A Less Annoying HO Project

[finescalerr]

I thought my last HO model, the little red and green freelance depot, would be my last. Then an old friend asked me to design and cut parts for an HO kit of the Swayze Hotel in the ghost town of Bodie, California. The idea was to create a model of the hotel as it probably looked between 1880-1890, before the rear wall lean-to addition and, of course, the boarded up windows. The color scheme is one of the most common from that era, including the unpainted side and rear walls.

[finescalerr]

The model is 100% scratchbuilt. I scaled everything from the front wall's 8 inch board width and a dozen photos of the hotel I found online. Most of the model is basswood. The trim, doors, windows, and bay are .016-inch thick Strathmore Bristol Smooth, and the shingles inkjet printed .009-inch thick typing paper.

The stairs were a challenge to assemble without a jig. I built it to make sure everything fit properly before my friend assembled his kit. Surprisingly I had to recut only a few small parts.

As far as I could tell, the hotel only had three rooms and probably was no more comfortable than a barn. No wonder the next owner converted it to a saloon and the final owner turned it into a clothing store.

My friend's kit is still mostly pieces in a box. I wonder how it will look when he completes it.

Russ

[Chuck Doan]

Came out nice!

[Stuart]

I'm with Chuck. Your model is well done.

Considering that Bodie is out in the middle of sagebrush and desert, anything that even looked remotely like a place of refuge was undoutedly a welcome rescue for the weary traveler.  Even a three bedroom "barn" with just a  few squeaky beds must have seemed inviting.

Stuart

[Barney]

Very Nice - its nice to see models in a well kept state and looked after but with some signs of wear and tear. I do like weathered models but a lot appear to be over the top and unliveable in the case of many model buildings - well that's my view - but saying all that Russ "most satisfactory"
Barney
Escaped from my corner and running loose in my back yard   

[Rail and Tie]

Very nice design and modeling. dimensionally, everything seems to be spot on! 

[Peter_T1958]

This is very inspirational! Congrats!
BTW. when I read your thread, I was reminded in some way of the «Broken Houses by Ofra Lapid», an Israelian artist. His work is based on photographs found in the web while pursuing an amateur photographer from North Dakota. Lapid printed the pictures on paper/cardboard before shaping them into houses.
Here an example - there are similarities...

[Ray Dunakin]

Satisfactory!

[finescalerr]

The friend who asked me to design the HO kit of the Swayze Hotel in Bodie has finished his model. I thought it might be of interest to post John Lyans' work since he weathered his model and added a few individual touches.

Accucraft Trains produced a 1:20.3 scale model of a 7 ton Porter 0-4-0 saddle tank switcher I drew in the 1990s and it's beautiful. A few years later Alexander Zelkin scratchbuilt an 1:64 scale structure from a plan I sent him.

All three models are supreme compliments.

Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Excellent!

[Peter_T1958]

Ideed, excellent! It looks like in a larger scale.

[Hydrostat]

The kit you developped was already great, and it's astonishing how much more it comes alive with John's marvelous work!

[Bill Gill]

Both models are very well done. Nice kit. Like Peter said, it looks larger than HO.
One tiny question: How do customers open the front doors?

[Stuart]

The two of you should go into business together. Fantastic work from the both of you.

Stuart

[Hydrostat]

The two of you should go into business together. Fantastic work from the both of you.

Stuart

Or how about starting a publishing business?
Okay, looking forward to meet Nick.