The Foundry, Albion

The Foundry, one of the first structures I scratchbuilt, must derive from an E. L. Moore how-to-do-it photo-article in Model Railroader, since the only commercial part I can spot in this photograph of it is the Campbell barrel. The chimney, I recall, was a wide soda straw, the roofs covered with grimy-black-painted sandpaper glued to cardboard, and the windows homemade. The ventilators on the roof were scratch built and I later replaced with with commercial round ones.

A scratch-built second structure appears at the left of the foundry, and across the tracks is a DynnaModel barn, which used an unusual rubber-like plastic sheet to create the inmpression of shingles. Between the foundry and the farm sits the tall tree that gave its name to the foundry — lone pine — which grows out of a landscape made of hydrocal applied over metal and plastic screening (working with styrofoam came later). The hyrodocal was dyed with brown and black pigments (though it doesn't look much like that here) and matte medium or diluted white glue was used to hold down green-colored foam rubber. Some of the bushes are dyed lichen. Other views: (a) the foundry photographed at the Providence waterfront. [GPL].


Miniature Worlds Structures