blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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 | | 09/24/2008 11:02 PM |
| Maybe one of you out there has some idea as to where I can go for log siding for one of my 1:24 structures. As it now looks, I may be having to make my own. Now that would be a very time-consuming project.
Maurice Minnifield's log house, Cicely, Alaska
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/24/2008 11:30 PM |
| The exterior shots of Maurice's home were done at Roslyn, Washington. The interior shots were taken at the production studio in Redmond, Washington. Looking at these, I could almost use doweling strips because these "logs" (obviously these ones are fake) are so even.
Maurice in his "home" in Cicely: One of the models that will eventually appear on my layout. I plan on working on this one this winter.
In any case, I would appreciate any suggestions for the use of logs from any of the MLS members.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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kormsen
in the middle of the westparaguayan semi desert
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| | 09/25/2008 3:09 AM |
| when i need "logs", i cut twigs of the right diameter and treat them with a cheese slicer or a potatoe peeler.
that is quick and easy.
for rough, more or less square beams i use a sandpaper belt. | |
 construction site - keep off! | |
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 11:12 AM |
| The actual film site for the exterior of Maurice Minnifield's home is on the hillside to the east of downtown Roslyn. When I was gathering internet photos for my Cicely model, I found these ones, among a very few. They were insufficient for me to build a credible model--or at least one that would be satisfactory to me. So this was one of the structures that eventually led me to visit Roslyn last year. It is one of a small handful of log structures used in the filming of Northern Exposure.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 11:25 AM |
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One of the problems with Maurice's residence is that the inside appears much larger than the outside. That, of course, is because the studio was in Redmond whereas the only
residential structure that came close was the medium-sized log one on the hill to the east of Rosllyn. Here is the structure that appears in the pilot scene where Dr. Joel Fleishman first meets Maurice Minnifield. It is not the structure that was later used for exterior shots. In fact, it is much smaller.
The dining area alone was huge:
So now I have the problem of reconciling the model I will build so that it is more believable with the interior studio shots while at that same time making it resemble the Roslyn filming prototype: | |
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 11:47 AM |
| All of this is interesting. Here I have a fictional town that was a movie set. Part of it was shot in a studio while the remainder was shot in a town that was supposed to be in Alaska, but actually was in central Washington. The interiors for The Brick, Holling's and Shelly's upstairs apartment and Maurice's house do not match the exteriors. So the challenges are rather fascinating. I am attempting to put together a believable layout based on a fiction that has become part of recent pop culture. But the layout does have real prototypes. On top of all of that, because this is a railroad model, I had to integrate in elements that never appeared in the original television series from the early 1990s. And, of course, all those railroad lines are themselves a part of the past and none of them had any relationship to Alaska--not the Northern Pacific or the Milwaukee Road or the successor BNSF. I do use elements of all three plus others, but that meant creating my own elaborate storyline so it all makes some kind of sense.
The historic Milwaukee Road railroad yard in nearby South Cle Elum (south of Roslyn, WA)
I have to come up with something that makes sense in a few sound bites because I will be hosting tour groups from the nearby Princess Hotel for the first time next season. Most everyone has seen Northern Exposure, but few know much about its filming. I suspect, though, that most have figured out that it did not happen in Alaska. | |
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 12:48 PM |
| Posted By kormsen on 09/25/2008 3:09 AM
when i need "logs", i cut twigs of the right diameter and treat them with a cheese slicer or a potatoe peeler.
that is quick and easy.
for rough, more or less square beams i use a sandpaper belt.
I have considered using "logs" from the many willows of the area. That would be very time-consuming, but it would probably work. | |
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 1:43 PM |
| End of the Season ? 10 day and 14 day forecast for Copper Center, Alaska
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 3:57 PM |
| Mt Drum today (9/25/08) at noon from my new office/shop: A rare sight this year ! Two hours later the clouds had moved in.
(click)
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 5:25 PM |
| As I found when I visited the site personally, I could not obtain many good angles to shoot this house without trespassing on the property. However, I do have a few more details now than I did before.
Two of my own shots taken in May 2007
I will say this: it certainly was worthwhile to come here to Roslyn just to get the sense of the place where six years of the filming of NX occurred.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/25/2008 10:15 PM |
| It was a great view up there on that hill just above the cabin used for the Maurice residence shots. None of these scenes ever appeared on NX the television series. After all, the real town of Roslyn and its surrounding community is much larger than the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska that it was supposed to represent.
The Minnifield house would be to the left in this first picture. In the second you can even see snow on the upper mountain slopes. Amazing. I keep all of these images in mind as I continue to plan details in my model even though there is little hope that I can succeed in duplicating much of it.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/26/2008 8:16 AM |
| The whole point of bringing these pictures back up was so I could come up with a drawing that works for me--a plan for a model structure of the Maurice Minnifield log home. Although I still don't know how I am going to do the logs, the tentative drawing is ready.
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Semper Vaporo
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Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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| | 09/26/2008 10:02 AM |
| Methinks you will need TARDIS technology to get that built. In TV and Movies the interior of buildings is often larger than what the exterior shots show there is room for.
Remember the main house on the Ponderosa (Bonanza)? How did they get that living room and stairway/balcony in that house?
How about the FBI Director's office on the "FBI" show? The exterior show zoomed in on the corner of the building and then the scene changed to a spacious office. The building is the real FBI office building, but the window they zoomed in on is a landing in a stairwell. | |
 C. T. McCullough
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
SA #37469
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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blackburn49
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| | 09/26/2008 6:35 PM |
| So I came up with a modification on the Roslyn prototype: The high area now has windows, which makes more sense for this kind of lodge. Thus that upper area becomes skylights--a luxury in the north that only the well-to-do are likely to have as a feature in their home. The main part of the structure is wider and the perpendicular rear area is longer on the south-facing (right) side. But I did cut off the left side because there is only so much room for this model. Since that part is not particularly noticable through the trees--and it appears that there are no windows on that side--it hardly matters.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/26/2008 6:38 PM |
| I also centered the door and added a window on the left on the second level. Those features are necessary because I have expanded the size of the walls. Otherwise there would be too much blank space along what appears to be the main wall--the west face.
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blackburn49
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Copper Center, Alaska
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| | 09/26/2008 7:28 PM |
| Thus we have this roof outline. The west face (front) is on top.
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KYYADA
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| | 09/26/2008 9:18 PM |
| | Lincoln Logs? Maybe milled down on two sides and then taken to a wire wheel on a grinder to give them a rough look? | | | |
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ThinkerT
Alaska
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| | 09/26/2008 9:31 PM |
| So have you figured out how you are going to cram the dining room, living room, study, ect into your model? And have you lined up an assortment of tacky things to hang on the walls? Or are you going to bother with interior detailing?
Also....seems like you'll need the appropriate recognizable figures for this one. | | | |
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