In this thread, I'm going to document progress on scratchbuilding buildings associated with the semi-ghost town of Galena, SD, around 1915. This town is going to be the centerpiece of a modular HOn30 layout that I plan to construct this summer. For now, I've been working on scratching structures that either were in Galena or that would fit with the general location of a narrow gauge silver mining line in the Black Hills.
Earlier this month, I wrote up a history of narrow gauge in the northern Black Hills: (
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=744. My layout is going to be based on the Branch Mint Railroad, a 3 mile mining narrow guage tram linking several mines in the Strawberry creek gulch area to a crushing and smelting operation based in the town of Galena. Part of this line ran parallel to a spur of the Deadwood Central. I think this will provide a lot of interesting scenery options and I have been able to track down a treasure trove of historical photos of the region, particularly the mines, mills, and town buildings.
First up is a line of saloons scratched from this picture:
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And several views of my models. These were board on board, with hand lettered signs (which I'm still not 100% happy with). The photo doesn't show it, but the original names of the saloons were the Irish World and the Mint, but they may be transposed. McTeague's Barber takes its name from the Frank Norris novel.
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One more, this is comparable to the original photo.
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Obviously I still have some things to work on, but I'm going to declare this one done enough for now and move on to some others.
Nice.
I can almost hear the piano playing and the poker chips hitting the tables.
That's great! Really captures the look of the period!
Ralph
Here are some others. These are based on Al Armitage plans (available through Precision Scale Co.) for a boarding house in Tonopah, NV.
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I am struggling with a new camera and especially the white balance, so the color on these seems way off.
great buildings have a older boom town look . have you looked in the Denver public library site? they have a lot of boom town photos.
Jim
Excellent buildings worthy of any layout. Well done Joes.
most excellent! I can't wait to see the layout!
I swear I just saw Clint Eastwood in a flat brimmed hat in the saloon. Well done! Really nice modeling!
Those are excellent structures.
Yes indeed. VERY NICE !!!
Outstanding work!
What's your primary material? Styrene, wood, card? Or do you mix n match as necessary?
Again, great work!
Galen
Thanks everyone. These have been fun to work on and there are a few more on the way. Now I just need to get motivated to start work on the layout/module.
Galen, I use mostly wood -- usually a mix of scribed panels (clapboard, board and batten, etc) from Micromark and board on board with hand cut strips from 1/64" birch plywood (that's the main material in the row of saloons and also for all the boardwalks). I think for this era, real wood just looks best. I have been using windows and doors from Tichy and use a variety of materials for roofing -- the shake shingles are from Papercreek models and the tar paper is my own creation using painted and weathered brown lunch sacks.
I am finishing up "The Corner", a small store or saloon. I want to play with the settings on my new camera, but will post some more pictures soon.
-Joe