A start on armatures for black walnut trees

I've made a start on a pair of armatures to model a pair of black walnut trees near my house.

I found these trees to be a bit trickier to model than the white pines I made for the Loonar Module. These walnut trees have far more fine branches, and I'm still in the process of figuring out how many to include to give a proper impression. At this point I think the armatures still need more. 

My estimates at height suggest these trees are around 65' tall. My tree book says mature specimens can grow from 82' to 98', so the urban ones on which these armatures are based are a little on the short side. 

Those green limbs and trunks are made up from 26 gauge floral wire bundles, and the finer branches (the aluminum ones, which are admittedly hard to see in this picture) are twisted from 30 gauge.

Lazy days of summers gone by

Malcolm Furlow, Photographer/Modeler

Furlow centre spread from A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos

My love affair with model photography began during the summer of 1978. Up until that time I was a professional musician traveling throughout the United States, playing Reno, Tahoe, Vegas, and a host of other, lesser-known watering holes.

As I look back on what seemed a strange transition at the time (becoming a photographer/modeler), I have now come to regard my entry into this creative field as a natural extension of my music career.

From Malcom Furlow’s introduction to his chapter, Performing the art of illusion, in Kalmbach’s 1991 book, A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos.

Furlow’s thought that his move from being a working musician to a photographer/modeler was a perfectly natural career development is quite interesting, but I’ll leave the discussion of the link between model railroading and music to another time as it’s Furlow as photographer I want to take a look at.

In my last attempt to write something on Furlow to mark his passing I detoured onto E. L. Moore street. I guess that happened as my connection to Furlow’s work isn’t that strong. Although he was a prolific and influential modeller, I didn’t build any of his model projects or layouts. When he was at his peak in the model railroading press, I wasn’t active in the hobby, just a sometime reader of magazines. 

What I did appreciate at the time, and continued to appreciate over the years, was his skill as a photographer. He was that rare breed who could create a miniature scene, light it, and then capture it on film in such a way that you believed it was real and you were there, in it and a part of it. I think the majority of model railroaders aren’t able to photographically capture the excitement they feel about their layouts. It’s only a few who can, and those photos energize and change their own work as well as inspire others to improve theirs too. This is a group that includes John Allen, John Ahern, E. L. Moore, Dave Frary, John Olson, Paul Scoles, Ben King, and many others whose use of photography as an inspirational tool has changed the hobby as much as any hands-on modelling technique.

When Furlow was active in the hobby in the 1980s and 1990s I gather he often took a lot of flak, sometimes personal, from more tradition-oriented constituencies and that was one of the reasons he left model railroading for an extended period. Apparently his work was accused of being a John Allen derivative, that he was an imposter, and his approach and view was out-of-step with the real prototype and operations wings of the hobby. I recall reading somewhere that Furlow said he was indeed inspired by John Allen’s work, but was his work derivative? I don’t think so. Again, from his writings, it appears John Allen’s work was one source of inspiration, but his love and affinity with the western and southwestern US was more influential. One of the hobby’s characteristics that accounts for its ongoing popularity is that it has many facets: the ability to simulate railroad business operations, electronics & control, historical modelling, scenery construction, structure building, a wide range of scales and layout sizes, and so on. Conflicts can arise when a large constituency has formed around one of those facets and believes it represents the ‘correct’ way to engage with the hobby, which is no different than lots of other activities in life. 

For me though, it was Furlow's photographs that I remember and admire. I still hope I can achieve even just a fraction of his technical mastery and skill at visual storytelling. If you can find a copy of A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos, buy it. Yes, the photographic techniques it discusses are from the film era, but the photos themselves, text from the authors, and the setups are timeless.

Cal's Lumberyard: The back wall

I decided to make the main building's back wall next.

It's more or less the same as shown in the article. The only changes I made were to add a window in the peak to match the one in the front wall, and to make sure the openings were the same height as the one for narrow gauge freight cars on the front.

The back wall's 3 vertical posts are cut from 0.125" square styrene strips.

The inside surfaces are detailed with styrene strips: mainly 0.020" x 0.080" on the back wall, and 0.020" x 0.040" on the front. Anybody who knows anything about framing real walls will note that these are quite laughable. They would be rather rickety and likely blow over in a light breeze. I've made no attempt for high fidelity in the framing department, only for some hint of realism as a stage for people and freight cars as they will be the centres of interest. It's all quite impressionistic. 

I'm always in awe of those YouTube modellers who can keep a nice, clean workspace while they are building. I've never managed it. I try to post some clean photos of major assemblies once they're finished so you can see them without visual clutter, but those photos don't represent what goes on during construction.

And, I've never managed to keep a set of plans clean throughout a build either. They're used as a tool during construction, and I will usually update and 'enhance' them as a project evolves. They are truly working drawings - arithmetic mistakes and all :-)

Now that the end walls are done, the main building's 2 side walls and interior partition are up next. I suspect these are going to be tricky.

E. L. Moore's Cal's Lumberyard: The Office

Temporarily staged office / front facade / loading platform

I'm not building this thing in any order that could be considered logical. I decided to build the office next because I had some ideas on how to change its design a little that I wanted to try out.

Overall I want Cal's to look less closed up and more open, so, with this in mind, I introduced 4 large windows along the office's long exterior side, as well as a full length window along the front with a door that had a large window. These are Tichy Train Group items. Unfortunately I don't know their part numbers as they came in Tichy's HO scale assortment box, and I lost the box and parts sheet years ago.

There was a little method to my madness in placing the windows and doors.

I had to make sure the front window and door would not be blocked by the main building's loading door when it was slid open.

Each room was to get 2 exterior windows, and 1 of each pair of windows was to line up so that one could see through to an interior door opening to the main building. 

As well, the passage door opening between the rooms was lined up to be directly in line with the front door.

These alignments were done to maximize the opportunities for long views into the model, and for light to travel as far as possible inside. You may recall I took the same approach with Caleb's Cabbage Co., so it seems to be a design principle for all of Cal's businesses :-)

Outside surfaces

The 3 exterior walls were cut from Evergreen Scale Models Clapboard siding, item #4061, which is 0.040" thick. I made a serious newbie level mistake when I cut the walls: I forgot to make sure the boards were exactly parallel to the long edges of the sheet. It turns out they were a little skewed, and I should have trimmed the sheet so I'd start off with square material. My excuse is I went directly to the sheet's flat side once I pulled it from its packaging, and then drew and cut out the walls. When I flipped the pieces over: ack! I was not in a mood to cut new pieces, so I decided to say they add character to the model and will cast aspersions on Cal :-) The other walls and floor are cut from plain 0.040" sheet styrene. The side of the wall that faces into the main building has been scored to represent horizontal boards.

Inside surfaces

I framed the edges of all the interior window and door openings with 0.020" x 0.040" styrene, which is a bit chunky, but will give some definition when peering inside. I plan to paint the interior some light colour.

I've added a long loading platform to connect the big narrow gauge car exit door opening, the smaller sliding loading door, and the office door. The platform it 8' wide, and is built up from 3 pieces of 0.060" thick sheet styrene and a piece of 0.020" thick scribed styrene for the top layer. I thought the large platform might enhance the possibilities for staging scenes on this end of the building. There likely needs to be a little more done to the platform, but I haven't settled on what just yet.

What's the next step? Maybe the back wall of the main building.