1943 model train layout

[Mark Tombleson]

Great Stuff,,, congratulations!

I really enjoy this thread... very cool!

[Lee Bishop]

It's been a bad couple of weeks for me and I'm just in a place where I can post about it. 
My parents were both born in 1936, and well into their 30s when I was born. They had all the types of issues you expect from people past their mid-80s.
Dad got sick, went to the hospital, got COVID along the way (the hospital and the assisted living place are pointing at each other as to how he got it) and from those complications, he passed away on June 6. I find that date ironic as I've always been into military history and June 6 will never again be mainly the anniversary of the Normandy Landings in 1944..
I DO NOT want a bunch of responses to this or platitudes. I've got more of that than I could ever use at this point.
Dad was not only a great man (kind, funny, and the smartest person I've ever known), he was finest craftsman. In the 60s, he built a Civil War cannon (a M1841 6-pounder) that we re-enacted with into the 1990s. 

Other than the barrel (the only thing he couldn't cast), he made every single piece of it, and anything that could be bronze, he made it as such. He couldn't bring himself to paint it after making those wheels.
He also built several cannon models, and this 1/6 scale James Rifle appeared in Finescale Modeler from this series of photos I took of it.




As for how this factors into my layout, Dad's last gun barrel is on my layout. I wanted a memorial on my layout to that unpleasantness in the 1860s (some Southerners call it, "The War of Northern Aggression,
 but East Tennessee was quite pro-Union during that timeframe, something I bet they're proud of in a PC-centric world). He said he only needed to know what kind of gun barrel and scale I wanted. As I know the types, I said I wanted a 12-pounder 'Napoleon' in 1/48 scale, and it showed up in the mail about a week or so later. I jokingly said he didn't drill the vent at the back, which would be smaller than a tiny fraction of the diameter of a human hair. He thought that response was funny.

I made the pedestal, and I still can't bring myself to weather it as it'd look (all such bronze barrels outside are oxidized in green unless someone polishes them regularly).

I just wish he'd been able to see the layout. I miss you, Dad.

[chibobber]

Lee,
I will not honor your wish. You learned from the best.
Bob

[Lee Bishop]

You learned from the best.

I did, indeed, Bob. Thank you.

[Lee Bishop]

I took some more shots last night, for a article I'm sending to the NMRA magazine. The vertical one is one I'm going to submit, but in color. I really like the 'old photo' effect on it, though.

[Fushigi Ojisan]

The cannon reminded me of the one outside the courthouse where I did jury duty

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109154

Sent from my SM-T733 using Tapatalk

[Chuck W.]

I still can't bring myself to weather it as it'd look (all such bronze barrels outside are oxidized in green unless someone polishes them regularly).

You could always put a figure on a ladder, with a rag, polishing the barrel. It would explain the shine and also make an interesting vignette for your visitors to stumble across.

[Lee Bishop]

More publications are afoot!
Trackside Model Railroading came by last week to shoot stills and video for their online magazine and DVD series.
And it's official; the Kalmbach Model Railroad Planning Annual for 2024 will feature an article on my layout!

[chibobber]

Congratulations!

[Lee Bishop]

Just uploaded these:
https://youtube.com/shorts/dlz8xPvy1xs

https://youtube.com/shorts/JcKgQkb6vMs

https://youtube.com/shorts/dv0q-sbod-k? ... kvXvG_vZVC

[Lee Bishop]

https://www.tracksidemodelrailroading.c ... /oct-2023/
Here's my latest magazine appearance. They came out to shoot stills and video not long ago.
It's not much if you REALLY want to see it.