‘SteamPunk IT’ Project!
Have you seen the fantastically unique and original SteamPunk dioramas from the SteamPunk It Project – if not prepare to be amazed!
In conjunction with the SteamPaper we recently launched a creative project, whereby several participants were given the opportunity to create a SteamPunk themed diorama using our Basset-Lowke products. It was an extremely tough competition to judge because the dioramas were full to the brim with originality, attention to detail and fascinating aesthetics!
Are you ready to see? If so, keep scrolling!
Steve Foote - 'Tharsis Station'.
"Named after the first Empire Outpost on Mars. I wanted to show the height of a steampunk city. From the vermin filled sewers, through the dirty forges that make all the machines to the clean platforms and all the way up to the steam airships advertising to the citizens below."
Stephen Woollard
"There's a miniature smoke machine in the base that feeds the smelter and also provides the engine with a practical smoke effect, and of course all of the lights etc are working."
Paula Whalley - 'A patchwork diorama'.
"Take the chained cable-car to the top hat for an incredible view, or perhaps you’re taking the train. Got some free time? You can visit the station and admire the cogs and globe!"
Lydia Timpson
"In Londinium Station there used to be two railway platforms, sadly one was overrun when a rogue Steampunk time agent opened a portal to another realm and had to be shut down.
After consoling the public and barricading the portal off, Londinium station is soon to open for business again. What you see here are our steampunk bots fixing up the 'Fearless', the only engine that managed to outrun the tentacled menace. Several (surviving) members of station staff gather to discuss the re-opening."
Kitten Von Mew - ‘Railair Terminus’
"Beware of what’s lurking beneath!
Giant octopus hides beneath this seemingly normal western railway. The observatory is on the look out for threats, ready to sound the alarm, but it is what they can’t see that is the biggest threat."
Greg Chapman - ‘A Steampunk Festival Performance’
"A Steampunk Festival Performance showing a hand painted ‘tiny Greg’ performing some magic at the ‘Little Hornby Steampunk Fest."
David Snook - 'All aboard!'
"A two tier creation for a busy railway station!
Park up – you don’t want to miss your train. Wow what’s that? A big poster of a new SteamPunk competition that you can’t wait to enter!"
Andy Prudom - 'Forever Autumn'
"The year is 1938, somewhere in southern England, shortly after the failed invasion of Great Britain by the Martians. England is rebuilding and clearing the damage caused by the Martian fighting-machines, many of which were left abandoned when their occupants succumbed to everyday earthly diseases. However, this is not a time for peace as the newly formed Martian Expeditionary Force (M.E.F.) are recruiting and researching for a retaliatory offensive against Mars itself in the name of Queen and country!
Her Majesty Queen Victoria, having recently celebrated her 119th birthday due to the advances in medical science made by Dr V. Frankenstein, is keen to understand the nature of the enemy and a detachment of M.E.F. officers and nurses have taken over a local hotel to study the abandoned fighting machine and to collect snotty tissues needed for the war effort.
High above the town a M.E.F. transport train passes over the dirigible factory bringing much needed supplies of Bassett Lowke tea to the front line. The locomotive has been requisitioned from Lady Triphenia Lovelace and repainted into the striking red and black livery of Her Majesty's Martian Expeditionary Force.
Underneath the viaduct, a young boy is studying the recruitment posters for the M.E.F., watched on by afar by a local policeman. Unfortunately for this young chap it would be a few more years before he would be allowed to go to Mars."
Alice Prudom
"Welcome to a world of Alice in Wonderland, Tea and Croquet and of course Steampunk and corsets!
Steampunks are known for their tea drinking, even with the competitive sport of Tea Duelling a mainstay at many Steampunk events so a railway in steamland would naturally be run by tea. Faithfully stored in a Tea Tower to be fed directly down to either an ultra keen tea party or a thirsty engine. The Tea Water tower is scratch-built from an old party popper with Teapot charms glued on and all painted with Humbrol antique gold paint. Next to it is the Hornby water tower complete with Teapot charm and painted the same as the Tea Tower. Both weathered with Chrome oxide powder.
Also tea parties are a sociable way to eat and drink in the Steampunk splendor - What better way than on a steam train too? There is no more a traditional tea party than that of the Mad Hatter's himself. (Mad Hatter tea parties are also a great fixture of many steampunk events). The railway cuts through the middle of the layout from a scratch-built Teacup tunnel with colour changing LED to a shattered mirror just past the signalbox. This is a nod to ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’.
The Tea Party Train is Bassett Lowke ‘Fearless’ Boston Grey’s Hatters Engine, painted in metallic green, copper and antique gold in “Mad Hatter” style - well it is a ‘Hatters' engine! The engine is pulling a flatbed tea party, made from the base of a Hornby trainset wagon. A four-wheel carriage completes the train, weathered with Humbrol chrome oxide green weathering powder.
Have a wander through the magical Tulgey wood. Here you shall meet the Tweedles and maybe more throughout the woodland. Made from a Woodland Scenics trees kit, bushes and turf mixture with the rest of the wood in the background painted in Humbrol dark greens and greys.
Behind the White Rabbit’s signal box the Red Queen, Steampunk Alice and friend (both Bassett Lowke figures) are playing croquet through Playing card hoops and Wire Flamingo croquet mallets. The signalbox itself, a Scalescenes kit, features a giant-sized Alice who obviously ate the “Eat Me” biscuit whilst poking around inside! Sadly the signal box isn’t looking too great now.
At the rear of the layout is the Queen's castle, based on the Hornby extension to locomotive shed and extension to station building. The resin models have been glued together and painted in Humbrol greys, reds and golds with internal lighting. The castle grounds have a maze as part of the Red Queen’s rose garden which was made with Woodland Scenics fine turf and kitchen sponge!
The “This way, That way” signposts are Hornby trackside gradient markers from a trainset with new stickers and the Tulgey wood sign is a painted trackside “whistle” board."
Alan Monk
"The Centre for the Repurposing of Ornamental Cogs (or CROC for short). The premise is an organisation which salvages decorative ornamental gears and turns them into fully functional machine-ready engineering gears.
In addition to the supplied items, I've used a Scalescenes warehouse, Joswood.de lasercut Wuppertal Schwebebahn portal and track, with modified Hornby 4-wheel coach bodies suspended from it. The 2nd locomotive is a Budget Model Railways 3D printed tram body on a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis.
The figure is a white metal representation of myself, in my airship mechanic persona."
Alan Bartrop
"It’s just after dawn on a midsummer’s day in a land that is deeply divided. On the one side you have those who put the tea in first and on the other those who put milk in first.
The Council have decided to take a firm stance on this thorny issue and rename their town Milkfirst, let there be no doubt as to where our loyalties rest.
Because Airship Pirates have been reported in the area, tea deliveries are now made at night, when they cannot fly, and sub- contractors are used to hide the identity of the cargo. You can see that last night’s delivery has just arrived safely.
Inside, the Plantation Roundhouse Community Centre is all set up for the next round of Tea Duelling when visitors from neighbouring villages and towns try to re-assert the so-called supremacy of putting tea in first. Fearless has just finished its boiler clean and is pulling away to collect the special coaches that will take Milkfirst’s Councillors to the 2:40 Grand Central Executive headquarters in Sanctuary Central."
Further Reading