Gallipoli (from the original ancient Greek name Καλλίπολις = beautiful city)  is a small island city in the Ionian sea.

It has a once very active port. The port had its own railway station that was operational till the 80's when tracks were eventually covered with tarmac.

The port had been very active in exporting the large wine and oil production of the Salento peninsula till the 60's when road transport replaced  the train+ship one.

The trade of illuminating oil (a lower grade olive oil) was very important and casks and barrels were abundant at the port (2).

Since Gallipoli is an amazing site I decided to reproduce it in my modular layout.

I chose to model it as it was at the end of its heydays, so before the expansion of the docks in the 80's.

Il Rivellino

Il rivellino è un bastione distaccato in un un castello. Quello di Gallipoli è spettacolare, perchè si erge sull'acqua, ed inusuale essendo molto grande rispetto al castello. Non so quando venne trasformato in cinema all'aperto. Ricordo di averci visto Jesus Christ Superstar quando ancora funzionava. 

Ho scelto di cominciare con esso visto che è l'elemento più visibile per chi arriva alla città vecchia. 

Il rivellino è stato modellato al CAD (5) e poi stampato in PLA. Ho voluto sperimentare un nuovo modo di realizzare la finitura dei muri. Il rivellino è stato costruito nel 1600 usando blocchi di carparo, una pietra sedimentaria gialla tipica della zona. I conci con il tempo hanno perso l'aspetto liscio essendo corrosi dagli agenti atmosferici. Non volevo perciò riprodurre nel CAD e nella stampa dei conci perfettamente uguali. Mi sono perciò inventato un metodo per creare conci pressapoco uguali che sembrino corrosi dagli agenti atmosferici. Ho progettato e stampato dei reticoli che rappresentano le fughe tra i blocchi. I reticoli (6) sono spessi 0.25mm e hanno fughe da 0.25mm. Essi vengono appoggiati sulle superfici da completare con blocchi. Ho preparato poi una miscela di vinavil acqua, polvere di cellulosa e colori giallo/ocra.

Ho poi applicato con una spatola da pittore questa pasta sulla superficie dove era appoggiato il reticolo facendo in modo che la pasta penetrasse fra le maglie e schiacciandola sull superficie.

Dopo aver rimosso la pasta in eccesso, ho sollevato il reticolo e il reticolo ha lasciato l'impronta dei conci. Nel sollevamento del reticolo, parte della pasta rimane attaccata ad esso lasciando così una matrice di conci tutti un pò diversi.

Mi è piaciuto molto il risultato che ha anche il vantaggio di rendere una superficie del concio naturalmente ruvida ed anche la bellezza di semplificare il disegno CAD.

A rivellino  is a detached bastion of a castle. The one of Gallipoli is outstanding for two reasons: it raises from the sea and it is unusually big with respect to the main body of the castle.

I have no idea when it started to be used as open-air cinema. I also do not know when it was closed. I do remember seeing in it the premiere of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Being the most conspicuous element in the layout I modelled it as first do.

CAD modelling and printing was ordinarily done.

I have however invented a new method to texture the walls with masonry patterns.

The stones of the castle are in carparo, a sedimentary limestone-based rock, common in that part of Italy. As the stones  have been there since 1600, they have been heavily weathered and have lost the uniform appearance. As I wanted to render this worn-out appearance I decided not to model the patterns in CAD but reproduce them in a new process I figured out.

What I do is to print a mesh representing the joints between the stones (6). The mesh and the joints are very thin, 0.25 mm. 

I stuck the mesh to the wall I wanted to pattern. Then I prepared a paste made of PVA, water, cellulose powder and yellow-ochre  colour. 

I spred the paste over the mesh, forcing it into the gaps and onto the wall. 

After scraping off excess paste I lifted the mesh and the masonry pattern was left on the wall. 

As some paste sticks to the mesh, all the stones in the pattern come out somehow a bit different from each other.

I am satisfied by the result. I believe the same method can be used for uncut stone walls.

La palazzina uffici 

È l'unica struttura ancora rimasta della stazione. È in classico stile FSE.

L'edificio è stato ristrutturato e ha avuto l'aggiunta di una fascia di marmo nella parte inferiore. Anche lo schema dei colori è stato cambiato. In origine l'edificio aveva il primo piano dipinto di rosso e il piano terra di giallo. Riprodurrò lo schema dei colori originale.

L'edificio è stato modellato in CAD (8) e stampato in materiale PLA (9).

The offices building

It the last remnant of the station. A classic FSE-style building

The building has been refurbished and had the addition of a marble band at the bottom. Also the color scheme was changed. Originally the building had the first floor  painted in red and the ground floor in yellow. I will reproduce the original color scheme.

The building was modelled in CAD  (8) and printed in PLA material (9).

La vecchia nave

Ho voluto mettere una nave nel porto. Vorrei poter creare il carico e scarico di mezzi dalla nave ai carri ferroviari. 

Siccome non ho voglia di creare un modello di nave che effettivamente è passato da Gallipoli, ho trovato e stampato un modello presente su Thingiverse.

Si tratta del 1/350 WW1 US Cargo ship (EFC 1020) "Laker" fornito dall'utente  decapod .

Rappresenta un tipo di nave sufficientemente vecchio da sembrare plausibile in un plastico anni 60.

The old steamer 

I wanted to have a freighter in the harbour. I will look into the possibility to load cargo from the ship onto the railway wagons.

I found a sufficiently detailed 3D model on thingiverse 1/350 WW1 US Cargo ship (EFC 1020) "Laker" by decapod of a  EFC 1020 'Laker' WW1 Freighter. I re-scaled the model to 1/220 and printed it.

I  have been waiting really too long before starting the work on the module. So this evening I finally started to work on the structure.

The plan of the layout is drawn on the styrofoam with a marker following the picture I made.

I hang up the styrofoam slabs von a wall and then I project on it the picture using my portable LED projector.

Once the lines are drawn I just start cutting with knives and the thermal knife.

On the base styrofoam slab I applied other layers, suitably cut, by using paint thinner vapour as glue.

 I finished up the structure of the elevated part over the city walls.

I also finally printed the portion of the castle.

Finally I applied blue/tourquaise coloured plaster on the sea areas. Now it starts looking like a port.

here you see the east module on the bottonmof the picture and on the top the west module

I do not have all the track that will be needed, nevertheless I laid down some parts just to mark down the elements I know will be there.

26/09/2020

Oggi ho finalmente intagliato  le trincee dove si inseriranno i binari. La maggior parte dei binari sarà infatti incorporata nel pavimento di blocchi di porfido (la pavimentazione originale prima che venisse ricoperta di asfalto).

L'intaglio è stato fatto con filo incandescente montato su un mini archetto improvvisato. Una specie di pialla termica.

Ho intenzione di modellare il pavimento usando la tecnica delle lastre di pietra ma con un motivo più piccolo.

Today I finally cut down the trenches where the track will seat. Most track will in fact be embedded in the cobblestone floor.

I intend to pattern the floor using the technique of the stone walls but with a smaller pattern.

i also patterned the print of the castle portion with the masonry pattern

A productive Sunday with:

• printing of the WWII  bomb shelter

• patterning of bridge,  fish market area, fisherman wharf docks sides  with cut stone pattern

• printing of the 12 railings sections that will go on the bridge

• road coating on both half modules

• starting to stick the railings on the bridge.

More work done in the weekend:

• gluing of the track on the east module

• ballasting of the track on bridge and till the loading platform

• paving of the dock area on the east module with cobblestone pattern 

• printing of the fish market building

• printing of the large warehouse on the west side.

• printing and installation of the circular stair down to the fisherman wharf

• printing and installation of the cement fence around the railway on the bridge

• painting of the roads

Various things:

• started filling of the space between rails. To fill the space between rails I have designed small plastic trays, exactly fitting on the flat space on the sleepers, which I fill with plaster and pattern with meshes. The filled trays are then glued to the track with cyanoacrylate, while the plaster is still drying. The trays are flexible and can adapt to the curvature of the track but if the plaster dries up they become rigid.. I like the non-uniform appearance they have. Picture (1) shows already filled tracks on the right and the plastic trays laid in the track on the left.

• This project is taking a lot of time as I am making everything by myself. Since I cannot convince Z scale artisans to make European cars, I have started to make them myself. So far I have printed (3) few tens of Fiat 500 and Fiat 600.

Work in this weekend:

• I printed the first block of buildings on top of the city walls on "Riviera Cristoforo Colombo". These are three independent palaces of wealthy Gallipoli people, likely connected to the illuminating oil trade.

• I printed and temporarily installed the fence delimiting the railways and the port area from the access road and the fish market.

• I printed and installed the cobblestone fillings in the turnouts.

I haven't worked on the layout for a long time. It was time to do something

Today I designed and printed the first building of the second block on the "Riviera Cristoforo Colombo" corner "Via Patitari", numbers 31-31.