Workers watch a fox emerge from the undergrowth as they stop for lunch
A delightful one-off highly detailed, handcrafted, line side or rural scene diorama for 00 gauge, 009, model railways.
This captivating one-off miniature storyscape, featured two workmen and their loyal dog taking a well-earned lunch break by the hut, bathed in the warm, flickering light of a brazier. One workman and his dog watch on as the other workman turns his attention to a sly fox sneaking out from the bushes behind the hut, bringing an unexpected twist to the moment.
The idea for this little scene came while I was out for lunch one day. As I sat eating a sandwich in a local park, I noticed a fox emerge from some undergrowth. A dog nearby stopped and watched it as it skirted around nearby bushes, obviously thinking about making a run for my sandwich.
From this, I had the idea of workmen and their dog taking a break during a well-earned lunch by their hut. One workmen notices, as I did, a fox creeping around, while he watches it, the other workmen watches him, wondering what he’s seen and in turn his dog watches them both.
From the idea of this little story, I set about designing the scene.
The placement of the hut was central and to its left an animated brazier with a flickering flame LED would draw attention to the nearby worker and dog. These two figures are looking to their left, directing the viewer to the third workman, who is in turn looking to the rear of the hut where a fox can be seen emerging from the undergrowth. A visual cue is provided by the axle of some industrial debris also pointing to the fox. This also balances the brazier on the right, giving balance.
Materials
The hut is made from card, lime wood, aluminium foil, and polythene (for the window glass). Figures are 3D printed in resin. The ground cover is texture paint made from ash, wood glue and acrylic paint. Vegetation is a mixture of off-the-shelf foliage products and crushed leaves. The braizer light is a orange LED with resistor for 12V operation.
Construction time
Scratch building the hut was the longest part of the construction. I use limewood, from a nearby tree, that cut into strips and score for added grain detail and then dye and stain to bring out the natural texture and doing this for each plank of the hut took a lot longer than I planned.
The window and doors were particularly fiddly. I use the same technique for window glass as I do for my fantasy toadstone holes, attaching polythene to the inside of the windows gives a really nice melted glass look just right for an old window. The toadstone windows are in a larger scale than this model so it took reproduced at this size.
With the main structure in place, the brazier and its LED and the axle/wheel on the left were fitted as these guided the positioning of the figures around them.
In total, including time to design and try out angles and positioning, the fox and workmen scene took approximately 2 weeks to make, including drying time for the paint and glue.
The corrugated roof
