Rob, your African Queen looks wonderful!
Great work on the boiler, and she does run much smoother than your other ship.
She literally appears to be moving under her own power, so very nice work on figuring out how to do that!

Greg

Rob, this whole structure is really shaping up well!
Keep up the great work!

Greg

Mark, everytime I check into see what your doing (I should really do it more often) I am blown away by your amazing work!
Both on your layout design and construction, and also by your superb modeling.
Please keep inspiring us all to become better layout builders & modellers!

Greg

Hi Rob, this looks like a really interesting & fun structure to build!
It already looks like your off to a great start.
I look forward to watching you build this!

Greg

Hi Rob, sorry for the late reply.
I've been up north building a bunkie at our cottage.
Thanks for your kind words once again!
Lighting up structures up is a bit of a curse, once you start doing it, you can't stop doing it.

Greg

Rob, your maiden voyage of your little cruiser already looks exciting!
Perhaps a clear plastic rod glued between the middle of the stern and the side of the dinghy would stop any swinging.
I also thought a half submerged crock following the cruiser would be a fun addition to this scene.
Looking forward to seeing this whole scene take shape!

Greg

Hi Guys, I just got back from the cottage last night.
Thanks so much for all of your very nice comments, I really appreciate them!

Jerry I will answer your PM right now.

Greg

Philip, Mike, Mark & Dave, thanks for your nice comments!

I am heading back up to our cottage to work again.
We are building a bunkie for extra sleeping space.
Our cottage is on a lake called Go Home Lake.
I now call it Go Home tired lake because all I ever seem to do is work up there!

So I took the coal tower outside and took a few photos of it so that you can better see how the lights look on the tower.





Greg

Quote from: Philip on July 20, 2026, 07:11:03 PMIt's long term use can't be good for you.    

Well heck!
                          a
                        a
                      a
                    a
                  a
                Ha

                            a
                          a
                        a
                      a
                    a
                  a
                Ha

 

Philip, you've been warned! 
Thanks for having a sense of humor!

Greg

quote author=craftsmankits link=msg=208380 date=1784587868]
That looks really nice. Could you take a few pictures of it at night to show off the lighting?  Great rendition of this kit.  Thanks for sharing, Mark
[/quote]

Thanks so much, Mark.
I would like to take this coaling tower outside at dusk to photograph soon.
However I did take this photo of it on my workbench last night, that shows some of the lighting a bit better.



I will post some more night photos when I get a chance to take them.

Greg

Quote from: Rick on July 20, 2026, 06:06:56 PMGreg, that's another beauty.
I always enjoy seeing your models.
I'm excited to see this layout you're building.
I'm guessing the Rail Scale Miniatures mention is a typo.

Rick, thanks so much!
Your excited to see my layout! I'm even more excited to see my layout!
Now if somebody could talk to my wife about all of the other projects she has me working on instead, maybe I could have more time to work on it!
Yes indeed the Rail Scale Miniatures was a mistake, so I fixed that.

Greg

Quote from: Philip on July 20, 2026, 05:50:41 PMSweet in a high pitched voice!

Philip

Philip, thanks very much!
You really must stop breathing in Helium, it's long term use can't be good for you.

Greg

Quote from: Jerry on July 20, 2026, 04:04:19 PMGreg this is built to your very high standards.
Perfectly done!

Jerry

Jerry, you are always so very kind with your comments!
Thank you for that!

Greg

Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on July 20, 2026, 03:46:15 PMReally nicely done, Greg.

It looks terrific.  Nice ridge capping.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark, thanks very much!
That ridge capping was made by Hamilton Model Works.
Sadly they are no longer in business.

Greg

Quote from: deemery on July 20, 2026, 01:08:42 PMAs I recall, the 'original model' was a contest-winning model by Canadian modeler Jock Oliphant, which was written up in the model magazines the year it won at NMRA. 

NICE work!

dave

Thanks, Dave.
You must have a very good memory!
Yes indeed Jack did build an award winning model of this coaling tower.
Except his was the exact copy of the original tower, which was much bigger than this one from FSM's
George condensed his version of this tower for this kit offering of it.
However he still managed to capture the escsence of the real coal tower it was based on.
Stafford Swain did a multi part article in the 80's in Model Railroad Craftsman of building the full size version of the real tower.
He thought he could use this kit, however the lumber in the kit was all to short.
So he ended up using only the castings from this kit to build the larger version of this same tower.

Greg