A sawmill tardis?

Only one more structure to go now that D.S. Barmore is complete. Other detailing is continuing.

D.S. Barmore Shipyard and Sawmill is done except for clutter in the foreground. The flag is home made. It almost reaches the top of the layout.

I made a simple saw mill to help detail the interior. Since it will be largely hidden, I did not super-detail it.

It's a lot  bigger on the inside than the outside!  I added a photo backdrop for the building interior to extend its apparent depth. AW really liked this. Now all I need is a Dr. Who figure.

Three escorts have joined the staff group. These figures are by Sash and Saber. I drew the XXIII Corps
flag on my computer.

While I was making flags, I made a new one for the post office. I didn't like the other one. It had black lines in between the stripes, plus the colors were not quite right.

Ship Yard and Saw Mill

The box car that Dave Emery built is just about ready for service. I lettered it for the Memphis and Charleston.
The capstan for hauling ships out of the water is visible in this shot too.

The biggest task on the to-do list for McCook's Landing is the ship yard and saw mill building. I have been working on it the past few nights and it is about halfway done.  Here are some work-in-progress shots.

The frame is made with 1/4 inch basswood, with laser cut the rafters and clerestory windows.

I laser cut a stencil using bristol board and two sided tape. The trick is to spray matt varnish first to seal the
edges of the stencil before spraying the primary color.

Jeff and Christian's lumber stack is visible in front of the mill. We'll probably need a few more of those. The coal cart
is a Train Troll kit.

Golden Spike Ceremony

The crew is showing off their service medals.
(Left to right) (Back row) Joel, Janet, Gerry, Paul, Christian, Jeff, John, Linda,
(Front row) Gabriella, AW, Mark (Missing Marty and Dave)

Today was the last group work session on McCook's Landing. We had a great session and then an amazing dinner with a special cake.

Gerry Fitzgerald and Gabriella Petrick arrived first. They brought a large commemorative cake that required last minute assembly. I won't go into the details of this remarkable cake, as we will have a special post about it later. Let's just say it was scratch built with O Scale track and a life size edible golden spike made from marzipan.

Busy, busy, busy.....

Next Marty McGuirk, Jeff and Cristian Peck arrived. Marty brought a tray of chocolate chip cookies while Jeff brought a batch of Polock Johnny's Sausage from Baltimore. Joel Salmons, John Drye and Mark Franke showed up next. Joel had with him the finished artillery men he painted for the water battery. Dave Emery stopped by briefly to drop off a box car he built using a set of laser cut parts I provided. I'll get a photo of these models after I get them installed on the layout.

JD working on the barge lines.

Everyone got to work. Jeff and Christian worked on stacks of lumber. Marty made doors for Paul's barge. Gerry started to make doors for the warehouse but didn't finish. Mark worked on a flagpole and hitch posts, while JD glued the barges down and tied off the lines to the shore. Joel painted a batch of barrels for use in detailing the inside of the warehouse. Jeff also brought over a bunch of crates and bushels that he previously painted. They will be scattered about to detail the layout.

At dinner time, Paul and Linda Dolkos arrived for a golden spike cookout and awards ceremony. It was too hot to eat outside, so we all crowded around the dining room table for a group feast. Alicia made an triple batch of her special hot wings, three salads, and then the cake.

Yes, that is edible O Scale track.

After dinner we had a brief award ceremony where all the workers received USMRR Construction Corps service medals. The spouses and partners also got medals to reflect their support to our hobby.

All in all it was a fun day.

I want to thank all the folks that helped with this layout. Those of you that missed the dinner today can pick up your medals the next time you are over.

A super big thanks to my wife for her help, work and support not just today but every day while finishing this project.

At the end of the day, Gerry and I loaded Biscuit Run in his car to begin the trip to Atlanta. As we surveyed the section in the back, we realized there is room for another section in his car.  Time to start thinking on how to expand. (Actually, we already have a plan for expansion, but more on that later.)

After everyone left I finished most of the partially completed tasks. I added NBW and hand rail details to the barge doors and hatches and then glued it down. I finished the  doors on the warehouse.  I added the sign to the sutler's store and installed the glazing.

Gabriela and her masterpiece

Serious eating going on

Finished doors and interior details

The barge is finished, tied down and glued in place.

The Generals and their Staff

Generals Grant and Sherman and their staff

Grant and staff at City Point, Va

It is hard to find civil war photographs of Civil War Generals and staffs mounted on their horses, though it was a popular image for paintings.

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 In scanning the archives one finds numerous photos of commanders and their staff in standing or sitting poses, but almost none showing them mounted. The difficulty of keeping a bunch of horses still for long enough to make an exposure is probably one reason.







In the scene on the McCook's Landing we are depicting a meeting between Grant and Sherman and some mounted staff officers. I also have a few more cavalry figures  I plan to add as escorts and messenger. One of the escorts will be bearing a unit designating flag.

As I described before, Grant and Sherman were not physically together during the period we model. The vignette is meant to illustrate the close relationship the two had in the final years of the war.  The purists can think of these officers as generic generals even though they do look uncannily like Grant, Sherman, Burnside (his whiskers are a give away), and Howard (though I gave Howard gray whiskers. During the war his beard was dark).

It is interesting to observe how much room on the layout these figures take up. There won't be room for a wagon and mule train on the street with all the mounted figures there.

The yokes on who?

A nicely dressed teamster started as a Knuckleduster gunfighter. The yoke is custom made to fit the two oxen.

Some new details added to the layout including the capstan, wagon, and teamster. The sawmill structure is taking shape in the background. The capstan, block and tackle were scratchbuilt.

The first female figure on the layout.  AW decided  to place
them in this pose. Looks  familiar, doesn't it? The female figure is nicely sculpted from Knuckleduster Figures.

More details surround the boat including saw horses, tool boxes, and  tools. The shed behind the stern of the boat has a detailed interior, although it is almost impossible to see. All these came from the  Alkem Scale Models O scale tool set.

The wagon is a kit bash from the 20 Mule Team Borax Wagon Train kit. I bought three of them on ebay for the mules. The borax wagons are too heavy duty for normal use, but the final water wagon in the mule train set is useful in other spots. Here it is used to haul a boiler for the steam boat. The boiler tube is scratch built from brass tube and laser engraved paper.

The worker is selecting a tool from his tool box. Note the block on the ground. These were scratchbuilt. A second boiler
tube lies on the ground in the distance awaiting installation on the boat. In  most river boats the boilers are not visible as they are covered in sheathing, but period photos show boilers on the ground at the Chattanooga Shipyard, presumably awaiting installation.