The last six months or so, I’ve been working on a diorama, a diorama of a pleasant cruise boat, navigating the shallow fringes of a pond, populated by fairies and propelled by a snail.
The first problem was the superstructure, which I wanted to be a cluster of towers. But it proved impossible to find glue-able tubes with a nice thin wall, so I ended up making my own. And I made tubes about every way known to man. i glued up barrel staves around a jar. I wrapped thin sheet plastic around a form. I poured resin into a piece of plastic pipe and rotated it until the resin hardened. And when I finished, I had six suitable tubes.
I cut holes in them for windows and doors, which I sourced from Tichy, who have an extensive line of model railroad windows. I wanted to get an Art Nouveau effect, so instead of painting the towers (I did try to paint one, with indifferent results) I made decals using Nouveau paintings and wrapped the towers.
Eventually, all my model projects boil down to making furniture, and I built spool-like interiors for the towers, intended to slide in from the top. I then built a bunch of furniture, mostly castings, and populated the rooms.
A bunch more fabrication, including some photoetching; a bunch of HO railroad figures converted to fairies by adding iridescent wings; LEDs and wiring; a little lathe project making roofs; and a nervewracking epoxy pour; and eventually I got it all finished.
The salon is divided into a theater (Martina and the Bogle-Dog, an old Faerie favorite, is playing) and an ice rink. Forward of the salon, one can have a nice meal while listening to Fenellin Fogbold and The Ferrymen laying down a righteous line. Out back is the patient and cheerful Gertrude, propelling the whole shebang through the reeds.
A friend transported it to Wonderfest for me, and it got a Silver. I was hoping for Gold, but c’est la vie.
Once I got it home again, I commissioned a plastics shop to make a case for it, and right now it’s sitting on the coffee table in our downstairs media room.
Where it’ll probably stay, since there’s nowhere else in the house to put it. Mrs R says that it’s the last big model I can build, since we literally have no more room. Incidentally, Mrs R was a big help all through, always ready with well-conceived criticisms when asked.
And so I present Faerie Boat Endymion.
Biggest tower being built: Big tower
All towers, posed on the salon: Salon test
First full mockup, a big morale builder: Morale builder
Tower interior, furnished: Interior of the Garden Tower
Boat and snail on base, ready for epoxy pour: Tension building!
Complete: Complete 1
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