Sugar Cane train in 1920 Haiti

[Doctor G]

I have started work on the last structure for the Haitian Sugar hauler in On30. It is a bittersweet moment and like the other structures it too presents its own set of unique challenges.

What I will model is a rural home on the mountain above Leogoane. Here is the cut for the foundation.

Because there is so little room this building too will primarily be a "false front" style blending in to the scenery.Here is its foam core base.

Rural Haitian homes are constructed of wattle and daub (sometimes called thatch).

Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6000 years and is still an important construction material in many parts of the world.

This is what a wattle and daub house looks like after considerable exposure to the elements .

It is this dilapidated and well worn structure that I will try to model.

I started the front view with styrene angle and pieces of styrene sheet.

The "wooden framing" was distressed using a razor saw.

After much thought I elected to start the "wattle" construction using styrene rod.The rod represents the wooden strips in the prototype photo.

More to come on this primitive, yet unique structure.

Doc Tom

 

[Doctor G]

I next proceeded with my "O" scale daubing technique. Instead of using mud per the prototype,I used Joint Compound and "daubed" it on using a moistened cotton tipped applicator.

Next up will be painting the structure and placing a well worn metal roof.

Doc Tom

 

[Doctor G]

With a few more pieces of styrene I have built up the walls of the "false front" Haitian rural home.

Some very interesting angled pieces of sheet styrene made up the sub roof and allow it to nestle in to place on the side of the mountain above Leogoane.

The little house was taken off the mountain to spray on primer. The wattle and daub is becoming a little more obvious.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[Doctor G]

The worn our and rustic rural Haitian home has been painted and weathered.

The model is planted in place above Leogoane.

Next to come is blending the home in to the surrounding scenery.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[zathros]

Superb, and still alive and going strong!!

 

[Doctor G]

Thank you Zathros. Thanks also for this very easy to use website.

Here the rural Haitian home is nestled in to the jungle growth on the mountainside.

Here is the finished scene overlooking Leogoane.

In the picture you can see my latest project a tender in resin from "Backwoods Miniatures" to add more mileage to the hard working Porters.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[DanBKing]

Super work as always Doc!

 

[Doctor G]

Hello,
I have been working a little more on the Backwoods (Back Jungle?) Miniatures tender kit for one of my hard working Porters. I did my first sound decoder install in the tender using a Digitrax Sound Bug set up.

What was nice about these kits is that they come with wheel wipers for electrical pickup and are quite roomy for all the electrical goodies.

I have got it painted in its first coat of flat black .

Weathering and a suitable load of dried and crushed sugar cane (bagasse) for fuel is to come.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[Doctor G]

Pedro from the neighboring Dominican Republic works on the docks in Port au Prince. He was elated when he was asked to take a ride in the position of honor up on the tender of the hardworking Porter.

He is enjoying the breeze kicked up by the Porter on this hot tropical island.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[zathros]

This has the feel of a live thriving community.

 

[Doctor G]

I have finally completed the sugar cane fields in Leogoane, Haiti.

This is supposed to represent newly planted cane that is thriving.Further down the line is the mature cane being harvested, la raison d'être for this little sugar hauler.

This completes the scene on the rural side of my mini layout.

Meanwhile back in the real world I head to Haiti next week to work in our medical clinic in very rural Petit Bourg du Borgne. Hope to get some more inspiration for my modelling as well.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

Good seeing the progress. I'm going to get a spare part for one of the porter smokestacks that is flared at the top, and see if I can cut the top part off to make a reasonable Hon3 Radley Hunter. which doesn't exist in the ho world.

 

[Doctor G]

ELECTRIC LIGHTS IN PORT au PRINCE

As I begin to finish the mini Haitian Sugar Hauler I wanted to install some 1920's style electric lights in the urban area of Port au Prince.

I was able to get these interesting street lights with LED's from China very cheaply from eBay. I was amazed that it only cost $2.69 in postage to get them from China to my house.The manufacturer even sent resistors to wire in and get the volts down to a nice 3 volts which will insure a very long life.

I am enjoying lighting some of the back streets and overpasses of Port au Prince.

Thanks for looking.

Doc Tom

 

[Doctor G]

The public works project to electrify the streets and alleys of Port au Prince continues.

Here are a few more shots of turning night to day with Mr Edison's fine little invention.

Doc Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

It is looking really good. I like that Backwoods tender. they hae lots of nice stuff

 

[Doctor G]

I hope that as I am getting closer to semi retirement that I could take my micro- layouts on the road to some train shows.

I noticed that the On30 Haiti sugar hauler “Ti Neg la” (Haitian Kreyol for the Little Guy) needed some upgrading.

So I purchased the O scale Banana tree kit from Pegasus models and built up a Banana Grove. This is on the Leogoane side of the layout where are the sugar fields are and the rotgut rum distillery.

In this last picture you can see Green bananas ready for picking.

Thanks for looking.

Doc Tom

 

[zathros]

I am going to delete the "Photo Not Found' posts. This is why we request pictures be uploaded to forum. If you can upload pictures, then please do it. A week from now I will delete all the "Photo Not Found' posts though. You could chose to do it too.

 

[Sky Seeker]

I am going to delete the "Photo Not Found' posts. This is why we request pictures be uploaded to forum. If you can upload pictures, then please do it. A week from now I will delete all the "Photo Not Found' posts though. You could chose to do it too.

Z,

I noticed that for some of my old posts that this issue has come up. This is mostly due to a server crash we had a few years ago, which wiped out a lot of pics from the posts. Just an FYI

Sky Seeker

 

[zathros]

Virtually no pictures posted and hosted on Zealot were lost. The photos in this thread are hosted on "Imgur.com", which is contrary to the forum rules. Please let me take care of this situation with the Original Poster. He can choose to upload them here, or have the thread deleted, that is why we keep threads open. Thanks.

 

[Doctor G]

Hello, I wanted to see if this site is still working and how easy it is to upload pictures. So far so good.

Dr Tom