Cliffhanger

[Tigger]

Excellent piece of photoshopping!  Very impressive, John; it looks very good.

[invercloy]

I hope it's not going to have that garish orange coloured rock on it, John ;) looks good otherwise.

[tedp]

Excellent engines, and a most imaginative piece of photoshopping. Looking good, John.

[Tigger]

I hope it's not going to have that garish orange coloured rock on it, John ;) looks good otherwise.

Oh I don't know - the orange rocks would clash BEAUTIFULLY with that lovely bright purple I saw photoshopped onto No 7... ;D

[pilotfriend]

The rocks will be correct to shape and colour thanks to the help from Devon CC geology dept!

Rock building is now starting.

[pilotfriend]

The first foam has been glued in place. It will be carved in two days.

[pilotfriend]

After the first carving. Gaps have been filled with expanding foam. These show as 'lumps' right now. We are working from geological photos of these cliffs.

[tedp]

Starting to look like rock. Styrofoam is the way to go with large rock and hill faces. I love the mess on the floor by the way! Soon you'll find tiny white particles all over the house. I speak from experience  ;D

[Tigger]

Looking good John.  Never mind cruelty to pizzas - what about cruelty to Styrofoam?? ;D

[pilotfriend]

" I love the mess on the floor by the way! Soon you'll find tiny white particles all over the house. I speak from experience "

Soon?   no already. We built two airplanes using the Rutan foam method so this is absolutely nothing! Exactly how it gets into certain very private parts of the anatomy so fast is still a mystery however!

Cruelty to foam?  That is only the first cut!

[Tigger]

Cruelty to foam?  That is only the first cut!

The first cut is always the deepest... ;D

[pilotfriend]

Much more carving has taken place today and the rock strata are beginning to look credible. We have also built up the foam to the top and await the glorious time we can carve that too. Jenny is finding it hard to cope with the bits. We have been there before and it really is awful.

Tomorrow, we hope to get the funicular working......... at last.

[pilotfriend]

The foam awfullness continues.


The rock strata are now mostly carved and the heathland above completed. The globs of expanding foam are filling holes!


Here, the cliffs have been blocked in on the lower section of the other board and will be carved tomorrow. The blocks are fixed with PVA and locked in with expanding foam.

11 bin bags of foam chips is the score so far!

The funicular seems so easy but has turned out to be quite hard. The single winding motor does not work accurately enough and we shall now be using two step motors with a new bespoke electronic control unit.

[Tigger]

That is looking pretty spectacular John.  Reminds me a bit of when I started the mountainside on mine!  Nice to see it coming together, isn't it?

[pilotfriend]

I think so! We have four days on the foam so far. It is so easy to get the carving wrong.