Amazing project Mark- I'll be following.

Thanks very much Mark!

And thank you for following the build!

Nice work Bob, and fast!

Appreciate the compliment Doug!

Thanks very much Karl!

Looks good Bob. What scale?

Thank you very much for your kind words George and Steve!

Thank you Curt, Dave, Greg, Vince, Bob, Tom, Mark, Paul, Jeff and Jan!

I am humbled by your compliments, and sincerely appreciate them.
It was a pleasure to bring the Spirit of Christmas to the forum.

I'm calling this done....thanks to everyone for watching and commenting.

The theme is the children have been given a ride on the Polar express to meet Santa at the North Pole. This is just before he departs on his long journey across the world, which means it's just before midnight. All of these pix were taken to depict that time.....(even though in reality- during late December-the North Pole experiences 24 hours of daylight! )

Thanks to everyone for the compliments, suggestions and criticism. I appreciate the encouragement and support of all members.

Many challenges were here.  I hope I explained my procedures plainly, and passed on some usable tips along the way.
Hopefully , others will try more scratch building

I posted 100+ photos, which do a much better job of showing the process than words ever can.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks Karl.

The sleigh is a nice kit, & Santa looks great in a long coat too!

Jerry, George and Doug, thank you very much!

Happy this put you in a Holiday mood, that was my purpose all along!

John, Curt Paul and Janbouli- thank you all very much for your kind words.

I sincerely appreciate your attention.

The base is now painted and dry brushed its final colors. Steps, railings and pedestal glued down. Between the rails I installed a wooden insert, and covered it with a light coat of joint compound & more paint.



A  common 12" twisted wire bottlebrush tree is being decorated with miniature lights and ornaments by the Mrs.. Some were hung with decorative string, but a hot glue gun was used for most items..



The interurban, colonnade and the tree are having their LED wires fished through the top, then the entire unit lowered down & glued to the bottom section.



I can now mount the building and finish up the wiring.



A 9 volt 1500 ma power supply is sufficient for this many lights.



I found a Micronart (sadly closed down) brass kit of an 1889 4 passenger sleigh. A single small .009" sheet of parts. Instructions were straightforward and CA glue is recommended.



The bench seats are folded in to shape. I pre-painted these and other parts and will touch up later.



You could leave the brass alone in some areas like the main runners and rails, but it just looked too stark. I mixed some silver and bronze metallic paints together instead.



Preiser brand reindeer and Santa Claus are receiving some much needed color alterations and aging.



Till next time....the final pix....

Thank you Tom.

I'm glad you're enjoying the build!

Thank you Jerry.

Should have it done soon....