Nearly there!

Much to my own surprise I find that I'm heading towards the completion of this diorama... Once I had laid down the base colours I knew that the end was approaching.

I have painted and weathered the groundwork and fence, then added MiG weathering powders to blend everything in together.  The plants were next and these came from Orion Models, a little model shop near the Hotel Villa Fontaine Ueno in Tokyo (run by pro-modeller Hiroyuki Nakada and his Russian wife and daughter).  The plants, being real, add a lot to the diorama, something that twigs with sponge on couldn't.

This is the diorama as it stands just now.

I still need to finish off the telephone pole, ladder and small bucket.  Paint the bicycle and finish off the Mazda's interior (seats and door panels).  I also need to add some fine sand in between the paving slabs in the garden on the reverse of the fence, add the 〒 character to the letter box, add door handles to the gate and add rust to the hinges. The base itself needs a black edging.

Here the pole and ladder are just 'resting' on the base.

Here is the bike resting for effect...

This shows the name-plate above the letter box.  It is the name 'KOJIMA', a name I know well.

This is a 1950s poster.

This is to show the scale of the base with a human being...

Finally, with the car just plonked onto the road for scale... the camera darkened the photo when the flash bounced from the off-white body of the Mazda.

Next photos should be of the completed base... then I can finish off the car!