The Lady Wendy Mine

One of Cuspidor's early gold mines, the Lady Wendy, played out long ago. Named for the beloved wife of the owner and for the present Mrs K it, (not the present Mrs K, perish the thought), is now run down and abandoned.  Unlike the nearby Saratoga Mine this old place is not sitting on a vein of sought-after rare earth metal, only some quartz and pyrites of no value, so she sits and moulders away while time and weather take their toll.   I pinched the basic design of the structure from a kit company and built it from scratch using scale shiplap for the walls (except the rear walls which are plain balsa as they won't be seen).

The roof is card overlaid with birch stripwood. The tarpaper roof was an experiment, it is strips of black gaffer tape, painted with black acrylic and weathered with washes.  I'm not sure it is a technique I'll use again. The sharp eyed viewer will notice that the hole in the roof betrays the fact that I goofed. The purlins and rafters are the wrong way round! Too late to change and hopefully no-one cares enough to complain!  I still have to disguise the seams but think I have figured a way to do it. All in all I'm very pleased with this simple structure and there's more detail to be added when I get time to play.

The base of the mine and access hatch to track below

The two mines