News from Rosetown

Progress of "building a Dream-Car in Z". All the work are made by Álvaro Cortes from Portugal.

A little History on this Z scale Dream-Cars. As you may know, most of the Cars and Trucks that are available in our scale are just not good enough if you take a closer look (except Micron Art who makes fantastic etched Cars and Trucks but mostly from the early 20th Century).Here is a picture from a few Cars that you can buy at this time from different vendors:

And this is what can be done if a Artist like Álvaro build his Masterpieces. Everything on the picture is Scratchbuilded. Everything!!!

Let's take a closer look how he build his Cars. First he start with a Blueprint.

Then he draw it on a piece of styrene

He then start to assemble the pieces with the sides and the doors...

Giving the Car a real Carpet...

A working "hood"...

a working "trunk"...

and then he assembled head lights, tail lights, bumpers and grills

After buiding the engine, he built the wheels with some electric wires for the tyres. The wheels are working.

Álvaro uses Tamiya Acrylic paint. He mixed two different paints to obtain the metallic rose, the painting is the more difficult part of the construction.

Because the Cadillac is owned by Candy (also owner of "The Royal Club" in Rosetown) she ordered here car in pink. The Car is almost finished, waiting for varnishing.

Happy Days in Rosetown! Candy got her Cadillac and she's driving around to show it for everybody. First she need some full and Oil.

...then she drives to her Club!

Ist this man the sponsor of the Car?

A quick stop on her Appartment (the one with the Balcony)

On my Wishlist was always the wonderful Greyhound Scenicruiser from the fifties. To bad no manufacture produced this beauty in our Z Scale.

My only chance to get this beautiful Scenicruiser was to ask Álvaro from Portugal with his incredible talent. He immediatly "jumped on the Train" and started with the Blueprint.

He start with the drawing on the styrene and then cut off the sides and the top of the bus

Not very easy because the front and the end of the roof are not straight.

He made a mini bar in the front part of the bus....

...and the seats are made with some clips of a CD's box ;-)

Now it's time for the wheels...

The front Door can be opened for the Passengers...

Here are some pictures with a first touch of paint, the rear and the front roof are not finished yet, because he's waiting for the Preiser Figures. Passengers will be seated and the roof will be mounted.;-)
Now some details are still to do, like mirrors, lights, windshield brushes, etc. and another coat of paint.

The Passengers arrived in Portugal and Álvaro quickly painted them. He use Acrylic tints, of the Brand Citadel "Wargames Workshop", this are very good for painting people.

He then placed them in the Bus. Of course there must be a driver and a Bus Stewardess for the coffee service.

If you look close you can see the People inside of the Bus!

In this picture the Bus is almost finished, just the Greyhound Signs on the sides are missing. Notice the Chevrolet Belair Police Car for the Rosetown City Police.

Final Pictures from the Scenic Cruiser with the Greyhound Signs attached and also some more stunning details

Let's talk about the Policecar. Rosetown is a lovely place to live but there are some mean people all around the world so the Sheriff must be prepared. Of course he needs a fast Car to catch the criminals. :-)

Let's start with placing Sheriff J.R. (friends call him Tschejar) into his Car.

Then comes the Roof...

And this is how the Policecar looks when it's finished. What a beautiful Car!

The Senicruiser and the Police Car arrived in Rosetown! Take a look at Álvaro's stunning work!

Scenicruiser with 14 Peoples inside!

Sheriff's J.R. new 57 Belair!

Trouble for Candy! Look's like she got a Ticket!

Now it's time that Juan Alvarez get's a new Towtruck for his Garage. His Business is growing since more Tourists visit the beautiful City of Rosetown. He had the choice of different colors and he really want to go with the orange Truck but his wife choose the red/white Mobil Truck. :-)

Here you can see a bunch of Trucks in different Zcales.

As always, Álvaro started with the blueprint and cut out the tiny pieces from styrene.

Then he smoothes the edges...

Juan get's his first paint...

and immediately he checked out the comfort of the car seats.

The rear cargo area is made of real wood and the rear gate is functional!

Now, the Truck get's his first coat of painting.

And then the crane made of pieces of styrene, sticked together.

The Truck is almost finish, some details such as radiador, lights, bumpers and some acessories must be added now.

First try from Álvaro using Microscale Kristal Klear

The result is stunning. Here you can see the fantastic details that Álvaro added to the Truck! BTW the Car behind the Truck is a Triumph TR3. You can see those english Cars often behind a Towtruck. :-)