Canal Street & Third

While we're glad the diorama is finished and available for pre-ordering, working on it will be missed. It's just something that happens when you're working on a model for a while. It's a lot like traveling, getting to know a place. Once you get familiar and comfortable being there...time to go...I guess that's what pictures are for ( nice to have the diorama too.) All together, from sketch to finsihed model, it's been a year long journey. For six months, sketches were drawn and redrawn, some kept, some trashed. We spent most of the summer working on CAD drawings in between other projects. The models were started in July, again, off and on and finally the diorama was started 4 weeks ago. I realized if I had started the diorama earlier things would have moved faster.

Next time, I'll cut the foam base first, because once I had done that, buildings that I already completed could be put in place and some scenery could be added; doing that motivated me further because seeing just a small portion of it completed was all the incentive I needed to accelerate finishing it. An ipod packed with a zillion songs helps too.

At one point there were seven buildings, not five. Our goal was to provide as much value as possible and at the same time keep the price reasonable. The other two building designs we'll save for a future kit or two...

Before a single building was considered, I was set on the two converging streets to set the scene, as well as some kind of waterfront. Next came the boxing building, which went through a month of sketching. Once the over all shape and mass was decided, it was clear it would look best on a hill, adding to the overall height. Vernon's Boxing Club as it's called, comes from a town I used to work in, Mt. Vernon, NY. On the marquee we've posted an upcoming fight, Frary vs. Mason....I know who I have my money on, show him how it's done Dave.....included are some tiny posters as well, with a fight between Deignan vs Scholz......Baker vs Smith.....Weiss vs. Wolf.....While the upper roof was intended to be flat, a shed and additions were added, so it had a sense of shapes just spilling off the roof. This gave it a more natural look, and reduced the abrupt change in roof lines. We'd done a boxing gym as a kit before, JJ Hollender's back in 2004. Many modelers had missed out so we thought we'd give it a go again, without re-releasing a sold out kit.

Then there's the Peep Show Theater; we'll we had to add that. After doing a Bikini Car Wash, brassiere factory and a burlesque house, how could we not add some more mischief to your layouts? Besides we're just trying to portray, um, streets and cities as they are, you know, for the sake of realism. The research for this part of the kit was a real chore.

All kidding aside, while these are all freelance structures, a lot of research was done, just to keep things plausible. The mermaid bar is inspired by an old restaurant in Queens, NY called Neiderstein's. While it doesn't look much like it, it did have a covered porch like the one we've created.

Two of the structures complete our homage to one of our favorite films, Jaws. Despite seeing it at the age of seven (what was my mother thinking?), I still swim and go boating in the ocean and admire the film very much. Hooper's Oyster Bar, our previous kit is named after Matt Hooper, the Richard Dryfus character. In this kit, Brody & Martins Coal is named after Chief Martin Brody and the other structure, Quint's Fishermens Supplies, is named after the crusty captain of the Orca, who meets his demise in the mouth of the shark...

Normally, a structure kit such as this would yield a much higher retail price, however, as it's been an interesting time with the economy, we wanted to express to all of our customers that we truly appreciate your continued patronage.

After a week long Special Offer price of $249.95 - the kit will be $270.00. We feel that this is an excellent value considering that there are five structures included in this kit. (That prices each building out at $54.) Considering that two of them are rather large in size, you're getting a lot of Bang for Your Buck.

We're sincerely grateful for every kit purchased, it means a lot to us, as we enjoy what we do and you guys make it all possible, so from Anna Maria and myself, thank you & enjoy!