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| Bale Grist Mill Southeast View |
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The Grist Mill
1861 Spanishtown had a grist mill on Arroyo de Leon Creek at the east end of Mill Street. As no records or pictures exist, Half Moon Bay History Association director chose to use the design of the Bale Grist Mill for the model. Built in 1846, it not only is of the same vintage as the Spanishtown mill, but nearby geographically.
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| Bale Grist Mill Southwest View |
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The water wheel measured 36' tall, and was fed by a flume from up the creek. The flume ends at the edge of the diorama.
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| Candelario Miramontes Adobe West View |
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| Candelario Miramontes Adobe
The footprint for this newest addition to the 1862 Spanishtown Diorama was taken from the 1861 US Coast Survey. A large reproduction of this map hangs in the Half Moon Bay Historical Association display in the Zaballa House Bed & Breakfast at 324 Main Street in Half Moon Bay, California. The style of adobe construction is similar to that used in the Sanchez Adobe in Pacifica, 12 miles to the north, and the Vallejo Adobe in Sonoma, California.
The rustic style of erosion-exposed adobe brick is typical of a structure 22 years old as this one was at the time of the depiction, with less than regular maintenance.
The model uses Andersen Model Kits Adobe Brick Castings for the exposed adobe brick, AMK Adobe Mud, left natural to depict whitewashed mud, Builders In Scale Rustic Anegre real wood shingles, Mt. Albert Scale Lumber, and Grandt Line window & door castings.
Special thanks to Clint Crow, owner of Builders In Scale for pitching in part of the shingles to help the project along.
Only 25 signed & numbered kits will be sold.
HO: $125 S: $175 O: $225
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| Planking stained to model redwood |
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| Zaballa House Southeast View |
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| Zaballa House Completed
We have completed the model of the Zaballa House, oldest house in Half Moon Bay, and the only structure planned for the Spanishtown Diorama that still stands today.
The model took about 100 hours for Julie & myself to build. We were fortunate to find Grandt Line castings for the front door & transom, upstairs deck door & rear door, as well as the small windows. Tichy Train Group castings were nearly exactly the right size for the large double hung windows. Grandt Line castings also worked for the deck railing.
The trim above the doors & windows as well as along the gables was meticulously scratch built from numerous pieces of wood & plastic, as were the deck railing posts.
The trim along the corners of the building was created by cutting 232 pieces of .010" thick plastic strip to scale 9"x9" & 9"x12" pieces, each glued on one by one. The eight runs of this trim each took about 40 minutes to cut & glue in place using a magnifying headset & tweezers.
The present day Zaballa House has an addition to the front of the historical model which houses the parlor to the south & office to the north. We worked from photos taken in 1906 just after the April 18th earthquake to create this model. we drew the walls with window & door openings in CAD program to print the HO scale templates for these parts.
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| Zaballa House Northwest View |
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Zaballa House CAD Drawings Completed
We have completed the CAD drawings of the walls of the Zaballa House. These will be used as templates for laying out the walls first on 1/16" plywood. After the window & door openings are cut out, we will then laminate the plywood to the back of clapboard siding, using the plywood as a template to cut out the openings in the clapboard. the plywood keeps the basswood clapboard from splitting.
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| Isometric View CAD Drawing Zaballa House |
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Thursday, July 15 & 22, 2010
We have completed the ground work!
the last of the eleven feet of fence work... photos below:
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| Completed Ground Work South View |
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Thursday, July 8, 2010
And even more fence work... photos below:
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| Farm fence on the southeast corner... |
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| Close in view of the farm fence |
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Thursday, July 1, 2010
More fence work... photos below:
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| Fence Overview |
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| Fence Closeup |
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Friday June 25, 2010
today we constructed the fence post & rail corral north of San Mateo Road & east of the Pilarcitos Cemetary, photos below:
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| View east showing both corrals, cemetary & bridge |
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| Closeup of the square post & rail corral |
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Friday, June 18, 2010
Today we installed the picket fence and sign for the Pilarcitos Cemetary. Established in 1820, this cemetary exist presently. It is located on the north side of San Mateo Road. We created the decal for the cemetary sign with a photograph of the existing sign.
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| View northeast of the cemetary & Main St. bridge |
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| Present day sign used to make decal |
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| Cemetary Sign close up view |
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Friday, June 11, 2010
Today we created San Mateo Road leading east off Main St..
The road appears darker than the others as the material has yet to dry.
Below are the photo results from today's work:
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| View Looking Southeast of San Mateo Rd. |
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Friday, May 21, 2010
Today we created the corral using rough cut lumber at the northwest end of town.
We measured the runs of dimensional lumber fencing & decided to build the lengths at home, using jigs to speed up the assembly, then do final assembly on site.
Below are the photo results from today's work:
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| West view of creek, corral & bridge |
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| Carral & Pilarcitos Creek Bridge |
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Spanishtown Diorama May 14, 2010
Today we installed the rest of the trees in Pilarcitos Creek gulch. Earlier this week we ducked in & faired the elevations with some spackle on some minor transitions, today we covered those with the dark gray grout, & installed the beige grout to model Main & Mill Streets. We also added a lot of grass & more shrubs. We had to wait on the remaining grass & shrubs while the grout dries.
Next session, we'll finish the grass & shrubs, & work on the fences & corrals.
Below are the photo results:
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| 5/14/2010 NW View |
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| 5/14/2010 North View |
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| 5/5/2010 North View |
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April 30 & May 7, 2010
April 30th we poured the resin for the water in the creeks.
May 7th Dave had the Main & Mill Street locations lined in, and had string locating the fences & corrals. Some of the fences will be 8"x8" posts with 2"x6" rails, and the others rough-hewn round posts & rails.
We modeled in the soil leaving the roads for next week.
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| 4/23/2010 North View |
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4/23/2010 Elevations Added Through Town Center
Today we faired in the 70' above sea level hills at the south end of the diorama down to the 60' elevation along the creeks, Pilarcitos Creek & Arroyo de Leon that runs north/south to the east of town. We applied more of the gray grout representing the color of the soil through the area.
We'll do a quick tough-up on the creek bottom colors before coming back next week to pour the resin depicting the water in the creeks.
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| Northwest view 4/23/2010 |
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| Pilarcitos Creek Main Street Bridge from the north |
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April 16, 2010
Today we added grass & shrubs to the creek ravines. We painted the creek beds green & sand colors. We applied the dark gray grout to the elevated areas.
Next planned work session we will be pouring the water resin into the creek beds. Also we plan to fair in the slight elevation change through the center of town from south of Pilarcitos Creek to Kelly avenue.
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| 4/16/2010 view looking east of Pilatcitos Creek & Main St. Bridge |
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April 8, 2010
Today we covered the rest of the foam hills with shop paper towels soaked in Hydrocal. We also finished off the ends of the creek where they enter & leave the diorama to make the creek bed liquid tight for when we pour the resin to model water.
We painted on the soil along the creek banks using dark grey sanded grout.
Next session we'll paint in the colors along the creek bed.
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| Pilarcitos Creek & bridge viewed from the west |
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March 31, 2010
We established the approaches to the Main Street Pilarcitos creek bridge. Also we created the elevations for the southeast corner.
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Thursday March 18, 2010
We built the Main St. Pilarcitos Creek Bridge today, and glued the foliage to 20 Supertree arbors. The bridge was modeled after some old photos Dave provided.
We built up the elevation on the northwest corner according to Dave's topographical map with styrofoam, carving & sanding it to shape. We made sure to leave the top level in the area of a building and one of the corrals.
We studied the creek gulch where the bridge is to be located & established the creek bottom & banks so that the road coming & going from the bridge had acceptable grades. We then glued in cardboard supports & laid platercloth into the creek gulch, draping it onto the styrofoam knolls.
We glued in three of the trees using a drop of hot melt glue. We propped the trees up for about ten minutes to allow the glue to set up.
The photo above shows the bridge & two of the trees, the photo below shows an overview of today's work.
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View of the south half of the diorama looking east prior to beginning work
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View of the north half of the diorama looking east prior to beginning work
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Friday, March 12th, 2010, Work Commences
We began by marking the footprints of the card stock mock-up structures & removing them from the diorama. Julie suggested we begin on the rear of the diorama with the creek beds. We cut strips of corrugated cardboard, shaped them to a rough half-circle with flat tabs on each end & glued them along the creek bed cuts in the plywood. (We did not get all this accomplished as our glue gun went south in a puff of black smoke) We then laid sheets of plaster cloth on top of the cardboard. We did get the styrofoam 10' elevation knoll glued down & shaped on the northeast corner of the diorama, which will be the site of a clapboard church.
We had a thorough discussion & a meeting of the minds with Dave Cresson about the Main Street bridge which will cross Pilarcitos Creek. We determined the design & dimensions of the lumber & the bridge itself. Julie & I will build the bridge off-site so we can work the topography to match the bridge.
Next work session will be within the next week, we'll break out our new & imporved hot melt glue gun, purchased from Jenny & Joel of Bragdon Enterprises.
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View of the platercloth installed in the creek bed
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Spanishtown Diorama
We are pleased to announce that Andersen Model Kits will be creating a 4'x8' diorama in HO scale of Spanishtown as it existed in 1859. Located 29 miles south of San Francisco along the Pacific coast, Spanishtown was located on Pilarcitos Creek, site of present day Half Moon Bay, California.
The diorama will be an exhibit of the Half Moon Bay Historical Association located in the Zaballa House located at 324 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. HO scale mockups of the structures to be modeled are currently on display on the diorama, which is shown in the picture below.
Adobe Buildings
Many of the buildings were adobe construction. We will be using our technique featured in our adobe model kits to replicate these structures.
Sponshorships Available
You are invited to sponsor one or more structures in this project. Contact David at the Zaballa House for details at 650-726-9123, or call Tom or Julie Andersen at Andersen Model Kits, 650-740-7074.
The first step in creating the diorama will be to model the topography and Pilarcitos Creek, and establish the footprints for the buildings. This will likely be done sometime in December, 2009.
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