Cutting Corners

When I was in the United States Navy as a corpsman, I developed an interest in model railroading. After my work was done; I didn’t have a lot to keep my active mind busy. HO gage was small enough for me to keep with my belongings. I began to build trackside accessories. An Exacto knife, a thin piece of wood, and Elmer’s glue was all I needed. My first project was to fashion two tunnel portals, shaped like old tunnel adits where they built wooden walls to prevent debris from falling onto the tracks. My next project was a trestle bridge seven inches high and eighteen inches long. I had to study a photo to make it look real. The next thing I built was a water tank like those that supplied water to the steam engines. It had an arm that could be lowered and raised back into place. With the use of some tongue blades I constructed a train station with benches, a teller window, and windows. A platform stretched along one side with a freight room attached. It was definitely a labor to complete. Getting them home on an airplane is another story entirely. I still have them stored somewhere in my attic.

I made a small jewelry box for a friend. It was a rectangle about six inches by four inches and three inches deep. The corners were hand-carved dovetails. It also had a fitted lid with a carved a bunch of grapes to decorate the top. During this time I was carving miniatures. One I can remember was of an elephant that was about ¾ of an inch high. Another was a small frog with a crown on its head. Most of my carvings were limited by the amount and type wood I had on hand.

The last project I carved happened much later. I got the idea to carve a figure of Jesus Christ with His arms stretched out. I thought once it was completed, I’d use metal pins and attach the image onto a cross made of separate pieces of wood. It was coming along quite well. The soft pine shaped easily. The arms and cupped hands were nearly finished. The legs protruding from the loincloth were done. The chest and abdomen were well shaped. Christ’s hair and thorns were very realistic. The face was being shaped, but hadn’t yet emerged from the beard as of yet. Somehow one arm of the soft pine broke off. At first I was devastated, but God reminded me that I shouldn’t be making graven images and the entire project ended up in the trash never to be finished.