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12/16/06
I
haven't done much on the winter wonderland, but I did update the little
cabin pic, and a pic of a little santa on a caboose. I've been
busy building this engine house. For those not into train
shit...the train tracks actually go right into this building, and
locomotives can be driven in for repairs.
The whole thing is built out of cereal boxes, and the shingles were
made out of some junk mail cards which were about half the thickness of
cerial boxes. The only thing that's not paper are the little
beams that hold up the addition. I made those out of that
super-cheap wood paneling i cut in strips then sanded to smooth all the
crazy slivers that shit makes. I did include some inner support
for the roof, and walls, but i just kinda smeared brown paint around,
and didn't worry about it too much since it's unlikely anyone will see
it.
I plan to make windows for this stucture, and i do have some doors half
made, but I have so many things i want to do I think I'll forget about
that for a while.
This being only my second scratch-built structure, I just can't get
over the level of realism that can be achieved with some cereal boxes
and a bit of paint.I
I dub thee "done enough for me"
11/15/06
With
Xmas fast approaching I've upgraded our pos little train set, and set
out to create what I jokingly refer to as our "winter wonderland". It's
not much of a wonderland yet, but i'm working on it
so get off my back already. One great aspect of having kids
is that they give you an excuse to do childish things. Things you wanted to do when you were a
kid, but didn't have the power to make happen.
Model trains are one of those things.
 While
I use the excuse of creating something for Rowan to dig, my alterior
motive is to
create something that i dig. So after the Winter
Wonderland gets scrapped or stored or a combination of both, my plan
is to continue modeling around trains. I say 'model
around
trains' because it's not so much the trains that I enjoy as the
modeling process.
This
is the type of modeling i'm talking about...http://www.modvid.com.au/html/body_chuck_doan.html
I haven't created anything signifigant yet, but here are some shots of
the mess i've made of our dinner table so far...
 It
started as a sheet of styrofoam insulation cut to the size of our
dinner table. A bit of losely crumpled up junkmail tossed on
a
few hunks of carboard, and i've got the base for winter wonderland.
The cardoard beneath is just slapped together to keep the
junkmail off the tracks so i can run a train through there.
 Step
2 in operation winter wonderland saw me slapping newspaper dipped in
watered-down drywall compound (had a 5 gallon bucket of it doing
nothing in my shed) on top of the junkmail. I eventually
covered
the whole thing in this paper mache. When it all dried out i
painted it with some crap flat latex paint i had laying around in my
shed.
 ...cut
in a little skating rink, stuck in a bunch of weeds for winter trees,
made a little mountain cabin and a couple tunnel portals out of some
cerial boxes, and SHAZAM! winter wonderland!
Yeah it's a mess still, but it's really just getting started.
Rowan loves it, and it'll get better as i add stuff to it.
 Here's
my little ritz cracker box cabin. The roof needs a paintjob
and
to be glued on. I have to finish the porch, and I also need
to
set the thing into the landscape. But it was free and fun to
make
out of trash.
 Here's
a slightly more focussed shot showing the ritz box it was made from.
 Here
it is with the roof glued on. I've added the little porch
supports, and stairs. It's just stabbed into the paper mache
mountain. To give you an idea of the scale...the porch beams are
regular wooden match sticks.
 Here's
my little Santa with his helper. These little figures take
forever to paint so it's going to be a while before i get this
wonderland populated. Rowan has a bunch of crappy resin christmas
figurines from last year that she plays with on this so she doesn't
really care. She does like watching Santa and his helper ride the
train though.
 A
closeup of the little station kit i built...
 And one
of the tunnel portals i made out of a cerial box.
I have a whole box of little people i need to assemble and paint...kids
tobagganing, skiers, skaters, passengers, and of course santa.
I'll make a couple more buildings and get them all lit up. I
want
to also get some evergreen trees, and maybe get the track all hidden
under snow, but some of this shit will have to wait 'till next year.
I'm hoping i can just cut most of ththe landscape up and throw it in
the attic in garbage bags. reassembly should be as easy as a
bit
of masking tape, and some more drywall compound.
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