A journal following the history, design, construction and operation of Bernard Kempinski's O Scale model railroad depicting the U. S. Military Railroad (USMRR) Aquia-Falmouth line in 1863, and other model railroad projects.
©Bernard Kempinski All text and images, except as noted, on this blog are copyrighted by the author and may not be used without permission.
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April 10, 2010

Manassas Junction Art Print


I had a chance to visit with Chris Brannigan in Arlington, VA to see his layout plans and to get a sneak peek at Brian Kammerer's latest Civil War Battle print. Brian is doing a whole series of prints depicting the events of the civil war in the style of the American Heritage "aerial" views. You can see the the rest of the printed series at http://cwbattlemapart.com

His latest print of Manassas Junction in 1861 during the Confederate build-up is especially impressive. A low resolution image of the print is at the left, with a zoom-in of some of the detail shown below. The print is just filled with this level of authentic and highly researched detail. Based on the the highly detailed image, I plan to buy the biggest size he has available, which is 24 x 30 inches.

Brian is working on a Alexandria scene next and I am really looking forward to that.

Chris helped Brain research them Manassas image and has one of the first artist proof prints. I got a snapshot of Chris and the print in his home office.

The brass models below the print are some of the equipment Chris is using in his retro style W&OD layout. The layout will feature furniture grade benchwork, with unpainted brass and metal cars and structures. Chris is trying to capture the look of a model railroad as they were built in the 1950s with bullet proof operations over steep grades.

Chris was one of the original founders of the American Civil War Railroad Historical Society along with DC Cebula, Thom Radice, Lebron Matthews and Brian Kammerer. The group now has over 500 members.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Nice - are you using this for your backdrops, or just artwork to hang on the wall, to get a motif for your layout?
    Are you already a member of the ACWRHS? Do they have a site - sounds interesting...

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  2. This is just decoration for my man cave. Brian is the same artist that is helping me with my backdrop artwork.
    You should join the ACWRRHS. The are no dues, or rules other than to be civil to each other. It can be very informative. There is no website other than the yahoo group.

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  3. Was that poster made in SketchUP? It looks really quite well done.

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  4. I'll let Brian handle questions on how he does his artwork, but I don't think he uses Sketchup.

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  5. Bernie,
    Furniture grade benchwork, huh? Man, Lee and I will have to up our games if that goes forward . . . Can you add a link to the aforementioned Society's website?

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  6. The link to the Yahoo group is listed at the bottom of the links list to the left of usmrr.blogspot page. If you can't find the click able link there here is the url=

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Civil_War_RRs/

    ReplyDelete