The drawing is mostly finished now. For fifteen years, I’d been looking at that picture and thinking the cupola was centred, and the windows were equidistant from the ends. I’m so fortunate to have a side-on view: it’s rare for Canada Atlantic freight equipment.
When I built the locomotive, I got about half-way and thought, “Gee I could have verified the look of this thing with a cardboard mockup before I started.” Now, I’m doing this with everything. The mockup takes only minutes to make, and could save hours of embarrassment later. Even the little crossing shack got a mockup.
As a side bonus, I can let my two-year old play with them when I’m finished with them. They last for about five minutes in his hands – about five minutes more than the real model would last!
So now that I have the mockup, it still looks a little long to me. I can lay it right over the photograph and it’s perfect, but it still doesn’t look right.