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...

The Last Resort

Here is a sketch of the layout for the model. The base has grown slightly to almost seven feet in length, but the width remains at the initial four. The Welcome Center would appear in front of the loco and above the dock. The island will be very lush with foliage and very green. Only the bare rock work is shown in the sketch. There probably will be a natural rock spire to the left and totally separate from the island. Atop it will be a small gazebo. There will be a bridge of some sort over to it. 

No streamlining here!

Thought I'd post a few photos of an interesting project that I finished a few months ago. I might use this one also for the Last Resort. Only room for one at a time, but it would depend upon my mood, which I might run at any given time.

This one is from New Zealand and is covered in my new Teakettles book. Resin parts are available for anyone who might like to build one. It uses the Bachmann On30 Street Car motor block. My favorite motor arrangement.

The original was built with a Hudson auto frame and running gear. It was successful and another unit of similar design was fashioned soon after the first was delivered. This is a bag of resin parts that needs to be combined with a 1/24 scale plastic auto or truck frame and running gear. I used 1919 Olds parts for mine. The wooden parts of the body are actually styrene. The water tank is a plaster 55 gal. drum. How it works is beyond me. I copied the original arrangement, so the real thing worked somehow! Plans are in the new book.

A little closer still...

Teakettles is in the process of being printed at last. I shot a few more photos to round out the documentation. Spell check done, but still some weird things do happen at times. The first 20 volumes will be signed and numbered and the price is $25.25 which includes Priority shipping in the US. It can be ordered through my web site and PayPal, or simply by sending me a check to; Tom Yorke, 210 Pitch Lake Ct, Roswell, GA 30076. 

Perhaps a little premature, but...

Teakettles, Dinkies & Critters is finally being put together and should be ready soon. Full of plans, B&W and color photos plus notes on many of my locomotive creations built over the years. Some rather normal looking while others are, well, not really normal looking! More info later when we get closer to actually printing the thing.
Tom

The Welcome Center.

Here are a few shots of the Welcome Center. There are a few more things that need doing yet before I can truly call it finished. It is BalsaFoam with cast resin parts of my own manufacture except for the St. Christopher figure. That is a commercial dollhouse part. It sits atop a cliff made from torn foam rubber. The stones are hand carved and the finish is stucco ( Spackling Paste). The doors are styrene built-up with cast bolt details applied. The roofing sheets are my own Spanish Tile resin castings. The window bars are cut from dollhouse gate sections and all else is pretty much carved from foam to be really light-weight. The patio tiles are styrene chips painted to look like tiles and grouted with Spackle. The steps are chips of foam coated in Spackle to represent stone and the palms are hand made.

Forum or Againstum?

It has been a little while now since I stared this blog. I was hoping it might turn into a discussion forum of sorts about Gn15 and associated issues. I have long not been able to post on the Gn15info site for some undetermined, strange reason and I started this site in hopes of airing my ideas and creations and looked forward to some discussions. I know times are lousy for a lot of us, but that is all the more reason to get lost in our hobby. There's a lot of things we cannot do or change right now, but we can create, build and discuss our models. Most of us have a stash of unbuilt kits and parts already on hand. We don't necessarily need to spend much or practically any money on projects unless there is a need for a special part or something. Let's get away from in front of the news on TV, forget about it and build something and have a little fun. Let's share our results too.