Modelling Ontario trees via the library

Ontario, the second largest province in Canada, stretches roughly 1,000 miles from north to south, and an equal distance from east to west with an area somewhat over 400,000 square miles. This is equivalent in size to three and a half times the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. … Of this immense area, it is estimated that some 198 million acres is forest land, with slightly more than half of it productive. This area of forest land is equal to one-half the forest area of all the countries of Europe, exclusive of Russia. It is equal to seven times the forest area of France, and three times that of Sweden.… The forest throughout this vast extent includes about 90 kinds of trees, exclusive of the hawthorns, and shows well-marked differences in the occurrence of these, as one travels from south to north.

From the 1980 7th edition of The Forest Trees of Ontario.

Once the E. L. Moore book is done I want to get back to modelling trees and pick up where I left off last year. Trying to make properly scaled trees, not the usual dinky sized, lollipop things one usually sees on layouts, was something of a revelation. Just getting the size, shape, and colour right, even if the detailing wasn’t quite up to par, made for a big improvement in the overall look of my little Loonar Module. Up close it’s clear its trees need work, but standing back a bit and looking at the whole composition I’m struck by a feeling of rightness and recognition with the scene. 

This, for better or worse, has made me a tree snob. Any how-to-make-model-trees guide that doesn’t start with looking around outside at trees, research in books or the internet about real trees, or simply looking at tree photographs, I immediately dismiss. I realize for most layouts trees are background items, and often vast quantities are needed, so approximate methods are required for their construction, but still, I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing with that approach, especially when there’s conceptual spillover when it comes to making so-called quick-and-easy foreground trees.

So far the guides that have helped me the most are a series of tree making videos by Boomer Diorama, and Gordon Gravett’s two tree modelling books. 

Here’s one of Boomer’s videos, but there are several more at his channel.

I bought copies of Gravett’s books online from the Pendon Museum’s shop last year. They were pricey, but well worth it.

Boomer models British Columbia’s trees and Gravett does England’s, with me it’s Ontario’s, so although I can use their techniques I had to look up some Ontario specific tree reference material. On The Loonar Module I used my own photos and some data found on the internet. For the next round I thought I’d see what I could find in the way of Ontario tree guidebooks.  

Inside Ontario Trees

When we were visiting the Royal Ontario Museum a few weeks ago I found a copy of Jeffery Domm’s Ontario Trees in the gift shop. It was published in 2022, and I’ve eyed it for awhile at a few online booksellers. When I saw it live and in person, ok, well, I bought a copy. I figured even though I’d have to carry it back home, at least I wasn’t giving Jeff B. even more of my money and my purchase was helping out a place I liked, even if only in a small way. 

I must admit I bought it mainly for the pictures of entire trees and tree data, which are excellent. The subtitle is A visual guide to the most important species and the publisher’s done a great job in providing the visual information a modeller needs, even though they no doubt never had that in mind. 

Speaking of the publisher, it’s a Nova Scotia company called Formac Publishing, and in the acknowledgements section the publisher notes it received financial support for the book from both the federal government and the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. I don’t see any note of any support from the Ontario government. Weird. 

However, here’s something of a classic in Ontario tree identification literature that the Ontario government did at one time support and publish: The Forest Trees of Ontario. Copies of this publication by the Ministry of Natural Resources seemed to be everywhere when I was growing up. The cover is instantly recognizable to me, but I had more-or-less forgotten what was inside, so I bought a copy of the 1980 edition from an online bookseller. 

It’s not much use to the modeller as it focuses on structured tree identification by leaves, fruit, bark, and twigs. There’s an extensive collection of photographs of those things, but none of whole trees. 

The front matter notes the book had been in print since 1925, and was revised in 1946 and 1968. In the forward to the 1925 edition it’s noted:

Twenty-four years ago, Dr. W. H. Muldrew, a well-known Ontario educationist and naturalist, issued the first tree book of the province, entitled “Sylvan Ontario - A Guide to Our Native Trees and Shrubs.” This was a very useful publication, filling a long-felt want, but has been out of print for many years. 

Some leaf drawings from Sylvan Ontario

Luckily I have the internet and found an online copy of this 1901 book. 

It turns out Dr. W. H. Muldrew is William Hawthorne Muldrew, B.A., D. PAED, Principal of the Gravenhurst High School. Wikipedia tells me, “Dr. W. H. Muldrew was the first principal and being an expert of native trees and shrubs, designed the landscaping.” Dr. Muldrew notes in the book’s preface, 

The trees, especially, so common and so interesting, though so little known, he [Muldrew that is] has tried to introduce to his classes as neighbors worthy of attentive study - not as mere units in a system, but as living things solving the problem of life in their own way. In pursuance to this idea there has been established in the grounds of the Gravenhurst High School an arboretum, where practically all the trees and shrubs of the district may be seen and studied. The collection and care of such specimens has made necessary an accurate knowledge of their features, and the method employed in introducing them to successive classes has helped to make possible the preparation of this hand-book.

Like The Forest Trees of Ontario that was published a quarter century later, the book features a structured method of tree identification based on leaves and other characteristics. Unlike The Forest Trees of Ontario, there are no photographs of leaves and so on, but there are 131 leaf drawings by the author. No drawings of entire trees though.

I don’t know why these old Ontario books don’t have any photos or drawings of entire trees. Maybe that was not considered existential for identification? Maybe that was too arty for inclusion? Production complications? Something else?

I couldn’t end this without mentioning Trees and How They Grow by Katherine Carter. It’s not about Ontario trees, but I did receive it as a Christmas gift in Ontario in 1967.

Finally finished the AMT GMC Jimmy kit

Back in September I decided to take the Jimmy off the shelf and finish it. Long time readers may recall building up the chassis was giving me fits, and I shelved the project before it could cause long term psychological damage :-)

Why the change of heart? In late August and early September last year I was getting all sentimental as the first magazine I bought dealing with plastic model construction was the September '72 issue of Car Model. It had been 50 years since getting into model building. The young me was enthralled by the cover story: how to build the 'Desert Dodge' from MPC's Baja-Brute, a kit of a Dodge Adventurer SE pickup. 

I was lucky to find the kit used in the story for sale in the toy department at a local Simpsons store. I saved up my allowance, bought one, and did the best I could to build that truck. Well, I didn't come close to reproducing the model in the magazine, but had great fun trying.

So, last September I started thinking, I could get the Jimmy off the shelf and build it up to resemble the Desert Dodge. Remembering how frustrating this kit was I gave up on that idea before it got too far and decided instead to use the Jimmy to practice my painting skills. It had lots of molded on trim and it seemed like that would be fun to paint. I had already sprayed the body during my first attempt at the kit, so after close to 2 years on the shelf, it was cured enough for detail painting :-)

Painting was indeed pleasant, and it was satisfying to see the model come to life with each new item painted, but a few steps before finishing the model I shelved it again to devote myself to the ELM book. I didn't want anything potentially distracting me from making progress on the manuscript.

Ok, this time the shelf was metaphorical. The model was actually pushed to a corner of my workbench and ignored. A few days ago I noticed it had acquired a few stray paint flecks and a lot of dust. There were only a few steps left, so I cleaned up the model and finished it.

I had hopes of adding more interior detail and a bit of light weathering, but I thought too much time had passed and just glued on and painted up the pieces left - and some pieces I had lost during the long period of neglect, like the rearview mirror.

Overall, although the painting part was fun, I found this a tough kit to build because it seemed there were many part fit issues and often the parts weren't too well molded, which I assume was because the mold was quite old by now as this a repop of an old kit.

From Scalextric to E. L. Moore

The E. L. Moore eBook is in the final stages of development - ok, well, the manuscript is almost done, and I'm revising it like crazy.

Early on in the book I talk about how I 'discovered' E. L. Moore by way of a youthful slot car obsession. A friend and I played with Eldon cars and Scalextric track in the summer of '73, and I went all out making buildings for our layout. In my search for building models I stumbled across the work of E. L. Moore, and the rest is history :-) 

A couple of weeks ago I started to wonder if a small Scalextric course for 1/32 scale cars could be built these days. By "small" I had in mind something around 2m x 1m that could be built on a thick foam base.  

PaperClip 7 using Scalextric Classic track

I looked around for a planning tool and came across RailModeller Express for the Mac. It has templates for Scalextic track, and only cost 99¢ at Apple's App Store for a version that can handle up to 50 pieces of track, which seemed like plenty for the little layout I had in mind.

I'd been doodling a paperclip shaped layout so that's what I tried to build. 

It turns out there are two types of Scalextric track: Classic and Sport.

Classic was discontinued years ago, but I remember it from childhood, so I tried something with it first. I was able to fit a layout in 2m x 1m without too much effort.

PaperClip7 using Scalextric Sport track

Sport is the current offering, and can be used for digital or analog layouts, whereas Classic was apparently only good for analog. Any layout I'd build would be analog.

A problem I found is Sport doesn’t offer a crossover on a straight section of track, only on an R2 curve! For reasons of geometry this forces all curves in the paperclip to be R2 and makes for a bulkier layout. Lengthwise the course just squeezes into 2m, but widthwise it's a good 20cm or so too wide.

I used 4 crossovers in the Sport version instead of just 2 to try and make the race as fair and equal as possible, but I wonder if it is too difficult. Clearly I need to keep experimenting with this tool.

Yes, RailModeller Express does allow you to design railroad track plans too as its name suggests! The full version of RailModeller doesn't have the 50 piece limit, so you can dream up a huge empire. It's a great tool if the Scalextric part is anything to go by and I'm looking forward to trying model railroad track planning with it.

Beaver and Cub

Back in 2016 I had a go at building the HO scale Piper Cub kit offered by Osborn Model Kits. I was charmed by that little model and several years later bought Osborn's DHC-2 Beaver floatplane kit for the Loonar Module. I found the Beaver to be a challenging build, but it does produce a striking model.

I recently discovered that Osborn produces a float kit for the Cub. I bought one because I'd like the Cub to appear in new Loonar Module photos when I can again take the layout outside for pictures. If the scaling on these models is accurate, the Beaver is quite large in comparison to the Cub. When I bring the Cub up to the dock, there isn't a lot of clearance between it's wing and the deck.

Although the float kit is rather simple, it was tricky to get it attached to the fuselage. I had filled the fuselage's mounting slots when I attached the landing gear, so I had to cut off the tabs on the float's legs and simply Weld Bond on the assembly to the fuselage's bottom. Also, when I built the Cub back in 2016 I didn't attach the wing properly and it had a bit of anhedral. I think the Cub has a flat wing. I snapped off the wing to flatten it, but in the end wound up giving it a bit of dihedral as I thought that gave the model a little jauntier look out on the Loonar Module's lake. 

While I wait for the Loonar Module's Tranquility Lake to unfreeze, I'll leave you with Frank.

A thick slab of Kato Unitram track

I've been spending most of my modelling time working on the E. L. Moore book. When I've needed a mental break, actual model making didn't appeal, but futzing with layout building did.

I sort of scared myself when I saw the last time I posted on this little layout was December third, and here we are in the second half of January. All I can say is that working on the book is sucking back a lot of time, but in between figuring out where to put commas, and usually failing, I have been breathing in styrofoam dust - hmm, which might account for the comma problem.

The next layout job I had to do was drill some holes to snake the wiring through the slab. There were two pairs of holes to drill: one pair for the power leads for each track, and a second pair for the switch machine toggle switches on the inner loop. 

I used a 1" diameter bit held in a brace for this task. I think that brace is quite ancient as I believe it came across to Canada with my grandfather. It's a fine piece of English engineering and I greatly enjoy using it whenever I can, even on a piddly little task like boring holes in foam. 

Ok, there are the four holes, bored all the way through to the bottom of the slab. 

The next thing was to bore four holes in the slab's sides to intersect with those I drilled down from the top. The power feeds are going to pop out the sides for connecting to a power pack, and the switch machine wires are going to connect with side mounted toggle switches.

I used the same 1" diameter bit to bore out these holes.

At this point all the holes are bored out, and I've flipped over the track to test that I can snake the wiring through the holes and run some cars to make sure the track is still functioning. 

At this point the slab's sides are still quite rough. Smoothing them a bit before the track was attached was the next job.

This meant using another ancient tool: my grandfather's wood rasp. It's the same vintage as the brace, and this is a rather trivial job for it. So, with rasp and sanding block I smoothed down the foam sides and got it to more-or-less conform with the track's perimeter. Over there you can see the result. Later, when the track was stuck down, I came back and did some more smoothing to finish it off.

So, I flipped the track upside down again and did the final preparation for sticking it in place.

First was to glue scraps of styrene over the holes that run down the centre of the track for the overhead wiring poles. Since this is an HO-9 layout, those holes won't be used for anything. They'll be filled with putty, and the styrene helps prevent putty from squirting out the bottom.

The next thing was to change the setting on the two switches that are on the street end from their factory setting of 'power routing' to 'non power routing'. I did this to prevent any odd power problems originating from that end of the layout if a visitor absentmindedly started fiddling with the switches, and to allow for layout expansion - a rather unlikely development I admit. Well, if you were going to add a stub loop like this one on a large layout, you'd need to have these switches on non power routing to prevent disruption of movements in the loop. Anyway, if you're going to make such a change, follow the instructions on the card that comes with the switch.

I then used a black Sharpie pen to outline the track on the foam. This was to give me a guide for placing the transfer tape that was used to stick down the track.

Ah, transfer tape, it's a miracle tape as far as I'm concerned. 

To hold the track in place I stuck down transfer tape along the inner and outer edges of the track plan. In the photo its been placed, and all that needs to be done is to peel off the paper backing from the exposed side and place the track on top. This is easier said than done. Flipping the track on the tape and getting it aligned is a tricky maneuver. Sorry, I have no photos or videos of the action, as my hands were occupied getting the track in place.

In the end though I did get the track properly positioned and stuck down.

At this point there was some more work with the rasp and sanding block to finish the slab side smoothing to get a nice edge with the track sides. 

Also, some thin foam - some leftover packing from a desk that was delivered over the Christmas holidays - was stuck down between the tracks to level off the surface. Transfer tape was also used to hold that in place.

Here's what the curved end looks like after rasping and sanding. It's not too bad. Although, here's a tip: don't wear a woolly sweater while smoothing no matter how cold the basement is :-)

There was one more thing to do before painting the slab's sides black. I added a trim strip of 0.020" styrene to cover the gaps between the track and foam. It was attached with transfer tape, and the strip's upper edge was glued to the track's edge with styrene glue. 

Once the glue was dry I primed the sides with gesso, and then painted on two coats of black acrylic paint. 

I'm quite happy with how this is turning out, but I think it's time to get back to the book.

Sittin' and a-Thinkin'

I'm reviewing all my reference material as I work on the manuscript. I found I had overlooked a letter Moore wrote to Hal Carstens in Jan '68 where he mentioned that a book called Sittin' and a-Thinkin', by Ernst Peterson and Glenn Chaffin, was a source of many of his outhouse models. I haven't found a reasonably priced copy yet (no, I won't pay $50US to ship one to Canada as one online seller demands), but I did find a scan of the cover online. The book's cover photo seems very close to that Moorian outhouse model you see on the left. Makes me wonder what else I'll find inside.

A Dilly of a diorama

I finally got the lead out and finished the first diorama. This one is an homage to the industrial strip that ran along one edge of E. L. Moore's old time shortline terminal yard, featured in his article Turn Backward, O Time that appeared in the January 1967 issue of Model Railroader. If you have access to that issue you can see these models on pages 57, 62, and 64. Here we are in January 2023, 56 years later, and I'm still impressed that these little buildings are in such great shape. They let us see that Mr. Moore was a great colourist, something that readers half-a-century ago in that long gone black-and-white world never knew. That yard of his would have been a sight to see. Well, my time machine's buried under a mountain of snow, so we'll never know :-)