February already?

 

A foggy morning at Aquia Landing

I missed the January update. In mid-January Alicia and I went to Costa Rica for 11 days. Then the ice storm hit. It took us 4 days to get home, with three days in Florida waiting for American Airlines to remember how to run an airline. We eventually gave up on American and bought tickets on Delta. They got us home without too much fuss.  

The trip was great. It ranged from a camping out-like adventure in cabins on the Pacific Coast, to stays in deluxe hotels with private gardens. We took 3 different boat rides through mangrove swamps, and river along the Nicaraguan border.  We saw a good portion of northern Costa Rica.

We hiked in the rain forest low lands and mountains. Our guide was great and he found lots of good hot spots for bird watching. We logged 247 different bird species and 140 lifers. I posted an assortment o f bird pics on my face book page. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1De6AjTXPw/

Alas, while we were in the rain forest, Alicia caught a chest cold. I got it two days later. It turns out it was actually a case of the flu despite us both getting flu shots. It took us nearly two weeks and a trip to the doctor to finally start feeling better. 

This week I felt well enough to start building some models. I'll post more on that later. 

Meantime, I played around with atmospheric effects on some of my model railroad shots.

Dawn on the Aquia Line

November Update

 I spent most of November traveling to various locations so not much work on the layout. 

John poses by part of his large layout

November started with a Joint division NMRA meeting for the Potomac and James River sub-Divisions. I visited two layouts in the afternoon. John Swanson's PRR layout and Cam Green's new O Scale Maine Central. John has done a lot of work on his layout since my last visit. It is an impressive layout. 

Hand for scale shows that this is not HO scale. 

Cam has accomplished an amazing amount of work on his new O scale layout in a short time. People were surprised when he tore down his former HO, double deck layout to start this new project. But I like what I saw. It's a big layout that features a relatively simple plan with a mainline loop and a branch. But it looks more complex than that because there is also a wye and the loop has a large portion under the main level. The large O scale engines are impressive. It will be fun to watch this layout develop.

Arizona

The travel started when Alicia and I left for a week long visit to Northern Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and then golf at Sedona. I had never been to the Grand Canyon before. It was spectacular. I did find it a bit strange that the canyon is so deep and narrow at the bottom when viewed from the south rim visitor's center that it was hard to gauge the full depth. I contrast that with my earlier visit to Canyonlands, where more of the whole depth can be seen. I was also surprised to learn that the south rim is heavily forested. I didn't  expect that. It really is a beautiful site. I managed to catch the Grand Canyon Railroad as it arrived at the south rim while we were there. 

Sedona is a spectacular mountain town that probably ranks number 1 of all the mountain towns I have been to in the US and Canada. (Note I have not been to Jasper or Banff which I suspect are more spectacular). We played some golf and I did a fair amount of bird watching both at the Grand Canyon and in the areas around Sedona such as Page Springs - see below. Hard to believe this is Arizona.

I did see a lot of cool birds on the trip.  These are two of my favorites, both taken at Page Springs. 

Northern Pygmy Owl

It was late in the day when I photographed this black phoebe. The resulting slow shutter speed left the wings in a blur, but the face is relatively sharp.

Yucatan, Mexico

We returned home for a few days to recover before I  flew to Merida, Yucatan with my brother, Rob, for the grand opening of JAMYBO, Professor Enrique Castaño's new bonsai garden. My brother was one of the guests of honor who participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony. There were folks from around the world at the event. 

One portion of Enrique's Bonsai Garden ay JAMYBO

Enrique (in the red shirt) listens to Herman on the right do a critiques of some of Enrique's trees. Enrique's garden has been described a probably the best collection of bonsai trees in Latin America, including species that are endemic to Yucatan. Enrique told us that he can't grow non-native species as the local ants eat them too quickly.

Two Crane Hawks near Merida

Enrique asked me to document the wildlife on his property for use in an application to the Mexican government for some type of nature preserve status.  Just what I needed, an excuse to take bird pictures.

 I also spent a day with a profession bird guide, Ramón Trinchan Guerra from Yucatan Bird Tours. He was an excellent guide.  Between Enrique's Garden and Ramon's hot spots, I saw 106 species of birds in the Yucatan, including two endemic species. Ramon got this photo of me taking pictures of the flamingoes that are common in this area. 

Prairie Warbler at Enrique's Garden

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Rob and I also played golf at the uber exclusive Yucatan Country Club (the most expensive round of golf I ever played), we visited the Mayan Ruins at Uxmal  (pronounced Oosh-mal), the beach at Sisal, and the Maya Museum in Merida. 

We also stopped by a nice hobby shop in Merida and met the owner and his sons. They were having a model show, so we got to see some  nice entries.  Everyone was super friendly. 

Arturo and his sons at the hobby shop. The fellow throwing the shaka hand signs is an American Civil War model specialist that lives in Merida. He had some nice ACW figures in the show.

Part of the juego de pelota maya  court at Uxmal

Main structure at Uxmal. 

Anuar (lower right) took us to an authentic Yucatan Restaurant. The food was interesting and very good.  Anuar is a bonsai artist but his main job is tracking and studying jaguars in the wild. He promised to take me out with him the next time I visit Yucatan. 

We had a great time with the bonsai folks. We even managed to get invited to more bonsai trips including the Czech Republic, Columbia, Ecuador and Brazil. All great birding spots too.

Kentucky

I got home late from from Mexico and immediately left the next morning to visit my son and his family in Kentucky for Thanksgiving. We had a great time playing with Ruka. She is growing so fast. 

Chase said, "Ruka is into planes now." So we took her to the Kentucky Museum of Aviation

Frosty sunrise on our way home

When I got home, I had a lot of catching up to do for Alkem Scale Models. 

September Update

The month isn't over, but the first three weeks have been super busy, so I decided to do an update.

1. National Capital Model Soldier Society (NCMSS) Annual Show 

This was the 64th Annual show by the NCMSS. It was one of the most successful to date. This year had over 70 individual exhibitors in the competition with approximately 345 pieces on display, along with 179 general admission tickets sold. All  display categories were very well represented to include figures of all genres, ordnance, vehicles, aircraft, ships, Gundam and always impressive dioramas. 

 Highlights included the Judges’ Best of Show awarded to James Rice for his Fantasy Display and the People’s Choice Best of Show that went to Steve Pyle for the fourth year in a row. My brother and I received the show theme award "Celebrating 250 Years of the U.S. Military" for our "Train Busters" diorama. Jack Thompson won the Best Marine and Tony Stencil for the Best U.S. Infantryman. I entered several models and received 1 gold and 6 silver medals. 

I was busy as the chief judge for the ordanance category, so I did not participate in any of the clinics offered at the show. However, I did take the figure painting class offered by Jim Rice at the National Museum of of the US Army in the 2 days before the show.  In the class we worked on a bust of a Continental Infantry man. We focused on the skin and eye painting.  

I finished the figure after the class. I painted him as a member of the 1st Virginia Regiment at Valley Forge.

The class was very informative. I learned several lessons on using acrylic paint a figure especially on painting texture, and skin tones using verdaccio base coat. Jim has an award winning style. It was interesting to learn how he approaches achieves it. 

2. MARPM 2025

The next weekend was MARPM 2025. This is an event totally run by volunteers with me as the director. It was also a successful meet. The largest we have had yet. 

We had about 36 clinics, 10 open houses and 3 operation sessions. There were 3 layouts on display at the show including a large O scale layout organized by Dave Vaughn, and one medium size HO layout by John Drye, and several highly detailed models by Scot Wahl. There were several vendors on site and one manufacturer.  

The raffle was also a big hit.  It was a lot of fun, but there was little time to rest because the next weekend was...

3. ACWRRHS Annual Meet

Continuing the busy month, the American Civil War Railroad Historical Society held its annual meeting in northern Delaware on the 18-20th. The meet featured visits to the Hagley Museum, Fort Delaware, Old Town New Castle, several presentations at the hotel, and the inaugural op session on DC Cebula's Delaware Central layout. We capped off the weekend with a group dinner at the colonial era Jessup Tavern in New Castle. 

The Hagley Museum was truly amazing. I never fully realized how gun powder was made in the black powder era, so the visit was very informative for me. My main priority was to visit the operating machine shop at the museum. The docent there was very pleased to have visitors that were so interested in his presentation. We had a very detailed presentation on the tools in the shop.

On the next day we took a ferry over to Fort Delaware. This stone and brick fort was built before the Civil war to protect the Delaware River approach to Philadelphia. The fort was used was a prison for confederates during the civil war. It is now a state part that has been partially restored.   Many of the rooms were equipped with details from the civil war era. I took dozens of photos for detailing ideas.

The mail room at the fort

On the day we visited there were several volunteer docents in period uniforms to answer questions.  The volunteer at the left was very authentic looking. 

 

These trousers caught my eye. Note how dirty they are even after being laundered.

 It was well worth a visit. 

News Update: US Army 250th Anniversary and New Location for the D-Day Exhibit

 US Army 250th Anniversary

I am steadily working on the Engine House and Machine shop. I have the windows built and am now adding the exterior planks. I hope to debut the model at the US Army 250th Anniversary Celebration at Joint Base Langley- Eustis on June 13th, 2025.  I will also have other civil war railroad models on display. 

The event is open to the public. You can find more information here.  The Military Railroad Society will be there with prototype and model train exhibits. The Army will have tours of their water vessels, other equipment of display, and lots of things for kids to do. 

Come check it out. 

D-Day Exhibit at 1st Infantry Division Museum 

The D-Day Exhibit with the dioramas we built, Keith Rooco's artwork and his collection of artifacts are now on exhibit at the First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL You can find more information at the link below.

https://www.fdmuseum.org/exhibit/d-day-omaha-beach/

Trip Reports and Another Sneak Peak

Sultana heads to dock in Cambridge, MD

The talks at the North Carolina RPM and the Chesapeake forum went well. 

CAROLINA RPM

I carpooled to the Carolina RPM with Mike Pulaski. He lives in Richmond, about a 3.5 hour drive to Greensboro. So I drove to his house the night before.  I had a chance to see his layout again on Friday and see his latest progress. We left his house at 500AM on Saturday and made it to the meet as it was getting started.

Butch Eyler had this display of cars weathering over time

The meet was fairly small with about 50 attendees. They held it is a conference center for a small business. The facility is quite nice with couches and chairs in the foyer and snack room with free drinks and donuts, and later pizza for lunch. They had one track of clinics to attend. 

The model display room was small with about 6 people showing models. The vendor room was also small. But I was happy that vendor Aaron Chamberlain was there with basic supplies as I purchased tools and phosphor bronze wires.

I attended most of the clinics. One tidbit I learned was that certain solder fluxes can be conductive. You need to be careful when soldering on printed circuit traces and use non-conductive flux. 

I was the last speaker to present. By then, the meet had thinned out and perhaps 15 people were present for my talk. I think everyone enjoyed it.

On Saturday night we visited a large club layout in Greensboro, got caught in a heavy rains and saw several NS trains roll through town while eating dinner.

All in all it was a fun time. Thanks to Mike for driving and Amy for hosting me Friday night.

CHESAPEAKE FORUM

A few days later I drove to Easton to present another talk. That one was more oriented toward civil war railroad history. I think it went very well. The audience members asked a lot of questions. Later, the Chesapeake Forum coordinator sent me feedback comments and they were very positive. One person said they could, "listen for another hour."

Roger Sekera and his wife, Sue, were my hosts while in Easton. We operated his HO switching layout after the talk. He designed the layout with ideas from my article on the C&O Brooke Yard that I wrote over 20 years ago. It took the two of us about 2 hours to switch the car float and various industries.  

Sue made a nice dinner and we enjoyed a walk around his lovey neighborhood.We crashed early after dinner.  Thanks to Roger and Sue for hosting me. 

The next morning I got up early and visited Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the Pickering Audubon Center. I saw a lot of birds and got some good pictures.

On my way home I spotted the Sultana heading into the dock at Cambridge Maryland. Sultana is a replica of a Revolutionary War sailing vessel. I stopped to get some pictures of the Classic Chesapeake scene with the schooner and light house. 

MYSTERY PROJECT

The plot thickens. 

Here are more sneak peaks at part of the mystery project. Any idea what it might be?

Upcoming Talks and a Sneak Peek at a New Project

 I will be presenting two talks at the start of May about railroading in the Civil War.

The first is at the Carolinas RPM Meet on May 3-4 in Greensboro NC. You can get more information about the meet at https://cmrgreensboro.org/calendar/rpm-carolinas-may2025/

The second talk is the same topic at the Chesapeake Forum in Easton, MD on May 7th. You can get more information about it at https://chesapeakeforum.org/course/railroads-of-the-civil-war/  Note, they are charging a fee for admission. 

Next, I started working on a new project for my model railroad. I started off by getting a supply of scale lumber. Any guesses on what it might be?

Hint, I discussed this project on my blog before. It is a structure.

Richmond Open 2025 IPMS Show

 

My 1/76th scale WWI tank on Macaw flat car got a First Place award in the small armor category

I attended the Richmond Open 2025 sponsored by the Richmond IPMS club on Feb 21, 2025. It was a big show at the Old Dominon Race Track facility with about 900 models entered and over 1,000 people attending.

Sci-fi and Gundam was one of the most popular categories. The younger people really seem to like this theme. Aircraft were also popular.

Our model figure club, The National Capital Model Soldier Society,  was tasked to judge figures, which we did.  There were so many entries in sci-fi and fantasy that the table was jammed with models. It was hard to fully examine them for judging with moving many of them. But we did the best we could. 

I entered some models in the contest and received two first place, one second and one third awards. Note this show does first-second-third vice gold-silver-bronze. 

My WWI tank on flat car was a model I built several years ago for my book on military railroads. The flat car was completely scratch built except for the trucks and wheel sets. The tank had to be modified for rail transport mode. The figure is by W^D models. They were a source for some of the best 1/76th scale model figures. Alas, the owner retired and has not sold off his masters.

Alien- Ripley's Last Battle shadow box diorama got a third place award in Dioramas

Avalynne and Orien got a second place in non-historical busts

King Konrad won a first place in 90mm and greater figures. The is a100mm flat figure, I made the shadowbox using my laser cutter to depict the Palantine Chapel in Aachen, Germany 

February Update- Road Trip

 I've been on the road for much of February so I didn't have too much time to work on the layout. 

I started the month with a road trip to Nags Head and Wanchese, NC.

There I took a one day boat trip to look for pelagic birds, i.e. birds that live predominantly at sea. We journeyed about 20 miles off shore in choppy weather on a 60-ft long charter boat. The weather was too rough for good photography, but we did see quite a few birds. I got a decent photo of a puffin and a dovekie.

I also stopped by the Wright Brothers National Monument. I toured the museum. I did not realize how much research and development the Wright Brothers did . They had their own wind tunnel and developed their own engine. The whole effort was much more involved than I knew. 

Replica Wright Flyer on display

Puffin about 20 miles off shore.

Florida scrub jay

I left NC and drove to my brother's house in Melbourne, FL. I spent a week there with him doing some bid watching and getting ready for JAXCON, 2025. A highlight was finding several rare and endangered Florida Scrub Jays near my niece's house near Rockledge, FL. I spent a morning at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. Then I met some old friends, Clark Folwer and his wife Debbie Heystek,  in Titusville  for lunch.

Lifeboat from Maersk Alabama at Navy UDT-Seal Museum

On Thursday we took a drive to the  National Navy UDT-Seal Museum in Fort Pierce.  The museum is small but has a good collection of artifacts especially small arms and scuba gear used by the UDT-Seals from WW2 to current. Outside they have a collection of small boats from various eras. I was especially intrigued by the lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama that the Seals rescued from Somlai pirates.  

We attended JAXCON for one day. The show was well attended with over 600 models on display. I entered several models and picked up two gold, 5 silver and a bronze medal. There were several models that I liked. Unfortunately, there were not enough people to act as judges. I was very busy as I judged half of the armor models and almost all the figures (except for the ones I entered).  I later learned that several models did not get judged, which was disappointing for the people that missed out. When I judge I like to provide feedback to the entires. 

This Mustang was awarded best in show at JAXCON 2025

Light house at Ponce Inlet

I left JAXCON and met Alicia at her mom's condo in Daytona Beach. Alicia's childhood  friend, Debbie, and her husband, Dave, were staying with Anne. We visited Ponce Inlet for some wildlife viewing. We saw a manta ray, several dolphins, and many birds. 

Incredibly cute Borrowing Owl

On Monday we dropped Alicia's mom off at Melbourne airport and then spent an another day with Rob and Terry. We played some golf and did a little birdwatching at Viera Wildlife Preserve. On Tuesday we drove to Homestead, Fl with stops to see Alicia's friend Denise in West Palm Beach, a quick birding stop at Valley View State Park where we spotted several burrowing owls, and finally a visit with my college friend, Eric Carr, in Fort Lauderdale.  It is amazing how the area has become one giant megapolis from West Palm Beach to Homestead. 

We spent the next morning touring the Everglades National Park. We saw a good number of birds, though not as many as I expected, but lots of alligators and fish. The waters of the everglades are just teaming with fish. Seems like everywhere you look you see fish. It was like looking in an aquarium. 

They have a whole wing of the REV Institute  museum dedicated to Porsche

Next stop was Naples, Fl to visit Alicia's brother and sister-in-law. They bought a nice condo in Naples. The following day we toured the REV Institute museum in Naples. It is an excellent museum filled with rare and historic cars. If you like cars, it is well worth a stop.

We continued north to Clearwater, Florida to visit our friends Joe and Carol Post. The next morning Carol took us to Sand Key Park to do some bird watching. It was very windy and cloudy, but I did get an interesting photo of a laughing gull with a small catfish. 

We headed back to Daytona with a stop at Lake Apopka to do the famous wildlife drive. The weather was cool and very cloudy. We saw over a thousand birds and even spotted some lifers. 

Purple Gallinule

We played one more round of golf. Then headed home to Virginia. In all I was gone for 18 days. It was a great trip.  As far as bird watching, I got a lot of photos, and picked up 8 lifers in Florida and 11 in North Carolina.  Alas, we didn't visit any model railroads.