Tanis 1937
Gallery
Background
Tanis 1937 is a A3-size micro-layout inspired by Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This project has been lurking around at the back of my mind for at least a year now, and inspired by the incredibly fast progress of Paul Napier and Glen Anthony on their latest projects, I thought I'd have a go at building it. The models are 1:48 scale (American O) to suit the Tamiya range of 1:48 scale military kits, and run on 9mm gauge track representing a prototype gauge of about 400mm - quite close to Decauville minimum gauge as (bizarredly) marketed for archeological work.
The scene is the Egyptian desert in the late '30s, where a German archeological team is excavating a partially-buried temple in search of who knows what. So far they have not managed to locate the Ark of the Covenant. A minimum gauge tramway runs between the temple interior dig site and a staging area where there is a small loco shed and siding. So the railway is point-to-point, but the back of the loco shed is open allowing a hidden continuous run - very useful for exhibitions!
Construction
The baseboard for this one is braced 10mm foam card following the lead of Chris Nevard. On this is a 50mm styrofoam slab, with the track laid on 3mm cork glued to a 3mm MDF trackbed. More styrofoam and foamcard complete the landscape, and more 3mm MDF is used for fascia boards to prevent damage.
Scenery is hand carved finished with acrylic Gesso mixed with paint and sand. Groundcover is mostly the local sandy rock smashed up with a hammer (not really necessary - it crumbles when you look at it) and baked in the oven for an hour or two.
Accessories are from the Tamiya 1:48 military models range, including an APU, the Afrika Korps Kubelwagen, and a useful set of Africa Korps figures. The shed is scratchbuilt with scale corrugated iron formed by hand from heavy-gauge aluminiu foil.
Rolling stock is scratchbuilt from plastic, wood and brass. The wagons are freelance, and the loco is based on photographs of a 2-foot gauge machine used by the Australians at Tobruk to move stores into a large cave via a light railway. No-one seems to know what it is, but it could possibly be a Ruhrtaler 4wDM similar to those used at manganese mines in the Sinai.
The layout was completed ready for exhibition in three weeks, including painting the locao and building/painting all the rolling stock and accessories. The last two days before Railex 2009 were somewhat frenetic! It certainly shows that you can build something quickly to a decent standard if you are prepared to limit your scope and make sensible choices on where to focus your effort.
Outings
Tanis 1937 made its debut at Railex 2009 in the Lower Hutt town hall. It ran pretty well which was lucky considering I don't have a backup loco. During the exhibition I replaced the Märklin controller with a nice Gaugemaster one bought on discount - cheers Gerald - which has made a difference to the running.