North Pole Square of The Polar Express

[carl b]

There is a warm, glowing appearance to Santa's administration building. In the movie and book, all the windows are lit evenly. To achieve this, I first covered all windows with a material called vellum, which feels like plastic, but is an opaque .007" paper product.



Then, to broadly spread the light of pre-wired warm white 0603 LEDS, I built & installed small white boxes to hold and contain some LED's in place. I painted the face of each LED with diluted yellow acrylic paint as well. Each LED/box could illuminate 3 or 6 tightly spaced windows .



Other areas required their own method of installation. The 4 "S" scale windows each needed its own LED, with a white card backer to contain and spread the lighting even further.



In the attic windows, one LED was mounted against the white card. Pushing the card closer or farther away from the windows provided the necessary brightness.



All sections were now ready to receive their solder pads....



I did as much as possible on the flat to prep all the solder pads I'll need. Same technique I've used in the past, with copper tape wrapped around stripwood. Separate "+" and "-" voltage busses.



Mounted onto the appropriate section, then soldered LED wires to the corresponding pad.



Began gluing individual sections to each other.



Till next time...heading to the top......

[S&S RR]

Carl




Great work. This project is really coming together nicely. Love the lighting.

[PaulS]

Carl, great progress,
AND thanks for showing your approach to achieving the effects of a natural, subdued warm glow ....   "I'm beginning to see the light"   
Following along here,
--Paul

[Mark Dalrymple]

Terrific, carl.

Looking forwards to a night shot.

Cheers, Mark.

[carl b]

Thanks very much John, Paul, and Mark!
Appreciate you following the project.

It will be a while before I test all the lighting.

[Jerry]

Let there be light!!


Just amazed on how you get all those lights to work.
Great work my friend!


Jerry

[postalkarl]

Hey Carl B:

Walls are looking just great so far. Glad to see you added mortar between the bricks. Just love you last photo.

Karl

[Opa George]

Beautiful work. I don't have enough adjectives to describe how cool this project is.

--Opa George

[carl b]

Thank you very much Jerry,  Karl and George!

[carl b]

All 7 sections are now glued together. Started working on the rooftops with steep triangular supports for upcoming sub roof cards.



All roof supports are .06" chipboard.



After looking over my finished effort several times, concerning the roof pitch and angles behind the clock, I decided that it just wasn't right. So I obliterated that section with my Dremel mini saw and grudgingly started over. GRRR.



Finally made it to the very top of the clock. I'll need a small finial, so we're now at 13" high.



Sub roof cards are made of .024 " stock, which was the retail backer card from one of my stencils. Started with the front, tack glued in place- then measure the remaining sides.



Beginning the diamond shape shingles, and I'm not using the "pinking scissors" method this time.  Here, a metal cutting die from the "paper crafting" hobby, on loan from the Mrs..



This hand cranked machine rolls the die with a sandwich of thick plastic plates, the die and  brown construction paper stock. The die cuts the paper easily, and it is moved and reinserted several times. She also has a larger electric motor powered version.



I cut the sections apart with scissors to create nearly (300) 3 1/2" long strips. The project took several hours.



Till next time....more roofing...

[GPdemayo]

That is one impressive structure Carl.....looking forward to seeing it with the shingles installed. 

[vinceg]

Man, that is terrific - what a great super-project. Really looking forward to seeing the final result.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking most impressive, Carl.

Cheers, Mark.

[carl b]

Greg, Vince and Mark, thank you for your encouraging remarks and continued interest!

[deemery]

Clever use of the crafting machine!  I look forward to seeing how you finish the shingles.


dave