Matt’s challenge this week is to consolidate the completed features which will soon be bound for NEB’s Fun World in Oshawa, Ontario. The features will fill four fifty-two-foot semi-trailers. Before we can load them they all need to be securely bolted to custom-made steel pallets which will slide into the trucks using a crane and a forklift pusher rig. The job is a lot like assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle with the pieces weighing in at thousands of pounds. When Matt finishes the assembly we’ll arrange the pallets in the yard to make loading quick and efficient.
Dino car progress
While I’ve been down and out the last six weeks, work has continued on Henry’s dinosaur car. Henry and his dad (Peter) have finished the main sculpt of the dinosaur head and blended it into the car body nicely. This weekend, with Henry art directing, we’ll sculpt the last of the details including the eyes, mouth, nostrils and of course the teeth. Then it will be time for the paint job which Henry is looking forward to with great anticipation. The Yarrow Days Parade is now only twenty days away which means there is no time to waste!
Mushroom castle armature begun
Keith finished off the massive structural steel for the mushroom castle which means we can move on to the pencil rod armature. This thin steel framework is carefully shaped by hand and then welded into a six-inch grid which is triangulated back to the structural steel to ensure nothing can move or even wiggle. The galvanized lath will be tied to this armature (another big job) and then at last we can begin the sculpting of the feature. This piece will have one functioning door so that the electrician can get to a sub-panel that will be located inside. It is going to be one of the heaviest features we have ever built. We’ll be sculpting and painting it outside as it will be too heavy to move with our equipment with the concrete. To move the feature onto the truck we’ll bring in a big crane to make sure everything is safe.
