It is never too late to revisit designs as we build the features for our projects. This flexibility allows for positive changes that will better build a theme or story. Up at Cultus Lake the many barrels around the giant roller coaster posts have become a theme for this area of the project. Although not deliberately planned it became obvious as we installed them in the last few days. This prompted a rethink of the design for the operator's booths for the pendulum ride and the spinning coaster. The name of the coaster 'Blasting Barrels' further was the clincher. Using sections of barrels to build the booths was suddenly a viable solution.
Beautiful rust
I love rusty stuff. It just speaks to me. Each time we design and build something that is supposed to look old we pull out our make rust toolbox to make it so. Often we use mild acid to rust real steel. We occasionally use a wonderful iron paint that rusts on other projects. But once in a while we are fussy. We want a particular look. In the case of the project up at Cultus Lake we wanted to build from concrete (for durability) to get a particular, slightly askew feel. But we still wanted our rust. The rust paint wasn't durable enough for this application and so we resorted to good old paint and a little magic. The result was some cool gear benches that are quite unlike anything you've sat on before. This rust won't stain anybody's trousers.
Tomorrow the big magic doors of the shop will be thrown open and we'll bring in the forklift for some heavy lifting. Before the day is out they will be hoisted into place over the giant roller coaster posts and ready for some sitting on.
Wall to wall color
It was wall to wall color in the shop today as twelve barrels, four posts and the train were splashed with paint. The train engine looks fabulous. The number 11 is Hailey's number. The posts and train were finished with only a little more work on the barrels to be done before we empty the shop once more to make room for the next batch of features.
