We are building a pirate train for Scallywag Bay. We have partnered with one of the best train builders in the world for the project. Hillcrest Shops, from California is building the chassis of the engine and rail cars. It all started with a concept drawing. The first version was an 0-40 meaning it didn’t have any forward wheels, but had four driving wheels. No trailer or tender wheels were present.

On Friday Jenessa finished the sculpting process. I still have to stick on the rope rigging and the connecting rods and running gear. Then we are on to paint.

We’ve been busy for the last year working on hundreds of signs and features for the Scallywag Bay Adventure Park in Trinidad. Over the last six months we carefully packed those features into shipping containers and sent them on their way. Now, at last the onsite construction is set to begin. I travelled down to the Caribbean this week to oversee the final checks. The first order of business was to do a site survey, confirming all boundaries and forty-two critical points in the park in order to locate the buildings, rides, pools and other key features. Then I used a spray bomb to mark the buildings and other features on the ground in order to confirm the placement of every piece of this giant jigsaw puzzle. It will be extremely expensive or impossible to make changes from this point forward. Save for one small change, the layout worked as I imagined back in my studio. With the surveyed steel pins in place and a schedule to constantly check and replace them as necessary I have every confidence that the buildings, foundations and retaining walls will be built where they are supposed to be. The next time I return the park will be very much in the vertical construction stage.

While I was onsite I opened each container and checked inside. I was delighted to see that everything has arrived in perfect condition after their 6,000 mile journey. It was a bit of a surreal experience to climb inside and inspect the containers. The last time I was inside everything appeared the same but when I exited I looked out the doors and saw our shop. This time, despite the inside being familiar, I saw a lush tropical jungle and seaside view as I looked out.

One of the first pieces we designed and routed for Scallywag Bay Adventure Park was in fact among the last to be finished. I designed the hull shape for the small ship and posted it back in May of 2014. Here’s the two step by step entries of that process…   Entry one   Entry two

The sign was designed as always by hand and with the computer to create the vectors.

I sliced the ship’s hull into layers using EnRoute and then routed them from 30 lb Precision Board on the MultiCam.

The pieces were then glued up into the three dimensional hulls. This is how they sat for the better part of a year while we were busy with all of the other pieces.

When we picked up the project(s) we added a few missing pieces which we quickly cut on the bandsaw. The armatures for the ship’s masts were made from 5/8″ steel rods.

A thin coat of Abracadabra sculpting epoxy was formed over the two ships and hand sculpted with all the detail. 

Then the painting process began beginning with the base coats – three layers in all.

Lastly the glazes were skillfully applied by our painting crew.

The sign faces were also painted separately before being added to the sculpted fibreglass reinforced concrete bases.

The MultiCam has been idle for a few days as we did all the other work required to catch up to what has been routed. The golf sign (with the ship’s wheel got it’s hand sculpted wheel. Angie got the nod for that task and did a great job! We also started applying the sculpted concrete to the tree and will finish that tomorrow. I’ll post pictures later of that. It too is looking fabulous!

We also got some epoxy sculpting  done in the last couple of days and the KRAKEN is coming along nicely! The sculpting on this sign should be wrapped up tomorrow as well.