Three Background Structures for Scots' Landing

 Against the backdrop of my HO scale Scots' Landing module, I am planning a commercial street climbing a hill to the bluffs above the harbor. The businesses along the road have seen better days but they hang on, serving the river folk at Scots' Landing and people from the town up above. I recently finished three more structures for that street. Once in place, they will be 22 inches from the front edge of the layout.

The Caledonia Hotel is a scratchbuilt paper model, a compressed version of  McGee's Hotel from Microscale Models. I used photographs of the kit from Villius Beleisis' amazing blog at viliussm.blogspot.com. Villius' scale models are masterpieces.

Wishy Washy Laundry is also a scratch built paper model. The front walls are based on a photo of a model from somewhere on the Internet. I've modified it and added the sign and name in Photoshop. If you know whose kit and whose build it was, let me know so I can give proper credit for the photo. The side walls are a Clever Models clapboard sheet, the shingles are from Paper Creek (no longer in business), and the vents are from Walthers.

The coal dealer is a paper model kit from Clever Models. I widened it by moving the vertical "COAL" sign to the front of the building, and I added some roof detail.

The street will be about four feet long, so I have lots more storefronts to build.

1931 Bugatti Racer - paper model in 1/24 scale

This is a free download from ichiyama. The kit is 1/35 scale. I scaled it up to 1/24. It was a fun kit to build except for the tires. I had to build a dozen of them to get five I liked, and I am still not entirely happy with the results. But it looks good on the shelf.

USS Gambier Bay -- 1/200 Scale Paper Model

 I'm picking up this project again after letting it sit unfinished for about two years. I am not much for writing detailed build threads, but I will try to post updates now and then. Maybe that will help motivate me to finish the kit. It has lots and lots of greeblies.

The Gambier Bay was 512 feet long. The model will be just over 2-1/2 feet in length.

For the uninitiated, "greeblies" are those tiny little parts that can drive you half crazy, especially when your tweezers go "boink" and the part flies somewhere over your shoulder. Greeblies that you think fell onto the floor between your feet will actually land in the shag carpet in the next room. No one knows why; it just happens. 

My progress, so far: 

USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was sunk in the Battle off Samar during the Battle of Leyte Gulf after helping to turn back a much larger attacking Japanese surface force. She was the only American aircraft carrier sunk by enemy surface gunfire during World War II. [Source: Wikipedia]

Progress on the Gambier Bay

I have mated hull and flight deck, and started on the galleries on the sides of the hull. I've run out of laser cut railings. Progress halts while I work out the best way to make my own.

Medieval "Morning Star" & Stand -- 1:1 scale paper model

 

Sometimes I just need a break from building airplanes and model RR structures. This evil-looking piece of hardware was a free download and an evening's work. And, who knows, maybe it will come in handy when I go back to teaching at the college in January.

Still Trying to Decide on a Trackplan for Ceresco

 Ceresco ("seh-RESS-koh") is one of two terminals on my Ceresco & Wolf River HO scale shelf layout. The other terminal, Scots' Landing, is nearing in progress -- track laid, some scenery done, some structures built. My requirements for Ceresco: 

• Size, 9 feet x 2 feet
• A simple plan -- most space given to scenery and scratch built structures
• Varied elevations
• Industrial atmosphere but not "big city" 
• Most tracks not parallel to the edge of the layout
• Drop-in Connection across the aisle for continuous running
• Some staging, not necessarily hidden
• Turntable & engine house

Here is the current "contestant":

What If? - Dornier Do-335 Paper Model 1/33 Scale

 What if . . .

. . . Lufthansa converted a Dornier Do-335 fighter to a post-war, four-passenger, high-speed, executive transport? This paper model, from E-Cardmodels.com, is 16.5 inches long with a 17-inch wing span. I made two changes to the kit:  I scratch built the passenger cabin interior and the clamshell passenger door. I am always impressed by the fit and finish of Marek's designs.

New Bedford Whaleboat Paper Model - Scale: ~1/30

This is the Fiddler's Green Whaleboat with a lot of added detail. The model is 11 inches long, roughly 1:30 scale. Whaleboats generally varied from 28 to 33 feet in length and were manned by a crew of 5: a bosun, four oarsmen, and a harpooner.

I tapered dowels for the mast and spar, scratch built the harpoon and lance, carved a wooden tiller, made oarlocks from plastic rod, added standing and running rigging, and rigged the whale line, including coils in the line tubs and at the bow. Other added details include paddles, a water pail for lubricating the whale line, a "firkin" to hold drinking water, a "crotch" to hold the ready harpoon, a wooden drag (beside the tiller) used to help tire a harpooned whale, and a hatchet to cut the whale line if the "Nantucket sleighride" went sour.

These boats typically carried a lot of tools and gadgets. I modeled fewer than half of them.