thanks for sharing these images.

Don
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Old 07-09-2016, 07:21 PM
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beckychestney beckychestney is offline
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Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Well here's the heart of the "Semper Florens Disneyodendron Eximus". (Or something like that!) Ever blooming grand Disney tree if I got that close to correct:



Just a big piece of scrap styrofoam packing material and:



Some generic plastic greens from a craft store. And then, you guessed it, more expanding polyeurethane spray foam insulation. (Love the stuff! ):



Carve it, paint it, stain it, you've got yourself a tree!

At the time I built this, I didn't have a lot of good photos of either park trees or the movie set, so I just did a freeform build and didn't worry a whole lot. (That's the closet mantra of this whole project.) So. Treehouse construction was very simple. I embedded a few 1/4" (6mm) square balsa pieces into the main trunk to act as support for the main deck. Onto this I used strip wood roughly 6mm wide to crate the deck, and pieces of posterboard and matchstick pine (headless) to frame up the walls and roof supports:



By the way, this tree is lighted using a string of 120v grain of wheat bulbs that I get at my craft store. So you may see the big green wire from time to time running through the branches.

Here's the part that I still think is bizarre that I even thought of it! The roof is posterboard and:



Rope! Weird huh? Also good old fashioned super-messy fun! I use good old hemp, jute, whatever you want to call it natural fiber rope. I cut off a piece a bit longer than what I need, unravel it into it's constituent strands, and then unravel them one at a time as needed. I spread some Aleene's Tacky Glue on the posterboard, lay some strands on top of it, and then with a stiff, plastic bristle brush I overcoat the fibers so that I end up with a soggy glue saturated mess! Usually my fingers too as they're often the best tool for this work! When dry, you just trim away the excess and you've got a reasonable facsimile of a thatched roof. Messy but cheap! :



Here's the main level with the lights on:



Up top there are two small structures:



Paper lanterns hang from the branches. These are from the Disney Experience Wicked Wench kit, although the light washes out the details:



The bridge is again, a freeform design based on books I have about the parks.



This side is incomplete. I still need to figure out a good way to represent the water lift system, and it's associated piping.

So where does the treehouse live:



Front and center, between the Disneyland marquee and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. See that little kiosk on the left? It has the same kind of rope roof. As does:



which is in fact the Canon five storied pagoda of Horyuji Temple, Japan in disguise!

I think we'll look at that building in the background next...
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Old 07-09-2016, 07:51 PM
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beckychestney beckychestney is offline
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Pirates of the Caribbean.

Start with the Torre del Cielo model designed by Ray Keim Torre del Cielo Paper Model Kit add a few lights:



The light on the side is the lamp housing from an MTH O scale street lamp. The clock faces, like most windows etc. that I want to light up, were printed on velum. I find velum gives you a nice, even, soft glow across the entire surface and while it often requires a lot of wasted toner to print the extra pages I feel the results are worth it.

The walls of this were freeform. I accumulated pieces from many different sources: scrapbook papers, trim from the Torre kit, and a tile roof pattern I made up years ago (scheduled for replacement since I now have better texture sheets.)



The sign came from searching the net until I found a good quality straight ahead photo that I could use:



The palm trees are a kit I made up (you guessed it) years ago and the ferns are aquarium greens! This may be the strangest building in the park to date. Here's a look at it from the back side:



It's the only building so far that was made specifically to hide the base of the Christmas tree stand!



But I think it looks a lot prettier on this side!

Here's a quickie. The Liberty Tree:



I made it using my treehouse leftovers.



This shows the detail of the paper lanterns better. Lots of flowers, a bit of Sleeping Beauty Castle brickwork and a few benches and viola! You've got a tiny park scene.
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Old 07-09-2016, 08:49 PM
elliott elliott is offline
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Always been fascinated by the Swiss Family Robinson Tree in the movie; it's just as fascinating here. Never would have guessed what it is made of.
How clever of you to use the Pirates of the Caribbean entrance to hide the base of your Christmas tree!
The Liberty tree park scene is lovely. Was it hard to make the lanterns for the grain-of-wheat bulbs?
Looking forward to more......
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Shamelessly stolen from a post by rockpaperscissor

Last edited by elliott; 07-10-2016 at 11:45 AM.
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