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Temagami, Ontario

This summer (2006) my family took a short camping vacation around northern Ontario (the near north for us Ottawas) that included Sudbury, Timmins, Iroqouos Falls and North Bay. Of course, on the way we had to stop and check out the renovated ONR Temagami Station. The renovation work is exceptional and well worth the visit. The station now houses a tourist shop and art gallery with plans to house a working HO scale layout of the area. They even have a web site that’s worth checking out - just click on the photo.

Temagami Station

While picking up a history book on the ONR, I couldn’t help but notice a really neat laser kit of an HO scale Settler’s House. This kit is made by Temagami Station (http://www.temagamistation.com/ ) who are actually located in the basement of the station! Though I didn’t have an immediate need for a log cabin, the price was right ($19.95) and I needed a quick summer project to stir up the modeling juices.

Kit Assembly

It is obvious from the elaborate packaging that they were targeting this kit towards the general public as the detailed instructions are tailored as such. All parts are fastened to a heavy green card that is in turn shrink wrap thus displaying all the pieces. Some of the pieces were even hot glued to the card! (not a great idea as these required careful removal in order to prevent any damage). Kit in it's packaging. The step by step instructions are very good and included numerous illustrations. A little over kill for someone who has built a laser kit before but certainly ideal for the un washed public. High quality wood was used and the laser cutting and engraving was first rate. I followed the instructions and scribed the inside of the walls to replicate logs. My original intent was to make the roof removable but I changed my mind later on and glued the roof on. I spent a few extra minutes and wire brushed a wood grain texture on all the wood pieces. These were then stained with Floquil Driftwood followed by a dry brush of Teak stain (I was going to use maple but that had apparently dried up in the jar) and a wash of diluted Indian ink. The walls were then assembled as per the instructions and the floor glued in. The front porch was then added along with it’s roof and posts. A little trimming was required in order to fit these two panels into the slots on the front wall. Kit parts displayed. Clockwise from the top - roof panels, 4 walls and floor dry assembled, chimney, window frames & glass and shingle panels. The window frames are laser cut from thin plastic and the clear window glass was made from a thick lexan type plastic. I air brushed the window frames a light brown (close match to the wall colour) then installed these and the glass as per the instructions. All are held in place with the peel-and-stick adhesive on the window frames. Window shades were fabricated from card stock and installed to imply the building is in use. The two roof panels were then glued in place. These had a slight bow in them that I couldn’t remove hence gluing them in place. The kit includes some nice laser cut “shingle” panels. If you use these, the shingling will only take a few minutes to install these self adhesive panels. I chose to use my own individual shingles as I felt the laser shingles were a bit too thick. Installing these 800 shingles was the longest part of the project (app. 1.5 hrs). The kit also comes with a stone chimney that has been cut from a piece of masonite. Once again, though this is very well done, I felt a “real” stone chimney was in order. This I fabricated from a plaster stone casting I had in the scrap box. Over all the kit went together easily which took about 2 hours. Another 1.5 hours was required to install all those shingles! This kit is very well engineered with high quality parts. It makes a really good scale model and I certainly recommend that you give it a try. The finished model

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