A while ago, one of my buddies was kind enough to pick me up a gift. Unlike your HB, he-being local to the area-attended the grand opening of Colorado Diecast in its new, bigger location, and got some amazing finds on their huge new “99 cent wall.” One of those was something he thought I would like, and he actually brought it to me while we were at The Delorean last Thursday night to screen “The Lost Boys,” an evening which I detailed in this post last Saturday night.
I was surprised that CO Diecast was willing to let this go for a buck, considering it was a sealed release from 2002, and it’s also an exceptionally cool one! This must have been one of the earlier reissues of what was originally released as the Good Humor ice-cream truck, and that impression is bolstered by the vehicle name on the blister card still indicating it as an ice-cream truck, even though the color scheme and tampo printing say something else entirely!
As you may know from this post, I recently added a much newer reissue of this vehicle to the diorama dressed up in bright green as a chicken truck, but this orange BBQ Pork version was so cool I just had to display it, so I decided to scrunch some things together on the diorama and add another food truck! Doing so required adding some more customers and moving their positions a little bit. The previous ones were glued down to the cork which looked really clean, necessitiating their removal very carefully, but I found that trying to glue down a whole new slew of customers for these repositioned trucks was going to be extremely challenging, since this infield area is the place of the diorama that is hardest to reach due to its position on the table. Thus I elected to go the easy route and stand these figgys up on the transparent tape, which has the advantage of making it much easier to relocate them again in the future if I so choose. As you can see, there’s no shortage of spectators lining up for some of that healthy meat, and there’s some additional peeps angling for a spot at the taco truck, as well!
But that’s not all!
As the carnival construction progressed, I decided to expand it all the way to “Dead Man’s Curve,” and although I was happy with the eventual outcome-unfinished though it may be at this time-I was a little bummed at having to remove an earlier tableau that I was particularly fond of, one which I created back in the summer of ‘21 when Dale was still with us and things seemed a little different than they do now. Well, I’m sorry to say that that Matchbox Studebaker Lark wagon and the Hot Wheels “Bywayman” Chevy Square-body 4×4 have returned to “long term parking” in their cases, and the figures from the tableau are now set to become part of the carnival crowd. That is, all except these two dudes, the enthusiastic photographer and his equally enthusiastic buddy.
Wanting to add this cool Auto World ‘67 El Camino acquired with the X-mas diecast flood to the layout, I hit upon the idea of this duo of impetuous young men stopping their rad vintage ride at the side of the freeway in order to jump out and get a killer photograph of a pair of cars racing along the track! Its a dangerous prospect, stopping on the narrow shoulder of a California freeway, but these guys were willing to risk it to get the shot of a lifetime back in the days before digital cameras, when photography was an art form that required a lot more investment than it does today!
I think it came out rather well! What do you think?
But Wait, There’s More!
As an added bonus, I received some more of these nifty labels that are reproductions of vintage Aurora ads, and did up the backside of one of the Innovative Hobbies adhesive barriers with them! They are admittedly hard to see, hidden as they are behind the car carriers queuing up to enter the inspection station and the 2nd pedestrian gantry, but even so, these are the kind of details that make a diorama come alive! I have one more sheet of these around the house somewhere, so I’ll be adding even more around the back side of this barrier…as soon as I can find them!
So there you have the latest little “adds” to the goings-on around the track! As for the carnival…well, I am in the process of building up the crowd that will grace it, but I’m not there yet; I have a lot of figures for the purpose but, yep, I need still more, so a few more purchases are going to have to be made before I’m ready to populate the “greenway” with the revelers! But soon, dear readers; SOON! The crowd is always growing along with the excitement at Drag City!
I love the food trucks and these additions are really adding a lot to the story! The labels you found look great and are a super nice touch! I love the variety of people you can get. Mostly in O Scale are railroad workers or they are people in suits and dresses standing, like passengers waiting for a train. There are a few exceptions but not much in the way of peeps in other positions, like your cheering guy and the camera man. These touches to your diorama leave me wanting more!