WIP - The Gold Mine - RESTORED PICTURES

[Rhoderic]

A great project.

What Hammershield called a viaduct is known as a flume and used to carry crushed ore. The ground beneath them would usually be covered with dust and small chunks of ore.

knowitall! ;-)

I can show off, too! The mine entrance is called an 'adit'. 

As in "Get adit boys! That gold ain't gonna mine itself!"

[argsilverson]

Inspiring stuff.  Looking forward to see this project evolve.

likewise..........very impressive stuff 
can't wait to see the next installment

*pats Admiral on back*

Me too! I agree on all the above!

May I suggest some addition. A couple of tent accommodation, for the unfortunate miners that have no shacks, plus a a crusher and few miners to wash out the ore by the creek. (plus some beavers)

[Verderer]

Oh, I thought the water chute was called a Long Tom?

Nice project, by the way.

[oxiana]

[Rubs forehead, resisting temptation]

... Must not ... look at other inspiring projects ... stay focused on current painting plans ... don't get distracted...

Aw hell, I want a gold mine table too!

[Admiral Benbow]

really look forward to the progress, great job so far.  How do the HLBS compare with other figures?

Quite large figures, around 28-30 mm. Usually too big for the older Foundry minis, but I don't plan to show them side by side ...

[Admiral Benbow]

Lovely! The viaduct must be a joy to build.
Benbow, I've got a HLBS dancing goldminer with your name on it. I bought the set for the bucking mule, but the prospector's yours if you want it ...

Hammers, that's a very generous offer - thank you very much! Will send you a pm.

[argsilverson]

The Gold Mine, this the title of this topic.
Yes I understand that gold is more appealing, but I think that this project could also be served as:

the silver mine

for scenarios based on Zorro etc

[By the way there is no way to distinct, in 28mm miniatures,  the ore containing gold  to the silver ore. Generally the gold or silver are in small veins amidst the rock. Most of the times together]

[Admiral Benbow]

Alright, on with part 2 ... Thanks to everybody for your nice comments and hints; never heard of "adid" and "flume" before, but I really enjoy learning the correct gold-mining-terminology through building this terrain piece ... 

The next picture shows more rock formations at the right side of the piece, this time more rounded formations as being created by fluvial and glacial processes. The adid and tracks into the mine have been created, Laundry building and tree have been positioned and the flume was constructed from simple foamcard strips as placeholders to get the correct curves and lengths of the later troughs. The strips were only pinned into the ground with needle pins.

@argsilverson: have a look at the middle left part of the photo: from the start I had noted the german word "Zelt" there, which means "tent". 



Two more shots of the new features from different angles:





Over to more details of the mine entrance. The wooden construction was entirely built from wood strips of different forms and thicknesses, available over here from a couple of shipmodeller's support companies. Simple u-frames were connected and the sides and top planked with strips. As the used white glue would repel acrylics or inks, everything got an undercoat with light brown enamels and will be drybrushed and weathered with acrylics later.

Before laying the tracks, the ground was base-painted a dark muddy brown colour to eliminate any white spots from the clay and get a nice dark base for later colouring. After drying small wooden strips were glued on and some plastic t-beams from my spares fixed on top with contact glue. The wheels of the small ore-car were used as a template.



Peter Dennis' painting shows some blockhouse tents in the background, and as I was looking for some balance to the Laundry building on the right, I started building a small log-supported tent for the left side. First I thought about using round wooden stock material, but that would look too artificial. A short trip to the woods got me some dryed up small diameter twigs which looked far better. They were cut to length, carved round at the ends and glued together. Overall the wooden parts came out quite naturally and I was happy with the effect. The frame for the tent was built from toothpicks, and the canvas itself is from thin cloth, glued over the frame and then soacked two times with a white-glue/acrylic colour mix. The canvas will get some more colour and the one or other highlight later, the wood will stay as it is, maybe get some flat varnish for protection.







That's the end of part 2, but I will follow up with part 3 in short time. After that we will be up-to-date with this project, and I will post after making some significant progress, as time permits. Hope to have this thing finished at the end of September ... 

[Verderer]

The Gold Mine, this the title of this topic.
Yes I understand that gold is more appealing, but I think that this project could also be served as:

the silver mine

for scenarios based on Zorro etc

[By the way there is no way to distinct, in 28mm miniatures,  the ore containing gold  to the silver ore. Generally the gold or silver are in small veins amidst the rock. Most of the times together]

I may be wrong, but I think this type of operation modelled here would be only usable for 'placer gold', in other words gold that is panned from sand. Quartz or ore gold would have to be separated from the ore chemically or mechanically (crushing etc), so the Long Tom and the cradle pictured in the illustration for sieving gold from earth would be useless. Both contraptions are essentially for the same purpose as panning, they just process much more sand than a single panner would be able to.

Admiral, I love the way you made the tent, and in fact I am planning doing some similar tents for my boomtown project. Great inspiration!

[argsilverson]

The Gold Mine, this the title of this topic.
Yes I understand that gold is more appealing, but I think that this project could also be served as:

the silver mine

for scenarios based on Zorro etc

[By the way there is no way to distinct, in 28mm miniatures,  the ore containing gold  to the silver ore. Generally the gold or silver are in small veins amidst the rock. Most of the times together]

I may be wrong, but I think this type of operation modelled here would be only usable for 'placer gold', in other words gold that is panned from sand. Quartz or ore gold would have to be separated from the ore chemically or mechanically (crushing etc), so the Long Tom or the cradle used in this diorama for sieving gold from earth would be useless. Both contraptions are for essentially the same purpose as panning, they just process much more sand than a single panner would be able to.

The gold ores are of 2 types:
1.- veins in the rock
2.- ore in the alluvial deposits, i.e. river deposits/sands, tilt,clays etc.

the second is usually through surface works, and then washed by the river.

This type of mine, which is in diorama, is aimed to take off the rock. Then it should be crushed and final stage is again by washing in the water. [In modern mines, they processed ores chenically -the term is "cupping"- but it is not necessary to discuss gold mining in full detail]

So, in both cases the Long Tom is necessary.

[Verderer]

Oh, really? That is interesting. But at what point is the ore crushed then? I thought they would need big crushing machines (like briefly glimpsed in the series Deadwood) or using quicksilver to separate it chemically? Sorry, I don't want to hijack this thread but this is interesting stuff, and has some bearing on the diorama itself, right?

[argsilverson]

Oh, really? That is interesting. But at what point is the ore crushed then? I thought they would need big crushing machines (like briefly glimpsed in the series Deadwood) or using quicksilver to separate it chemically? Sorry, I don't want to hijack this thread but this is interesting stuff, and has some bearing on the diorama itself, right?

Just make things simple:
1.- cutting the rock -bringing to surface
2.- crushing to small particles
3.- cupping and/or washing . in both cases the structure used in older times is similar like the Long Tom. In ancient Greece the made Long Toms out of carved stones.

 

[Verderer]

Yes, but how was it crushed? I don't see how you can do it between the mine and the long tom / sluice? Unless you did it by hand, which would take ages I guess? Isn't gold ore as hard as rock?

[Admiral Benbow]

Ok, thanks a lot to both Verderer and argsilverson for those very interesting and probably historically correct facts, but let me clarify that I'm not after building a mining diorama for a scientific museum, but a terrain piece for my old west gaming stuff and our club game at Crisis. 

I'm a history teacher myself and studied history a couple of years ago and would have gone into laborious research and studies about gold- or silver mining around the boomtowns of the old west if I had intended to construct a 100% correct model about historic mining operations. I just found a nice painting in a book about the west and used that as an orientation for my mine model.

Let's say my terrain piece will show some historical techniques and constructions for mining in one compressed piece. 

I can live with that.

[Verderer]

Yep, works for me too!