New video: Scratch build model tutorial - how to make electric appliances

Making your own props for dioramas is easy. In this tutorial I show you how I made various electric appliances like televisions, stereos, radios, CD players and boomboxes - all things that add a little extra realism to an urban scene or the inside of a house, garage or shop scene. All you need are some basic materials and some imagination.

These would also work well for dollhouses, or for car modellers these would add something to a 1:24 garage scene. They can be built in any scale - mine are around 1:24 scale, but 1:35 would be just as easy.

Oh yes, that is a funky 1980s ghettoblaster...

... while that greenish television is pure 1990s.

Hopefully this video shows you that pretty much anything is possible, with the right mindset. (Although towards the end I do show you one attempt that turned out rather crap...)

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Scratch built model tutorial: how to make electric appliances

Cheers,

Dave

New video: Australian Model Expo 2019

Last weekend was the 2019 Australian Model Expo, showcasing the best scale models in Australia. There were some cracker entries this year.

There were over 880 entries - as such, it's a long video! I have broken it up into categories as follows so you can jump to those areas that interest you:

00:38 Aircraft
15:56 Armor & Dioramas
35:38 Figures
39:32 Sci-Fi & Fantasy
47:44 Automotive
50:35 Ships
51:58 ...and the rest
55:56 People's Choice and Best in Show

Enjoy!

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Highlights of the Australian Model Expo 2019

Cheers,

Dave

New video: The 5 Brothers Cuban Sandwich shop

I've just completed my current commission piece, the 5 Brothers Cuban sandwich and grocery in Key West, Florida.

This was commissioned to be a very shallow build, so it could be framed and hung on a wall.

You can see how shallow the build is in this view.

I was asked to replicate how it looked in the 1980s - the business is still there, you can check it out on Google street view here - so I had to go by old photos I could find online, similar to what I did with the Olympic Doughnuts van. It's not as hard as I imagined. Pretty much any iconic building has enough old photos freely available out there. We live in extraordinary times.

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Scratch built scale model - 5 Brothers Cuban Sandwich store

Cheers,

Dave