Mick the master carpenter came over. That was a big to do. He pulled up in the little alleyway behind the house in the huge panel truck. If I had made these trays myself, I probably would have used glue and a miter box. Mick came with a huge electric miter saw, a nail gun, an air compressor for his nail gun, a drill for screwing, and a portable circular saw. Wow.
He and his assistant worked pretty fast. They had three of the four panels finished in no time. Unfortunately, he did not buy enough wood for the fourth tray. "Ah don't know where my mind is aht," he said in a thick Irish accent. So, he and his assistant headed off to the local Home Depot to get $10 worth of wood in their truck that gets 8 miles to the gallon (3.4 kilometers per liter, which was annoying to convert). By the time they got back, Mick had played the game telephone with himself and messed up the last tray. Luckily, it was too big and not too small. So, after a short fit of Irish semi-precious metaphors and swears, we cut it down to size and all was well. The panels, now covered in green grass, were screwed into place with a 1/8 inch gap all around. I will fill in the gap later with hot glue or caulk, whichever is more convenient. ...and the trays are done. It is beginning to look like a model.
So, now the roads. On my topographical map (which was drawn in the early 60s) are the roads and major buildings as they existed at the time. Luckily, not much has changed in 50 years. I check on maps.google.com to make sure. The only thing that is very different is that the major highway that runs along the lake (Routes 5&20) has been moved a few times to accommodate more traffic, as have several of the roads that lead to it. It does not seem like a big deal, but it just means that I need to work a little harder to place the road, since it is not on my nice grid paper. In addition, there has been a very large and ugly hotel built on the lake, which is not on my map. I would rather leave the hotel out because of how ugly it is (concrete walls and a BRIGHT blue metal roof). But - like American banks and insurance companies - this hotel is just too big to disappear. Both the hotel and the highway changes are in one panel, so I will save that panel for last.
If I could have one superpower while laying the roads, it would be x-ray vision. While making the topography out of foam core, I had drawn a grid that corresponds with the topographical survey I got from city hall to help with accuracy. Now the grass covers the grid, so I need to use a ruler to figure out where the roads should be, as well as using the topographical contours as a guide. If I could do it again, I would have drawn the edges of the grid into inside of the walls of the trays so that I could use the grid, even after the grass had been laid. Oh well. Next time.
The model grass scratches off really easily. I picked two points where a road starts and ends, and scratched a straight line into the grass. Then I went to Google earth and used their ruler tool to find out how wide the road is. I do not think that I could do this project without Google. I picked a flat-headed screwdriver that matched the thickness of the road and scraped of that grass.
Not much more needs to be said about this step of making the roads except that I am collecting most of the grass that I pick up in case I need it later. Also, if I did not pick it up, it would make a mess everywhere.
The pictures attached are in this order
*One tray with the center of each road thinly scratched in. I only made a few mistakes here, which is odd for me (not that I do not tend to make mistakes, but that I do not tend to make that few mistakes. Maybe my craftsmanship is getting better. Right before I paint road marking would be a good time to magically get better craftsmanship).
*My widening the roads with a screwdriver. Notice the bag of grass that - at this point - is nearly empty.
*The first two panels done. Notice the huge parking lots on the panel to the right, which will be where the supermarket (Wegmans, one of the best supermarkets ever) and where the shopping plaza will go.
*Google maps of the area represented in the previous picture.
