By all accounts his weekend’s Vancouver Train Expo was a roaring success. It was perfect train show weather – raining enough to keep people focused indoors, but not so awful that they wouldn’t go out – and the ticket sales reflected that opportunity. Over at the Craftsman’s Corner, we had a steady stream of visitors during my afternoon of modelling. Some of them had questions or wanted to learn, some were old friends stopping by to say hello, but the vast majority seemed to be very young children who watched wide-eyed as their parents stood behind and took a break from – well – parenting.
The benefit of being more of a zoo animal than a mentor is that I managed to get quite a lot done. Indeed, if I’d brought a functioning grass applicator, the whole stock yard project might have been complete.
With the cattle chutes so distant, I decided to go with the printed models, rather than building them up from wood. I spent most of the time trying to coax plastic into woodiness. If you don’t look too closely, the layering of yellow ochre, burnt umber and black seems to have done the trick.
The prototype plans include a top rail on the fences, but the fences themselves were wire. I like the lightness of the wire fences, but I may try out a top rail to make them more accurate. Altogether, between amazing progress and some fine conversations, it was a splendid way to spend a rainy, but not too rainy, Sunday afternoon.
Pembroke:87 