Roller Coasters and Flak Towers

I learned my lesson regarding “impossibilities” years ago when a guy from Chalmette walked into the shop and announced he was going to scratch-build an HO scale model of the roller coaster that use to be in the Ohio State Fair.

He showed me a photo of the real one and I got dizzy just looking at it. About four years after that announcement ( and after boxes of basswood, tons of Atlas Code 100 rail, and scores of Kadee Wheel sets), not only was it finished, not only did it operate, not only did he hand make everything (including the coaster cars), but it was put on permanent display at the Ohio State Fair.

So when Claude Zeringue nonchalantly mentioned he was going to build a 1/35 WWII German Flak Tower to showcase the 12.8 cm Zwilling he built, I thought “Roller Coaster!”

 

 

Claude said that in 1/35 scale the tower would be about 5’4″ tall and 4 feet across. His revised plan is to build one quarter of the almost round tower and use front surface mirrors on both sides cut to create the illusion of the full tower.

 

 

To make it more exciting, he has a deadline – he wants to enter it in the National IPMS contest in South Carolina in exactly 90 days.

 

 

He’s well on his way. The top photo is of a real Flak Tower. He’s building the pie shaped area outlined in red. The other shots are of what he’s accomplished so far.