Great Lakes Lighthouse Diorama

[Jim Donovan]

I used the Cameo 3 to design and print out heavy cardstock bracing for the top, middle and bottom of the tower. All had a hole at their center the size to allow a straw to pass though. Each was double thick to make sure it would hold up. The bracing made the tube very close to round.

[Jim Donovan]

With the bracing in place the tube was placed on a straw and put in a vise. I cut out the stone textured paper (Ebay, comes from Greece) I choose a pattern that the brick was large so it would not be noticeable the rows were not completely horizontal due to the cone shape of the tube. Since the taper of the tube was slight visually the pattern lined up just fine and you can not see anything off.

I cut the paper a little wider and longer then needed. I smeared White Elmers glue over 1/2 of the tube, its entire length. Making sure no air bubbles formed I worked the paper around the tube. I put Elmers on the other half of tube and finished wrapping the tube. At this point I let it dry overnight to ensure it was dry. The next day I used a straight blade and trimmed the excess off the two ends and trimmed up where the two halves came together. A little more Elmers was needed to make sure the seam was solid and flat.

[Jim Donovan]

The next part I did while on our two week cruise. I took what I needed in a small suitcase. However I would have to hand paint the walls rather than spray paint. While it came out fine I still think airbrushing would have been better.

First I took the walls and roof parts and smoothed them out with a file. Everything was then primed lightly with Kraylon gray primer.



The coupla walls, roof, windows and door were brush painted using Cermacoat Opaque Red. I had to dilute the paint some as it comes out of the bottle very thick. However, it really goes on smooth and is flat in color. The tower windows were painted Cermacoat Antique White.

I did not paint the backs of any of the parts, just left them gray since no one will see them. When I test fitted the windows and door they fit perfectly. This is were using the Cameo 3 really paid off. While I could not get it to cut all the way through the  .5mm styrene, it scored the parts deep enough they easily snapped out of the sheet.



Finally I installed microscope slide cover glass on the backs of all windows and doors. Using calipers I measured the width and height of backside slot Tichy has molded to hold their acetate windows. Then I placed masking tape vertically on the cutting mat. I used this as a fence to butt the glass up to for cutting. Marking the cutting mat with a fine tip black marker for length I wanted cut, I used a General Tool scribe and a thin steel ruler to score the glass to the correct dimensions. The glass is so thin that with practice you can cut it clean without even scoring.



Here you can see the back of the window being glued in place using Tacky glue. Normally I like to use the UV cure CA glue, just a small drop in corner works great. However I forgot and left that glue home. The Tacky glue worked fine. The last picture shows how clear the slide glass looks. It also shows I had cut openings for the tower windows and door. Then glued them in place. I had printed a cone shaped diagram at home showing the right places to put the window and door.



The last step I did was to place the catwalk in place and glue it to the tower. I glued one of the five sided stars to the catwalk. It will be used as a guide for placement of the copula walls.

[GPdemayo]

Great progress Jim.....looking good. 


Below is the link I told you about for the new Garmin Autoland system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ruFmgTpqA

[Jim Donovan]

The last thing I did while on the cruise was build the roof and walls for the copula. First I framed both the outside and the inside of each window using scale 1 x 3 basswood that had been stained using Hunter Medium Brown. This not only framed the window and made it stand out but covered any slight mismatch the Tichy window had with the cut out opening.  I glued the framing onto the walls with Tacky glue.

Using the two five sided braces on the straw I put in place and cemented the walls to each other using Tamyra thick modeling cement. I did not glue the walls to the floor or the roof at this point, I knew I would be needing to work a lot in this area with the railing method I wanted to use and the lighting.

Finally I cemented the triangle pieces for the roof I had previously designed and 'printed' on the Cameo 3 together. To connect the parts visually I covered the joints with 4 x 4 scale styrene for the roof and 2 x2 scale styrene for the wall corners.





With that we were back in port and the cruise was over.

[Jim Donovan]

In the photo's you can see the glass windows getting dirty. I keep having to take things apart and back together as I work my way through how to proceed with the construction. When I get everything right they will clean up fine with alcohol.

I forgot to mention part of the lighthouse build completed on the cruise. I installed bracing around the underneath of the catwalk. Each consisted of .5mm styrene cut in a triangle shape with two sides measuring 2 scale feet by three scale feet. Each was cemented to a styrene board measuring scale .5 foot by 3 foot scale. I painted them Ceramcoat Charcoal. Each was installed so as to be between each railing. There are 13 of them.

[Jim Donovan]

To make the catwalk railing I wanted something that would have clean lines and look nautical. A friend of mine in Ohio had showed me his layout having a great lake freighter he was in the process of making. To make the railings he had used etched brass stanchions (intended scale 100:1) bought from a company in England. The stanchion had three holes spaced across it. These would allow .015 inch piano wire to pass through. Further it had the bottom mounting plate designed as part of it. In the real world these triangle plates are used to attach the railing to the deck. In modeling they act as self-aligning height guides. When the stanchion is placed in the deck slot it stops at the triangle, thus all are exactly the same height. The tricky part I was attempting was to have these stanchions form a circle with the wire passing through all and bonding to itself.

I will not bore you with details of all the failed attempts I had, however I stayed with it and found a method that worked. The items needed are the brass stanchions, .015 coated beading wire and Hobby Lobby's super glue. The name of the suppliers are shown in the following pictures.

[Jim Donovan]

You may have noticed the catwalk itself appears different from one picture to another, it is. In my trials I went through several versions until the one you see on the finished catwalk. The material needed that worked is .8 mm ABS. The more rigid material helps give the stanchions something sturdy to glue too resulting in them staying in place and at a 90 degree angle. I was able to get the Cameo 3 to score the material enough to cut it out and make the hole for the straw to pass through. I also had the Cameo score where the stanchions (railings) were to be placed. Using an exo-knife with #11 blade I carefully pushed the tip of the blade into the plastic at the points marking the railings. I kept the cut to about 1/32 of inch with the slit perpendicular to the edge of the catwalk.

If you look carefully at the picture of the brass etching sheet you will find the parts that are the railings on the lower part. The long rectangular parts have the three holes and are squared off at the bottom. The top is connected to an eye bolt and will be cut from it.The other parts on the sheet are ladders, hand holds and such. All in all the sheet from Scale Links has many high quality parts that can be used in modeling, not just railings.

Using my best nippers I cut out the 13 railings and a few extra in case they were needed (they were). Using a Dremel drill with an extra fine drum sanding wheel I lightly sanded the any spurs left from the cutting. I used the Dremel on its lowest speed setting (mine is a battery powered version) and made sure I was very light on the touch so as not to damage the brass.Just a quick touch is needed to clean any spurs away.

The following picture shows the first railing put in its slot on the catwalk. You can see the perpendicular slits made at the points scored for railings. If you zoom in you can see the railing is not fully seated yet and the triangle stoppers are clearly seen. Further, it is slightly bent. As careful as I was I still found it hard not to bend the railing slightly when pushing it into place. The method of pushing the railing in place is to take a pair of good quality fine tip tweezers, hold the railing just above the triangle shape at the bottom and carefully push until it is seated. To be correct to prototype the larger triangle on the railing needs to be on the inside. The photo shows the railing backwards but it was corrected. Without a doubt you will need a good pair of magnifiers in order to see the parts clearly.

After all railings are seated and upright use a pair of medium paddle end tweezers to straighten the railings back into shape. Fortunately they go back to correct shape with not much trouble.



If you use these stanchions on your own project make sure you do not prime or otherwise paint them until everything is in place and the wire run through the uprights. The tolerances are extremely close, any paint will stop the wire from passing through the holes.

[Jim Donovan]

The railings bottom below the triangles passes all the way through the plastic. In order to be able to push through entirely and not bend the bottom of the railing I found taping the catwalk to a shot glass worked perfect. The glass gave a good base but was out of the way so the bottom barb did not bend. Here I have placed all railings in place but still need to straighten each fully.

[Jim Donovan]

I found .015 coated steel beading wire was able to pass through the stanchions if done with care. The advantage of the beading wire is it is flexible enough to be shaped into a circle and remain that way, putting little or no pressure on the stanchions (railings) To keep the stanchions upright, straight and not bend while the wire was passed through I made a jig to go on the top. I used one of the failed catwalks for this purpose. Using a .015 drill I opened up the holes to allow the top of each stanchion to pass through and be held in place. I then used a rubber band to hold the top and bottom catwalks together, sandwiching the stanchions between them.

Here is what it looked like



Here is how the wire looked when in place with the top removed for the picture

[Jim Donovan]

To complete the catwalk railing it needed the wires to be connected as seamlessly as possible. I cut each wire so just enough was left to be glued to the other end near one of the stanchions. I then used Hobby Lobby thick super glue. Apparently the coating reacts well with this glue, just a small amount on a toothpick was placed on one end. When the other end was brought to it  the wire bonded almost instantly with no seam visible. 



With the wires in place I again made sure each stanchion was straight and seated to the catwalk. I then used the Hobby Lobby glue and joined the stanchions to the catwalk from underneath so no glue would show. When dry I used cutters to clip off the excess brass footer flush with the bottom of the catwalk.

Finally I  sprayed the entire catwalk and railings with a light coat of Krylon gray primer. When dry I placed a smaller circle within the catwalk and using double sided tape held it in place while I airbrushed the catwalk and railings with Badger Antique White. Removing the inner circle allowed the gray primer to show so the floor of the catwalk is gray where a person would walk and white everywhere else. Here are is the completed catwalk.





That is all for now.

[carl b]

Good progress Jim, I'm following along.

I love lighthouses.

[Jim Donovan]

Thanks for following Graig and Carl and thanks for the encouragement.

With the lighthouse outer structure complete I made the actual light. To keep it simple I first super glued a round disk to the straw about 3 scale feet from the straw's top. I intend to have the light mechanism able to be removed if needed so want the roof and the straw to able able to come out. The disk will ensure the light is at the correct height. I made another disk and glued it to the top of the straw. The diameter of this disk was the same as that of a container used to keep contents dry. I cut the container bottom off, cleaned off the printing using acetone. To simulate window panes I glued scale 2 x 2 plastic rod to it after having painted the lengths in red. The top I painted bronze just in case it could be seen. Prior to gluing the the cylinder to the disk I put a 5mm warm white bulb in place and ran the wires down the straw to the other end.

[Jim Donovan]

The last part of the lighthouse needing to be made was the base. I first printed out six .5mm styrene circles 12 HO scale diameter. Each had a step built out from the circle. I stacked and glued the circles together. Using a textured paper printed red brick I glued it around the circle and over the formed step. Using a black magic marker I blacked out the white edges of the paper. Once dry the assembly was super glued to the base of the tower. The finished lighthouse less the top is shown below. As you can see, unless literally inches from the structure the brick looks very good.

[Jim Donovan]

The upper part of the diorama will consist of the lighthouse and the lightkeepers home. The scene is of the 1930's. Many homes at that time had little of no electricity, the lightkeepers place is one. I did make sure he had a fireplace and a screen door to let the evening air in. I took this picture after much other work had been done so it is a little bit of a spoiler.



As government property a fence is in place to keep people out and keep them from falling into the water. To build the fence I will be using the same brass etched stanchions as for the catwalk. Since the railings will be straight I will use .015 bronze wire. The fence will be built on  what will resemble a steel retaining wall cap that will go over the brick. To make the fence I found it easier to put the bronze wire through the stanchions first. I cut .5 mm styrene sheets to be the the length or width of the diorama and 1.5 HO scale feet wide. Marking the resulting strips every 8 scale feet I put the stanchions with wire into the drilled holes and superglued them in place.





I also needed to make a staircase to allow the lighthouse keeper access. Using Inkscape I designed the steps. At the top of the stairs will be a platform having a steel mesh floor. This was made by having the Cameo 3 printer cut out the needed steps, side bracing and 2 open squares. Screening material was sandwiched between the two squares and the squares cemented together. The railings proved to be the hardest part, the wire would not work, even the bead wire. Instead I had to use EZ Line and while it really was not easy it did work.



To complete the look of iron bracing on the retaining wall I added iron plates (Tichy makes them) to the corners and the middle of each styrene strip. WIth all parts ready I airbrushed them using the following Badger paints to get the result I was looking for of a structure that was beat up but still going strong.





More Later