SIDI FONTANA MOROCCO 1916 scale 1/72

[franckcombe]

titre.jpg

Hi,

I will start a new layout after the woolacombe bay and the nearly finished vestvagoy.

At an exhibition, a friend offered me these postcards

Meyer-photo1.jpg

Meyer-photo2.jpg

I wanted to do a layout based on these photos but at 1/13 scale it was not possible. So I choose to do that at 1/72 scale because at this scale there are french military figures and arabs too.

At Morocco in 1916, the french developed narrow gauge railways of 60 cm for civilian and military used. 60 cm at 1/72 scale is more of less 9mm, so I could used too the 009 material.

The layout will be an oval of 120 cm by 47 cm with an hidden part behind to finish the oval

The layout will look like more or less to that.

Preacutesentation1.jpg

[rue_d_etropal]

nice idea, if you had more room you could just as easily go for 1/35th scale, but 1/72 can be a big challenge, especially painting all those military figures.
Can we expect to see one of the big Decauville locos?

[franckcombe]

I don't want to reporduction a meyer decauville because the radius is too big

[Nevadablue]

This looks like it will be an interesting project. Watching!

[franckcombe]

If you want to order the luggage car you can click on

http://www.sculpteo.com/fr/print/fourgon-decauville-maroc-hoe/KEYSfuJy?basket=1&noclickredirect=1&uuid=04ByiKcxnUnyClnOp3rDzg

The roof must be done with plasticard (better than 3 d printing for curve roof !)

[rue_d_etropal]

Frank , I had assumed you were only interested in smaller locos, but most of the wagons , except the baggage car, are bogied. I have seen that in the Decauville catalogue book.
As for roof, I often use simple cheap(Free) card, which sticks to the 3D printed plastic OK(especially if you are less concerned about finish on plastics such as WSF). For small wagons, the cost of a 3D printed roof is very little though, and unless there is a lot of small detail, it is easy to smooth down. Got onto that site, but it as not showing picture, and it took a time to load on my computer.

[franckcombe]

Today I start to buid the pechot's trucks from meridian model kit.

[rue_d_etropal]

The Pechot wagon is my favourite of all the wagon used in WW1, although it was designed before. It was first bogie(1/35th scale) I did for 3D printing. The article in Voie Libre used the Meridian bogies and my wagon body. I now have the bogie in OO9, but ideally it needs more detail, and there is still the problem of matching width to track gauge.

[franckcombe]

My friend Jean-Pierre prints the rolling stock as a test.

Here the result

[franckcombe]

the wagon can be bought on-line at http://www.sculpteo.com/fr/print/fourgo ... pTBiNr0Lke

[franckcombe]

I do some progress on my layout. I finish the building with the first coat of primer. The building will look like the building of the backdrops with trace of soil. I paint the soil before adding the sand, the grass, cactus and palm tree of course... I cast and paint the stones. I am happy with the result wich look like what I have in my mind.

[PeterH]

Nice. I like how your layout is coming together. I can feel the heat of the wind off the sand.

[franckcombe]

I have finish to paint and weather the buildings.

[franckcombe]

I do little progress on the luggage car.

[rue_d_etropal]

looking good Franck. Just wondering, are you planning to do any of the bigger wagons?
I know the Mallet is too big for your layout, but my 3D printed version of the body is now available, so if anyone else is inspired to model the lines in Morocco........

[franckcombe]

Hi Simon,

No I am not planning any bigger wagon.

[rue_d_etropal]

Thanks Franck, I may be interested in doing some myself, when I find time.Too many ideas!

[franckcombe]

Hi Simon,

Now if you want to reproduce some rolling stock of Morocco I could be interested.

The problem is always the lack of times.

[rue_d_etropal]

Time is the big deciding factor. I have done the Mallet for 3D printing, so next step would be wagons and coaches. The Decauville catalogue does have decent drawings, so when(?) I might get down to doing the designs. At the moment I am only a short way(but it has already taken a long time) into project for modular buildings system. Had not appreciated how many variations there could be , even with a simple design!

[franckcombe]

I have done a long pause because I'm doing in parallel an us ho layout.

I work hard to finish 135 trees for the oasis.

I bought cheap tree from ebay china and I modified the truck and the palm. Then I paint with humbrol enamel and I use weathering powder.

[Jon Randall]

Impressive work both quality and quantity

[Nevadablue]

Franck, the chinese palms look really good. Interesting idea, modifying those.

[DCRFAN 3]

Very impressive tree modelling. I well know how a layout eats up all the trees you make. This one has 42 trees in just under 1 m diameter layout.

http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?f= ... &start=125
Paul

[rue_d_etropal]

I used not to be a fan of shop bought model trees on layouts, but when I had a load of cheap ones from a magazine I used them to build forest on one layout. What surprised me was how many could be fitted in the space and as a group were quite effective. I also have some cheap Chinese palm trees like ones above, and find them quite effective if used in odd spots, either within other trees or on their own.

[DuffieldBank]

Would you have a link to the Ebay seller for those trees?

C.