Friday, August 28, 2020

Inverness Joinery - 1:87 scale paper model

Another large structure for Scots' Landing on my HO-scale shelf layout, Inverness Joinery is a scratch built paper model based on FOS Scale Models' "Pendleton Marine. The siding, roofing, chimneys, and platforms are texture sheets from Clever Models. Windows and doors are from my digital parts box. Details are from FSM, Preiser, and Durango Press. I'll add figures as soon as I get around to painting them. Like Scots' Landing itself, "Inverness Joinery" and its owner, John MacKinnon are fictional nods to my Scottish heritage.






Monday, August 17, 2020

 Willy's Tavern -- HO Scale


This is one of my early kit bashes, done about 40 years ago. The stone wall sections are from an old Thomas Yorke kit. The rest is Northeastern basswood and Grandt Line windows. Scale is 1/87. It's amazing what one can find while sorting through old neglected boxes. I thought this little gem was long gone.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

 W.I. Shaw & Co.

"Girdles, Trusses, Corsets, & Fan Belts"

Scratch built HO Scale, Northeastern scribed siding and stripwood, Grandt Line windows & door, Floquil paints, and home-made tar paper, probably built from a plan in Model Railroader, but I don't recall. This was one of my first attempts a scratch building. I think it holds up pretty well after 50+ years.

Track Plan for Ceresco on the Ceresco & Wolf River RR -- HO Scale

 After much thinking, studying, experimenting (on paper), and head-scratching, I have finally come up with a plan for the second terminal on my point-to-point shelf layout. My HO-scale Ceresco & Wolf River RR occupies a space about 8 ft x 16 ft. The northern terminal, Scots' Landing, now under construction, is described here. 

Pictured below is my plan for Ceresco ("Seh-RESS-koh"), the southern terminal where the C&WR meets the C&NW in Sept 1943. My plan is based on an On30 design by Travis Handschug. I flipped it lengthwise, and made a few other changes. The layout ends on the right at Ceresco. The interchange track will be served by cassettes. A single hidden staging track and the line to Scots' Landing depart at upper left. Most structures will be scratch-built with a few craftsman kits and kitbashes to fill out the town.

I welcome any comments, suggestions, advice, or tasteless puns.

"Ceresco" was the name of a Fourierite Commune, also known as the Wisconsin Phalanx, the first permanent settlement in what later became my hometown, Ripon, Wisconsin. Founded in 1844, Ceresco was named for Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.