More Chattel Houses...

Here are some more shots of houses made from the same parts pictured in the last posting. The little shed is from my 1/4" scale Bordello. There is so much that can be done with those parts. All you need is a little imagination and some reference photos. Oh yes, and glue!

The only new part is the large stone foundation cast in plaster. Heavy stone or concrete foundations indicated that the resident of the property also owned it. Others usually were help up on piers or wooden posts so they could easily be moved.

The bright colors are muted a little by the use of a thin brown wash overall. The single house will have about half of the foundation buried in the rear. The Rum Shop will have signs plastered all over and a simple interior to be viewed through the open doors. I plan on one further house and then to combine all into a small block diorama with full, lush scenery and so on.

These basic castings can also be used for "American" structures as well. Simple houses, sheds and shacks. Even a small dog trot home! For those of you modeling an island railway in 1/4", this might just be what you need! All single castings or window groups are $5.00 each plus post.

Tom Yorke, 210 Pitch Lake Ct, Roswell, GA 30076 - or tomyorke@bellsouth.net

First look!

This is the first pilot model I have completed with the chattel house parts...

A rum shop

My desk still isn't clear!

I still have not been able to return to the Grande Barbosa Chapter One yet. Too much other stuff going on. I am going to release a set of 1/4" parts for either sheds and shacks or chattel housing. The former will work for all railroads needing such things. They can be combined into larger sheds, parts cut into "new" ones easily and multiple roofing styles. The later will be Chattel Housing for those interested in island rail lines. I am working on pilot models now and should have some photos by the end of this month.  The Chattel House was developed for slaves and was built as a portable unit. After emancipation, the houses were still lived in by them on the owner's land, but some houses were moved off this land. They were usually one room and about 10' by 20' in size. Some had additions and others were combined with another unit for a larger home. they were portable in nature with very thin walls and no insulation or interior walling. some had glass in the window areas while others used no glass and shutters only. Many were very colorful with their brightly colored exteriors.

These parts will be offered as parts only with a sheet of drawings and written assembly and painting information. They assemble very easily and can be detailed in so many different ways that complete kits are just not practical. The castings are resin in 1/8" thick pieces and can be cut easily with a single edge razor blade. They show some wear and weathering to the siding but are still fairly solid looking.

More news on these items in the future...

Grande Barbosa Island Railway, Volume One...

As soon as I can clear my desk of important rush projects I will commence the printing of the first volume! It will be available direct from me this time. The problem is I need to make the time to do it. It's all laid out, I just need to print. I'm going to guess and say sometime in August for the printing. Then I hope I can get going on the smaller island of The Last Resort for volume two.

I have found some 1/20 figures of mercenary women in resin and ordered all I could get from Ebay. Most will be used as new arrivals on the resort for some well needed R&R. The figures are cast and detailed beautifully. Really nice work! I have begun to paint but they will take some time to finish. 1/20 is a little large for 1/2" but the gals are big-boned I guess!

I have completed two new articles for publication on Gn15 locos (really Hn18!) and my container car. I will send these off next week. One is the Union Foundry #30 and the other is a Heisler clone built on an Athearn HO SW unit. The #30 uses two Bachmann On30 Street Car motor blocks. The former is translated from the prototype while the later is free-lanced following New Zealand practices.

That's all for this installment. Back to work on other projects for now.

The dock and main street of Grande Barbosa Island.

While shuffling through my collection of photo CDs I came across this one with preliminary shots of the docks and down town buildings as they are at the moment. I have posted a few here to illustrate where I'm trying to go with this project. That is once I get back to it. No backgrounds yet and everything except the dock is just placed right now to get a feel. The buildings are tiny of course because 1/2" structures take up a lot of real-estate! The water needs much more work too.

The only building finished is the white drink bar. The street is narrow and the structures are packed in next to one another. All are taken from photos of real Caribbean buildings, just severely compressed. Most of the doors and windows are already made. Some in wood and others cast in resin. The sidewalk will go up hill in a very broken manor. The street will be cobblestone, but maybe not what is there now. As can be seen the structures are a mix of materials from wood to stucco to stone. The tallest building is the hotel. Next to that are ground floor shops and apartments above. The loco is a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 bashed into an 0-6-0T. It is sitting on Pico track that will all but disappear under the street stones. The visible track will be reworked with resin tie surrounds for a beefier look.

Lots of work to do. I may add a tiny crane at the end of the dock. Behind the buildings shown and up the hill will be where the islands' residents live. This will be a forced perspective group of sheds and shacks getting smaller in scale as they go up and back. Directly across the street from the building closest to the dock will be a restaurant partly out over the water. Lots of Caribbean colors, iron railings and porch brackets to be made yet. The launch is awaiting passengers for The Last Resort. This will not be here. It will be on the other island's water. The ship posed here will be a larger wooden model

A slightly less grand update!

My, my - where did that come from? That's what I get for not proofing my copy! I had meant to say "rather" but my fingers didn't obey my mind. I wonder what else I typed wrong? Just as long as I don't build Grande Barbosa like that!

One added thing from yesterday; As soon as I get the frame corrected, I will have a new Gn15 box car ready. It's a model of an Atlas Powder dynamite transport box. It's all resin and covered in thin, actual wooden veneer. The real ones were 36" gauge, but who's counting? Still looks cool...

Grande Barbosa Update

OK, it's been a  mother long time, again! Seems I just can't get much work done on the islands of Grande Barbosa and the smaller Last Resort. What with trying to catch up on kit production and custom work there isn't too much time left for "play".

I have actually done some work over the last half year or so. I've carved three walls for the Chapel at The Last Resort. That area will become the pool and patio since there isn't a roof or fourth wall left on the old Chapel anyway. It's probably bigger than it aught to be too. That will compress the other Monastery buildings somewhat.

I have the two 24" doors to use as a base for the island as soon as I can find the time to fasten them together and start adding styrofoam chunks to build up the first level of the land mass. I've also started about five new locos. A few will be for the islands and the others are just ones I've wanted to build for some time.

I am hoping I can get Keith to finish putting the first value of the Grande Barbosa book together soon. i have already started writing the second, this time on The Last Resort. Please pester Keith about finishing!

 No photos yet but I hope to have some by next installment. I really want to get going. The first stage of work will be the base. That will be covered with 1/8" illustration board for the ocean base to be built upon. Then comes a 6" layer of foam that will take the level of the land up to the Welcome Center base. This is the home base for the rail line, shops (as they are), and a home for the owner built out over the ocean to save land mass, of which there isn't very much! The circular track work will come next. I will use Micro Engineering track with my own resin tie "surrounds" to beef up the look. once the track is in and operating I will then start to fill in scenery with foam, frocks and trestles and bridges. All this leads up to the Monastery atop the hill. The hill top will not be level at all. The Monastery will flow down into crevices and be placed atop little rises as the case may be. All done in Spanish stone and re-built here and there as necessary. lots of balconies, stairs, towers, tiny patios and greenery. there will probably only be one, perhaps two turnouts on the island. Very simple operation.

The owner's home will be fashioned of scraps found all over and built to an island style of architecture. Rainwater stored for running water, a generator for power and a self-flushing toilet over the ocean. I had wanted to do a tiny Victorian home but I felt it would take away from the Welcome Center and the larger Monastery, so I decided to keep it simple and crude. One question I will have to answer is what happens to the tide flow on all sides of the island? The Atlantic side will be rough, but the Caribbean side will be much less so. The whole island will be in view so all sides must be completed and the water must "flow" as it should around a real island.

Figures are another problem. I need a bunch of females to occupy the resort. A few 80mm ones cast in metal are usable but I think I will need to make a bunch from Preiser nudes for the rest. Painting will be a delicate headache. At some point I will also have to complete the seaplane that will be overhead flying a few new visitors to the resort. It is an ancient biplane from the UK and in 1/4" scale, but it's up in the air, so smaller is fine.

I hope for the next installment I can add some photos of progress. Oh yes, I have done more work on the main island's town structures too. Nothing is complete except for the previously pictured drink bar.

Until next time...