It has been ages since I have had any new dios to post here. This is the latest one that I have completed. Its a bit different subject matter than normally apperas here. I hope you like it.
This is my latest diorama. It started with me trying to come up with an idea to display a couple model diesel generators that I had. The diorama is 1/25th scale. A lot of the structure has been built with things in my parts box. Most of the structural elements are made form Evergreen shapes and sheets. The dio is built on an old record turntable base. I did the dio as a cut away of part of the plant. Where things appear and disappear off stage I painted the boundaries flat red.
The yellow genset is a 16 cylinder Cat 3516B . It is a diecast model by Norscot. About the only things done were detail painting and adding a fuel supply and battery banks. The prototype is a self contained skid mounted machine.
The blue V10 genset is a plastic kit that is part of the Revell GN flat bed trailer kit. I believe that Revell based this engine on the design of a V12 or V16 Sulzer Diesel. I was unable to find a prototype so I added auxiliary equipment as I thought they might have been arranged.
The power plant uses the following colour coding for the piping
Red
Fire Water
green
Service (cooling ) water systems
yellow
Oil systems
Cobalt blue
Part of the engine (e.g… Fuel injection system)
Light blue
Air systems
This is an overhead view of the diorama. I labeled some of the major pieces of equipment.
The Norscot 3516B Cat genset. The ladder leads to a maintenance platform and roll-up door for service work on the cooling tower.
The Sulzer genset with added auxiliary equipment. Generator cooling on left, dry sump lube oil system center , cooling water pumps right and the cooling tower outside in the back
The cooling tower
Most of the straight piping is evergreen tubing. The elbows are either #14 wire with or without insulation of from a Walter’s HO railroad oil refinery piping kit. That kit also had a bunch of flanges and gate valves. The globe, ball and control valves were made form plastic beads.
Other than the two diesel generators everything else is scratch built.
A very original and nicely executed diorama - I like it a lot. What I miss is some shading on the equipment - I know it’s meant to be clean, but some shading would definitely improve this already great build. What’s your next idea? Have a nice day
I used to work for a company that install the compressors used to pull methane gas out of old landfills to fuel the motors to produce electricity…co-generation plants. I spent many an hour at these facilities installing our equipment packages (compressors and lubricators) as well as servicing them later on. I don’t miss it a bit! Until the plant was running they were bone chilling cold in the winter. In the summer once they were they were sweat boxes. Winter was the only time the temps were tolerable as the machinery produced a lot of heat…which you regulated by how far you left the access door open. [;)] I did get to visit some of the finest landfills in the country…what a mental picture that leaves in your mind.
You really make some great dios of things we never even think of, and this is another one. Well done. There is a TON of of work in here. I like how the concrete foundations for the towers and other exterior portions are weathered, but you chose to depict the engines as highly maintained.
This is exactly the kind of diorama I used to stare at for a long time as a kid when I visited the science museum, tracing all the piping and trying to understand what was what and why it was there.
Thanks Guys for all the positive feedback on my dio. It could use a bit more weathering in places. This is probably on of those strange models that will actually look better after it sits on a shelf and ages for a while . A layer of dust on its horizontal surfaces would probably be a good thing.
I would have added a power pole and some wires myself, but that’s the insulator collector in me talking.
Different subject! I like it![Y]
The build reminds me of Revell’s ancient kit of a Westinghouse nuclear power plant from about 50 years ago. The kit was a poor seller at the time, but it commands a decent price in collectors’ circles. Years ago I saw this kit at a model kit expo and wanted to buy it as a “go-with” for my insulator collection, until I saw the price![sn0ps][snWow]
I didn’t buy it…
I do have an unbuilt 1/25-scale AMT kit of a lowboy truck trailer with two big power substation transformers on it.
When I started to build this project I planned to include switchgear and a power transformer but I quickly ran out of room. I have all the makings for a three phase transformer complete with cooling rads and high voltage bushings. I suppose I could build a substation as a seperate dio?
I’m not familliar with that BWR Nuke station model. Now that would be a realy cool model to build.
Thanks again guys for all the feedback. I always like to build things that are a bit different than normal
Build the substation diorama and run a scale power line (judging by your power plant model, it looks like a small generating station, so perhaps model a 66kv line) from the first diorama to the substation.
I’ve seen two or three of those old Revell nuclear plant kits and I did dig through one once. It didn’t look like much of a model; just a bunch of unidentifiable scraps of styrene more than anything else. Sort of looked like my spares box. (It’s possible some of the parts were missing from the kit, too.) It was marketed as an educational model according to Tom Graham’s Remembering Revell Model Kits. But the pre-teen and adolescent boys on bicycles that were the hallmark for modeling in those days were far more interested in building models of hot rods or the terrific new fighter jets.
That being said, if I ever do find that Revell nuclear generating station at a garage sale or Goodwill, I’ll certainly snap it up! Where I’d store it–well that’s another issue![:)]
