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| Mock up of the diorama on the base |
Great start to the new year - my first career eagle today! But enough golf talk, this is model railroad blog. This afternoon I took advantage of the nice weather to move the wood working tools outside to build the diorama base.
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| plywood base with 1x2 frame underneath |
We stopped at Home Depot after celebrating the eagle at Sweetwater, ...wait I thought you weren't going to talk about golf. Oh yeah, no more talk about that eagle.
The diorama will be on a pedestal made from birch plywood and molding trim. The trim is not glued on but secured from the inside to an internal frame I made from 1x2s. That way I can modify the frame and trim if the museum deems it necessary.
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| Never pass up a chance to use my bar clamps |
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| The base is ready for stain and varnish |
I also started work on the schooner for the diorama. This will be a pungy style schooner. The ship yard in Alexandria made pungies as well as other type of sailing ships and barges. The prototype for the model is the Wave, a 56 ft schooner. It was built in 1863 in Accomack Va, but is similar to Alexandria-built pungies. The Wave survived for quiet some time and plans are available for it.
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| The Pungy Wave |
It took some time for my O scale calibrated eyeballs to get accustomed to working in N scale again. I built the hull using the bread and butter technique. I used my laser to cut the slices of bread.I laminated them with yellow glue. Then I sanded the edges until I got the right shape.
Then I added a laser engraved deck and transom. I stained it a dark brown to show it is a well used work boat. Pungies are traditionally painted pink and green, but I may opt for a simple gray paint.
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Pungy Lady Maryland. Note the paint scheme of
green and pink. Photo via National Park Service |
It is a cute boat, but I think I will rename it, "Eagle."
:)
Bernie, I picked up a BVM simplex "tin turtle" and looking at the possibility of doing an On30 module for under my Maine 2 foot layout. I am interested on contact info for the PLM cast-a-way WWI figures. YOu have also inspired me to build a small second layout featuring the Canton RR and Lever Brothers plant in "s" scale. I grew up very close to that area and spent many a day or night waiting for the trains to clear the grade crossings on Boston Street and Broening Hwy. It too to live under my "S" scale SR&RL layout. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteGary White, Baltimore
The PLM dealer is very hard to contact from the US. I ended up using a friend's relative that lives in the UK at USAF base to order the figures via UK mail and UK bank. He then shipped them to me using USPS. It was a pain,but I now have a small supply of his figures on hand.
DeleteI like the idea of a module. I too think a module is a good way to go for a project like this. Please keep me posted on your progress. Perhaps we can make modules that are compatible.
In the meantime, I repaired my HOe (HOn30) Brigadelok loco and it runs very well.
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