Joel Holmes’ Lehigh Valley J Tower Model

Joel did not build the way many modelers build structures. He had techniques developed over many years of working with wood.  Putting the model of Pittston’s J Tower together took about 4 months, a little at a time, focusing on three pieces: a base to go on the layout permanently, the superstructure of the building and the roof.

Each part of the structure was pre-painted to the correct color, medium gray for the body and a dark charcoal gray for the trim. Each of the corner posts is a single 1/16 X 1/16 painted piece of stripwood with the inside corner edge removed.  The tower parts were varnished, and then the windows panes were applied. The next step of assembly involved using very small amounts of tacky glue to cement the sides together, held in place with weights and blocks to keep them aligned properly.

The second floor section was constructed individually with each part pre-painted and assembled before being attached to the first floor superstructure. The supports for the awning were assembled on a jig, glued to the tower, and then the awning was applied. His roof section was built so that it could be removed to reveal the interior detail.

Joel acknowledged that his methods did take time, but the results are excellent.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Leave a Reply