It’s Uno de Mayo and time to start ramping up those summer projects! Personally, this time of year makes me think about Christmas! [(-D] And around MY house Christmas means train layouts and lots of em’! [:D]
So here we go!
You ready for round 3?
Are you ready to see what’s new, exciting and in the works for my pocket Disneyland? [;)]
Well then…
Strike up the band!
Let’s have a parade!!!
Who’s that cheeky fellow in the lead? It’s James from the Isle of Sodor with Peter Pan and Wendy whipping up the crowd from his running boards!
Mickey and Minnie are on the first float in this small parade that salutes some of my favorite Disney characters, films and theme park attractions.
Very well done Becky! Not that much Disney items in O gauge from what I have seen, so you must have spent some time finding all the Disney items and putting them together. I have the H.O. version of the Disney train from the Orlando FL theme park, bought it while at Disney. In O gauge I have tried to do a Shrek station with Fiona and Puss In Boots figuires and named it Ogre Pass, done in 027 track.
This one is a perfect edxample of all 4 sources for character figures I used. Daisy in the foreground is from the Polly Pocket Disney Castle Playset of 1999(?) while Plute to her left and Goofy are figures from sets used with Disney’s current Monorail playsets. Chip and Dale (You’re seeing Dale here, Chip has a black nose like a chocolate chip in case you ever wondered how to tell them apart) is riding on a Jolly Trolley wind-up toy from Burger King. And Donald is from a series of capsule figures which approximate the Marx Disneykins line of the 1960’s. “Capsule figures” or “Gashapon” are what you see in vending machines these days in place of gumballs. They cost a couple of bucks each on Ebay.
Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Peter Pan, Wendy, Belle, Cinderella and Tinkerbelle (on top of James’ boiler) are Polly Pocket. Goofy and Pluto are monorail figures and Donald, Aurora and Snow White are Gashapon.
The carousel is also from the Polly Pocket Playset.
What’s old is new again. The coolest mountain in the Disney range gets rebuilt.
Here’s old Space Mountain. As you can see, it got a bit squished! [:S]
The train had also been whacking into it a bit. So, it was time to build a new one. Which is one of the things that I love about paper modeling: when the old one’s done, recycle it!
So here’s the new, stronger (and straighter) Space Mountain:
Under the dome I’ve increased it’s crush resistance by adding a central support structure and additional parts I didn’t have on the original (2006). The original kit (free for download at www.disneyexperience.com) has the dome segments attached directly to the angled ring near the top. On my original build, I followed the instructions but was unable to make the dome fit as designed with 110lb cardstock. Consequently, not that anybody could tell at first sight, my dome was one segment short and had a slightly higher pitch than designed. It wasn’t a big problem, except for when I added the base with t
Blown away again! Can’t wait to see space mountain all lit up. I think once I get further along on my layout you need to come visit and spend … oh … about a month here helping me construct a few of these master pieces.[swg]
This one I’ve been trying to figure out for years. Well, I finally came up with a reasonable way to make it work. Tomorrowland is a bit dark in my little Magic Kingdom. At WDW, there are these “killowatt palms” acting as street lights that I’ve always thought were pretty neat. But how to make them as 4 inch models? I’ve tried several times before but all the prototypes ended up in the trashcan, wether paper, plastic, metal or otherwise. What made it work this time, is that I finally have my favorite program up in a workable format on an old PC and was able to draw the way I like to. Those paper fronds along with some styrene tubing, plastic beads and 6v brass N scale streetlights did the trick.
That one little photo in the book “Since the World Began” is all I had to work from and I had to modify a bit, but overall I think they give the same effect. I’ll be making round bases for them with a built-in full circle bench and flowers at the base of the “trees”.
Tomorrow I hope to do some shopping and #1 on my list right now is finding blue lighting for Space Mountain.
Becky, check out the Bethlehem Lights section on QVC. They offer strands of LED lights in various colors. I plan on using a set on my power plant smoke stack.
This should lighten up Tomorrowland a bit. I found the planets at K Mart a couple of years ago. The dome base is a disfunctional tap light. The lighting is being provided by a string of 110v gow bulbs. The sign is a replica of the real thing even though the tower it’s attached to isn’t. Under “Tomorrowland” it says “The future that never was is finally here.” [:D]
I spent yesterday and today polishing steel rails and pins. I also did some painting on that train I’ve been working on for some time. Since I started that piece of the project, 2 of the biggest issues have always been #1 track and #2 which version of the 7 possibles should I do. Stylistically it’s closest to a Mark IV, at least as far as the “nose” is concerned. But as far as decoration goes (due in no small part to the shape of the windows on the Marx M10000 cars I used) I decided to do a Mark 1 paint job. So, it will be Red and silver with white running boards and black windows.
The track was always problem #1 once I decided on using Marx cars and a Lionel (modern) motor. There was just no way to get a motor that big (and reliable) into car bodies that small and have it end up looking like a true monorail. So the solution I chose was to mix designs a bit and cross monorail track with peoplemover track. In the end, the rails will be mounted without ties directly to sections of 1/4" luan plywood. A secondary smaller circle of plywood will be mounted to the bottom of the deck to give it both more girth and a bit of detail. The rail sides will be painted to match the shade of the track system which should help hide the fact that it’s a 3 rail system. But if you wa
The tea cups, which I’ve been experimenting with for years, ended up as a conglomeration of unlikely parts. The cup itself is half of a ping-pong ball while the saucers underneath came out of child resistant pill bottle caps. A piece of bent wire for a handle, a few styrene parts to make the seats and the center thingy and viola, a tea cup! I made the figures from hot glue and painted both them and the tea cups with acrylics. (stare at them too long and the paint flakes off) The highway style streetlamps aren’t exactly acurate, but they work. On top of their poles I painted some multifaceted beads to suggest the paper lanterns the real ride has. Now if I could just get it to spin…
Becky
P.S. I read the rough draft of the article this week…
The things you come up with just floors me! How in the world did you figure out a half of a ping pong ball for a cup??!! I have trouble figuring out stuff that is made to go together. [(-D]
Initially I searched for child size and doll sized tea cups but they were either way too big or way too small. I also discovered a plastic mold for a teacup along the way and considered making them from plaster or Sculpey. Or, I could have cut out and used the molds themselves. But that didn’t pan out either. I was resigned to the fact that I’d have to make them myself as either cardstock models or something else. But what to use?
It was just a couple of weeks ago that inspiration finally hit me while I was playing with a fishing bobber. I had bought several of them in various sizes to experiment with making a dome for the monorail. I had cut one of the larger ones in half and sitting there looking at it it was just about the right size and shape. It would work. But the downside was bobbers were both hard to cut in half and a bit pricey considering all I wanted to do was destroy them.
So, the search continued until Monday of this week when I stopped in at a Dollar Tree to see what was new. I love those kind of stores because I almost always find useful things. First I looked at the toy section, no help there. Then the party goods where I found some clear plastic cups about the size of shot glasses. They were OK, but not really the right shape. I was taking one last trip around the store resigned that it would be those shot glasses or nothing when I saw the package of ping-pong balls and knew they were the better choice. Monday night I cut one with an X-acto knife and built the prototype. In reality the saucer was harder to come up with than the cup. My unfortunate familiarity with medicine bottles is what led me to thinking about using a cap as a saucer.
Here’s the real trick. When I go shopping for supplies, I only see shapes. I don’t care what something was designed to do, only what it
