The Haitian Sugar Train

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Why is everything so heavily weathered and faded except the cane cars? :confused:

Very observant M.Man!!! I haven't figured out what colors I want to paint the cane dump cars yet. Lets just say they are new arrivals from the mainland USA and have not gotten painted or used much.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom:cool:
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
Very observant M.Man!!! I haven't figured out what colors I want to paint the cane dump cars yet. Lets just say they are new arrivals from the mainland USA and have not gotten painted or used much.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom:cool:

Works for me! :mrgreen:
 

Sawdust

Member
Hey Doc. I haven't been on much lately been working a lot of small jobs this year but thankful to be working with Construction being so bad right now. It is amazing what you are doing in this area of modeling. You definitly have a niche for this type of modeling. I know from your trips over there has helped but you still have a skil that most of us wouldn't know where to start on something like this. This project would do well in the show that you were talking about. Everything you do looks so tropical, even the smallest detail area's. Personally this isn't an area I would want to model but like some things that we don't do that others do they have to be appreciated & acknowledged because of not only the project but the skills that others have. This is & has been a very fun & interesting project to watch from the beginning. I would very much like to see a follow up of this project if you ever take this back to Haiti for them to see. Great job!
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Haiti modeling

Hey Doc. I haven't been on much lately been working a lot of small jobs this year but thankful to be working with Construction being so bad right now. It is amazing what you are doing in this area of modeling. You definitly have a niche for this type of modeling. I know from your trips over there has helped but you still have a skil that most of us wouldn't know where to start on something like this. This project would do well in the show that you were talking about. Everything you do looks so tropical, even the smallest detail area's. Personally this isn't an area I would want to model but like some things that we don't do that others do they have to be appreciated & acknowledged because of not only the project but the skills that others have. This is & has been a very fun & interesting project to watch from the beginning. I would very much like to see a follow up of this project if you ever take this back to Haiti for them to see. Great job!

Thanks so much sawdust!!! These are very kind words.

I did HO modeling of a logging layout for 24 years. These little micro layouts can be a nice change of pace. I really have enjoyed picking up new skills in On30 RR modeling and found a lot of help on the Internet.

Here is a shot of water sports in Haiti. There is no AAA when you get stuck. This happened to my truck in Haiti about 3 years ago. Hmmmm, maybe I can figure a way to depict this scene too.
Doc Tom:cool:
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Another building for Port au Prince Haiti

Hello,
I have been slowly working along on the Haiti Sugar micro. Here is the latest building for very congested Port au Prince Haiti.

THis is a background building of a corrugated metal wharehouse. It is right behind the Le Petit Mec store.

It was constructed using foam core board and covered with Paper Creeks printed metal siding. Hope you like it.
Doc T:wave:om
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
WoW....That's a beauty...!!! :thumb:

What is that printed metal siding..?

Hi Gus,

That is a neat product made by Paper Creek Models http://www.papercreek.com/ It is actual paper printed with the help of a computer. You cut strips of this printed paper and glue to foam core board. At a distance it looks like actual rusting corrugated metal. For the foreground buildings I made individual corrugated sheets from aluminum foil pressed on a jig with ridges.

Here is another model I did for the local Lionel Layout in O scale for our local museum. It too uses Paper Creek's printed corrugated metal.

Doc Tom:wave:
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Cold drinks in Hot Port au Prince

Here is the latest model creation on the On30 sugar hauler set in Haiti in the 1920's.

Haiti is a very hot tropical country in the Caribbean. A bustling business sprang up on the streets of Port au Prince to sell shaved ice with syrup flavoring to help keep people a little cool. These "fresco" sellers are all over the place.

I scratchbuilt this very little model and the fresco seller is "hawking" his refreshing drinks in the street scene slowly developing outside the Le Petit Mec.

I have included some "prototype shots" so you can see what I was trying to model.

Doc Tom
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tom, That is a fun project! thanks for the photo of the real thing so we could see what the inspiration was.
 

Sawdust

Member
Hey Doc that's a nice touch & interesting subject. I bet they have to sell the ice fast. Pictures like that remind me how spoiled we are & how we take so much for granted.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hey Doc that's a nice touch & interesting subject. I bet they have to sell the ice fast. Pictures like that remind me how spoiled we are & how we take so much for granted.

Yes, every time I go to Haiti I call it my "reality check."
Doc Tom
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
A fascia comes to the micro layout

Hi All,

I was able to get a little more work done on my micro layout.

This is a very portable micro layout and I would like to have it travel about when finished....including perhaps the kids in Haiti.

So one of the things the micro needed was a fascia to hide all that pink foam used in its construction.

Since this is a "pioneer" layout for me in many ways I decided to forgo the usual masonite fascia and make this one look like corrugated metal to accent all the rusted corrugated metal on the buildings on the layout.

Real corrugated metal would be too heavy so I scoured the internet looking for plastic substitutes. What I found was a green corrugated garden edging roll for about 5 dollars.

It was painted with a gray primer and then the same craft paint acrylics I used on the buildings were used to get the streaky rust effect.

The light weight rusted corrugated "metal"/plastic was affixed to the layout using construction adhesive pinned with real nails in to the foam.

Here are some pictures of the end results. Let me know what you think.

Next project will be installing a sound system for the locomotives to make some noise in the mountains of Haiti.

Doc Tom:wave:
 

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Sawdust

Member
Very created Doc Tom. looks good & a sound system too! I once saw a picture of a layout out West modeling the Sante Fe. The modeler used copper & leather for his fascia, what a site! Just goes to show once we leave the track there isn't much that's standard.:thumb:
 

S class

Member
Hey Doc G In light of whats Happened in Haiti I hope everyone of your friends is ok and that you weren't there when it happened.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Haiti Earth Quake 1-12-2010

Hey Doc G In light of whats Happened in Haiti I hope everyone of your friends is ok and that you weren't there when it happened.

Thanks S class

Thank you for your thoughts prayers and concerns. It is very hard to see the destruction and loss of life in a country I love so much.
Our Visitation Hospital (www.visitationhospital.org) is 40 miles to the West and was hit by the earthquake but is still standing and functioning. Luckily we had used reinforced concrete when we built it 3 years ago.
Our St Jules Clinic in Northern Haiti has done well as it was far removed from the epicenter. We are gearing up at both clinics to begin receiving casualties as survivors stream out of Port au Prince.
Please keep Haiti in your prayers.
Dr Tom
 

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