North Pole Square of The Polar Express

[Janbouli]

Absolutely stunning piece of craftsmanship , beautiful , beautiful , beautiful.

[carl b]

Thank you all very much Dave, John, Mark, Curt, Greg, Vince, Jerry, George, Paul and Jan!

I truly appreciate all your positive comments and attention! A few more things to build yet...but this big one is finally out of the way!

[NKP768]

Wow - went back and checked the actual building in the Polar Express book - Nailed it Carl!  Just beautiful.

Doug

[carl b]

Thank you Doug!

[Zephyrus52246]

I'm always amazed at how some of you folks can scratch build these impressive structures.  Well done.


Jeff

[carl b]

Thank you Jeff!

[postalkarl]

Hey Carl:

All I can say is WOW!!!! Just beautiful work.

Karl

[carl b]

Appreciate your interest Karl, thank you !

[EricQuebec]

Very nicely done
eric

[carl b]

Thank you Eric!

[postalkarl]

Hey Carl:

You are quite welcome. I forget did I tell what your name Carl means in German?

Karl

Karl

[carl b]

Yes Karl, we discussed our names back on page 2 of this thread.

[carl b]

Decorative brick arches lie directly in back of the Christmas tree in North Pole Square..

See a still from the movie here:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338348/mediaviewer/rm3683486720/

They form a semi-circle and connect two sets of buildings. I must condense mine to fit the space. I drew up a plan...



Transferred those dimensions to .05 chipboard and cut out two side pieces, and two curved sections.



I used an ellipse template to guide my pencil and cut lines on .010" styrene for the smooth masonry. I'll cut the .02" thick JTT Scenery brick sheet to fit as well.  6 x 6 square styrene is used as "divider" trim.



I created the curved trim by pre-bending the styrene over a small diameter drill bit shank.



All pieces were filed down smooth.



For lighting, I installed small styrene tubes to contain each LED and its wires to reach the upcoming interconnect points. Each will shine down over the center of the arches....Here testing....



I set both of these walls under weights for 2 days to form the curve I'll need. They only bounced back a little.



After I glued together both the front and back walls, the gap needed to be filled with modelers paste. I added a beige directly to the paste. It will be painted a lighter, similar color.



Till next time...more arch work...

[PaulS]

Very impressive Carl.  Really appreciate you taking the time to document and show the steps leading to you wonderful creations.  Outstanding methods and problem solving skills.
And it just keeps getting better !!
All the best,
--Paul

[Jerry]

Just exceptional scratch building.  Every detail so well thought out.


Jerry