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...

Funeral Home in 1/4" scale

Here are the shots I promised. Even though this is a 1/4" model and not intended of course for my Gn15 rail line, I thought I'd share these here. I will be doing a clinic on this structure in July during the NMRA Convention. If you plan on attending, please stop by on Friday morning and listen in. This model went to a client. I wish I had one for myself too!

Tom

At last I am back here!

It's been a really long time since I last wrote anything here I admit. My work for many months has been custom projects for others. Two Southern Pacific depots, a Victorian funeral home and lastly a farm house converted to a bordello. The latter is set up for an upstairs interior to be furnished by the client.

The funeral home was a blast to do. All of the above projects were in 1/4" scale. Some photos will follow soon even though they don't really belong here. The funeral home has a round turret with a copper clad wine glass top. The roof has so many ins and outs and levels that it was the hardest part to do! The windows and several decorative pieces were cast from my own patterns in resin. The design itself was home-grown but followed standard Victorian architectural practices, if there were such things. The model was designed as of the early 1950's and well worn but still in use. Additions adulterated the design at the side and rear. The grounds show very little keep and the old LaSalle hearse sits in the carport area. Again, well worn and dirty.

Last month my computer had a melt-down. It needed to be replaced. I am now trying to learn a bunch of new program features! Last week we suffered a break-in to add insult to injury. The only things taken were jewelry and my 84 Prismacolor Marker set! Not to mention the ruined front door where they made their entry. So things have been a little, how should I say, messed up over the passed few months.

At the completion of the farm house model late this month I will finally start The Last Resort island. I can hardly await that time! It has been developing in my head over the past several years and I have been collecting many bits and pieces along the way. As stated before, upon returning from my Cuba trip in 1981I have wanted to do an island railway, although it was to be in 1/4" at the start.
I have since graduated to Gn15, or more properly, Hn18 over those years so that is what it will be. I will start posting as soon as there is some progress. That project has been on hold far too long!

Tom

Last update for 2012!

Here it is the 31st of December and I am still working on some custom models for clients. A funeral home is half done and a farm house will be started after the former is finished. Then I can start on The Last Resort! The pieces sit out in the garage just patiently waiting for my return.

I have loads of photos of the funeral home and will publish a few here when it is finished. It is a Victorian house that has been repurposed for commercial use and has not seen much upkeep in the past 20 or so years.

The article on the Balsa-Foam Welcome Center has been published in American Miniaturist's January 2013 issue. The follow-up painting article will be in the next issue in February. As soon as I finish the funeral home I will complete the remaining few touches needed for the first volume of the Grande Barbosa Island Railway book: chapter one. Just a few days of work left, but trying to fit it in is a little rough, especially over the holidays. The above photos shows some of the rock work and basic dock adjacent to it. It still need the old tires and other rope lashings attached. This will be the first finished piece attached to the island when the base is ready after the basic roadbed and rock work base has been placed. Days and days of making rocks will ensue with holes for bridges and little trestles here and there. But that must wait a while yet.

I hope this new years brings everybody on this blog good will and some progress on the financial end as well. 

An update at last!

I have been so busy on other projects that I haven't had much time to devote to The Last Resort in some time. I do have the two 24" doors upon which I will build the island and the garage is cleaned out enough to start work. It will need to await the coming of the new year though.

I am working on models for customers at the moment: a Model A in 1/24 scale and two 1/4" structures, the farm house/bordello and the Crestfallen Funeral Home. Lots of patterns need to be built for the two structures and I am closing in on the last ones. I am know casting enough parts to have a stockpile ready soon.

The Vertical Boiler Teakettle is now ready for release. Those can be ordered direct from me if anybody is interested. It is an all resin kit and the builder must supply some needed styrene and Plastruct pipe angles in order to complete. A photo is shown here. It uses the Bachmann On30 Davenport as a starting point. This is the locomotive that will be used on the little island resort.

I wish I could start on the island, however, I must finish the custom work first. The first chapter of the Grande Barbosa book should be ready soon. I have a few last sketches to do and shoot the little boat before it can be put together and printed.

That's it for now. The casting room is calling...