All Aboard the Crafty Train!

I've been posting some crochet, some woodworking, some photos... I'm all over the place lately!  Today is no exception as I'm going to show you a little bit more of my friend Nehill's train layout (click HERE and HERE for past posts), since I was recently able to play and craft a bit on it!



His carnival was in need of a haunted house/ship, so we added this little entrance to a sweet pirate ship.  Those kids are running out of there after being scared half to death.  (I sympathize.  The last haunted house I went to I ended up riding Nehill's back out of it...)



Here's the lovely zoo I helped put together.  There was a circus in this area, but it got kicked out of town because they were mistreating the animals.  No good.  Rest assured the animals in this zoo are well taken care of.



Above is a sweet sculpture that the zoo commissioned from a local artist.  I helped by spray painting some animals gray, and Nehill wired a red light inside of a painted glass bulb (which is actually part of a broken garden decoration).  He also put in some pieces of copper wire. It looks pretty sweet lit up with the lights off!





That's the "Alpha Cheetah."  Say that several times fast and it starts to sound like a disease or something.  Just sayin'.



We realized we didn't take pictures of the circus before it was taken apart, but above is a picture of his amazing circus tent!  Nehill designed it, and his mom who is an expert seamstress sewed it together.  Maybe after some train table expansion and new circus management, the circus can come back to town.  After all, as his Aunt pointed out, the circus is usually on the outskirts of town.



I didn't get a great picture of it, but above you can see another sculpture acting as a roundabout on Main Street.  Functional modern art!  Nehill made it from the other part of that broken garden decoration.  Clever huh?



Over on the seaboard near the pier, I made a sculpture/sign for Beluga Bay.  I was quite the stone mason, albeit a very slow one...  My best work I'm afraid is on the back of the base before I tried speeding up haha!!  Lesson learned- think about where the final piece will end up. Oh well, I was just going for authentic!  It's all about the details right?! Oh, and there's little spotlights in front of the sign that actually light up the sign at night!



This whole area Nehill recently made, is actually an upper level attached to a wall.  (I was standing on a box to get the pictures!)







See the eagle on the top of the tree?  There's even an eagle's nest he made a few branches down.



Nehill also wired this little house (warehouse?) which when lit up looks like it's burning down.  There's even smoke that comes out!!  Good thing the train layout has a fire house!



Here's a bigger picture of the carnival where the haunted house/ship is. I helped make some paths around the carnival with dirt, and laid a bit of fencing around the perimeter too.

Way too much fun I tell you!  And I didn't break anything this time (Ok, maybe it was close.  A few times...)!  But, I might be able to rob a bank now as I think I burned off all of my finger prints with hot glue haha! Oh the sacrifices we make for our crafts, right?!