In-ko-pah Railroad: An authentic miner's cabin

[Ray Dunakin]

I just completed a new structure for my 1/24th scale In-ko-pah Railroad. It's a replica of an old miner's cabin in the little town of Ione, NV. Here's a photo of the prototype:



As you can see, there are some unique features that really give this cabin a lot of character, particularly the homemade metal awnings over the windows, the stovepipe with its fancy clay cap, and the window cut into the original door. One of the awnings appears to be made from part of the roof of an early automobile.

I only had a couple of photos, taken from a distance, and the the cabin is surround by tall weeds and junk. So I had to "fill in the blanks" using my knowledge of other cabins similar to this one. I also added a window to the blank wall on the opposite side.

The model is made of styrene, textured and painted to look like old, weathered wood. The awnings and corrugated roofing are made of brass. The door and door frame are modified Grandt Line castings.

Here are some photos of the model:



I replaced the saw mounted on the front of the cabin, with a bighorn sheep skull. The skull was sculpted from polyclay...




The rear of the prototype cabin was not visible. On my model, I opted to give it a different style of siding -- a common practice on many of these old buildings. I also painted it with grayer, more muted colors, to represent the shaded side of the cabin...


Here are some close up detail photos. The window shades were made from Tyvek, cut from an envelope and painted a yellowish tan. The curtains were made from lace, saturated with acrylic matte medium and then painted grungy off-white::




Here's the cabin temporarily in place on the layout. I still need to do more work on the site, to bring the concrete "soil" up around the cabin. I also need to add plants, an outhouse, and other details:



The cabin is located in an area without wiring, so I installed an LED powered by two D cell batteries. Here's a test shot of the cabin at night:


As I complete the cabin's site on the layout, I'll post new pics:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Miners_Cabin.html


Enjoy!

[Jerrys HO]

Ray

Nicely done. You need to share your weathering technique with us. The model looks more realistic than the prototype.

Jerry

[jonathan]

Holy Cow!  Do you work for Hollywood or Disney or something?  Amazing!

I salute you, sir.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Jim Banner]

Great work - an inspiration to us all.

Jim

[Doneldon]

Ray-

Outstanding work. You are well on your way to a model contest win, should
you be so inclined. Just a great job. Thank you for showing it to us.
                                                                                                  -- D

[NarrowMinded]

Very nice work, i freelanced a cabin in 1/48 that looks very simular, not as nice as yours though.

May i suggest for lighting you go to the garden department of target or some other store and have a look at the $5.00 walkway lights they are solar powered and come on automatically at night, i just started putting these in my buildings for my xmas temporary layout for the yard. I disassemble them and use the parts. You could hide the main body of these a few feet from your building and run only wires to the leds in the cabin.  You could even put one of these in a nearby water tower.

Just some ideas

Nm-jeff

[Ray Dunakin]

I just finished making an outhouse to go with the miner's cabin. Like the cabin, this outhouse is made of styrene which has been textured and painted to resemble aged wood. The "tin can" shingles and the metal patches are made from brass.

I still haven't placed it on the layout yet, but here's how it looks by itself:







The interior includes an old toilet seat, some toilet paper, and a strip of flypaper. 

You can see more photos starting here:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Miners_Cabin.html#14

Enjoy!

[Doneldon]

Ray-

Great little model. I especially love the flypaper but those mongo flies are kind of scary.

                                                                                    -- D

[Ray Dunakin]

Apparently there's a server problem that's preventing my cabin page from updating. So if you went there and couldn't see the rest of the outhouse photos, please try again later.

[ForThemPanzerz]

hello Mr. Dunakin i saw your layout in GR today and thought it was one of the best i have seen so far. i was wondering where you placed this building and also was wondering about that abandoned mine you had, it seemed to be greatly detailed but i was just wondering if it had a hoist house? to bad i live in northern Indiana because it is one of the states that is worst for Garden RR due to our high amounts of extreme weather ( 3+ snow storms a winter and 100 degres in summer fade warp and melt our buildings).

I hope to see your layout in GR and i was also wondering how you can convert some of the engines you had to 1:24?

[NarrowMinded]

Your creations look more real to me then the "real" one pictured.

NM-Jeff

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks guys!

Mr. Shay, the abandoned mine on my layout currently has no hoist house. This is prototypical of many old mines I've seen -- the hoisting equipment has been removed, leaving nothing but a bit of foundation, and often not even that. Mine also lacks a foundation but I may add one later.

As for converting my locos to 1/24th scale... I did a complete kitbash of the RS-3 late last year, finishing it in early January of this year. You can see the step-by-step here:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_RS3_Conversion.html

The Bachmann 4-6-0 is roughly 1:22.5, close enough to pass for 1/24th. I still need to install a receiver in it, and when I do I might make a few modifications, but probably nothing major.

[ForThemPanzerz]

gosh thats a massive elevation change you have on that layout. have you ever tried hartland they make all their things in 1:24 and they are a local company neer me. i think one of the mack switchers or the other self propelled engines would look great doing short ore trains or you could have one of there rmc or rail buses. also for a great look on your layout i think a shay would be pretty nice.

[NMWTRR]

Visited your website: Incredible model RR and Awesome Rockets great combination!

[ForThemPanzerz]

any hints on what new locos or buildings we will see soon on this masterpiece. also i had a question about the scenery i noticed in a photo that showed a large portion of your layout had holes in them i will go check which GR photos they it was photo 3 had 1 hole in the bottom right corner and on the top near your mine there were a few small caves.