This looks like a great idea. I had a great uncle who was captured at Singapore and forced to work on the railway. 3 Battalions from my county Regiment, the Royal Norfolks, were captured and spent 3 and a half years as PoW's.

I really look forward to seeing this come along.

Here are a few links to the historical aspects of this build:

Bridge on the River Kwai, the movie.

Brief true story about the bridge.

This link has lots of information to the Thai-Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass.

Bish

This looks like a great idea. I had a great uncle who was captured at Singapore and forced to work on the railway. 3 Battalions from my county Regiment, the Royal Norfolks, were captured and spent 3 and a half years as PoW's.

I really look forward to seeing this come along.

Thank you Bish. This information has led me to new reasearch results, including stories from Burma

Here is how I started to get an idea of the bridge measurements. I used Alec Guinness as the 'known' reference measurement.

Cutting the diorama base/platform from scrap 12 mm plywood.

Went to hardware store and bought 4 and 6 mm hardwood (Tasmanian Oak) dowels. 

As mentioned earlier, my helping hand, 'Minder', is telling me to get the dowel off the base and start preparing the base.

Awesome to see you back on another epic project Peter!!!

Although I keep thinking about Higgin's matchstick recreation on Magnum PI.

Bish: Wow, interesting to hear you had relatives there. Everything I've heard about the real story was pretty horrible.

Great idea. Will be watching.

The book was written by Pierre Boulle, who also wrote Planet of the Apes.

The design of the movie bridge is a double cantilever through truss, as opposed to the actual bridge which was a span through truss.

I like the movie bridge design too. It's kind of a baby version of the Firth of Forth Bridge, a scene in the movie The 39 Steps.

Great film, and a most worthy subject.  As Bish pointed out above, the reality was much darker than the Hollywood portrayal. It was on TV the other nite and we watched it at work. The younger guys could not quite understand the film nor Col. Nicholson. Far too removed from their life experience or knowledge. 

I read the Pierre Boule Bridge on the River Kwai novel along with his work Planet of the Apes several years back. Both were far darker than how they were portrayed on screen. Excellent reads I highly recommend. 

Gamera

Awesome to see you back on another epic project Peter!!!

Although I keep thinking about Higgin's matchstick recreation on Magnum PI.

Bish: Wow, interesting to hear you had relatives there. Everything I've heard about the real story was pretty horrible.

A modeller made three versions for Magnum PI. One was made for blowing up.

Bakster

Great idea. Will be watching.

Thanks, Bakster, for watching.

GMorrison

The book was written by Pierre Boulle, who also wrote Planet of the Apes.

The design of the movie bridge is a double cantilever through truss, as opposed to the actual bridge which was a span through truss.

I like the movie bridge design too. It's kind of a baby version of the Firth of Forth Bridge, a scene in the movie The 39 Steps.

Thanks for interesting information about the bridges.

Have not seen 'The 39 Steps', but read about it only tosay. Hope one day I will get to see the movie. Yes, the Firth of Forth Bridge looks very modern, even after all these years ( nearly 140).

Rambo

I'll be watching this closely. Alot of sad history happened during the building of this railroad (along with other horrific war crimes committed by the Japanese) and should not be forgotten.

Thanks, Rambo, for watching.

Thanks, stickpusher, for visiting this build-log.

Yes, there seemed to be a silence, at the time, about the reality.

Even many POWs didn't want to tell the story. Too shocking. Besides, PTSD was not recognized then, other than 'shell-shock'. Also, survivors saw life differently afterwards, which to them what seemed normal, was disturbing to others (such as family members).

After marking the base plate, the piers (dowels) were cut to length.

Then tapered to simulate tree lumber. Not having a lathe, I simply marked one end to the desired diameter, then sanded the dowel to suit.

Minder, can be very stubborn, he did not move to escape the sanding dust.

Decided to collect the dust for future use, as sawdust, in the diorama.

Redrew the cantilever towers to scale and with greater accuracy. Comparing the tapered piers to the drawing.

There were more Asian POWs than of the Allies. Most of the deaths were Asian.

The POWs only got water, and one scoop of rice per day. That's it!

Three unidentified Australians. The third person is also suffering from beriberi, and cannot button-up his shorts.

PeterPan

 

 

Gamera

Awesome to see you back on another epic project Peter!!!

Although I keep thinking about Higgin's matchstick recreation on Magnum PI.

Bish: Wow, interesting to hear you had relatives there. Everything I've heard about the real story was pretty horrible.

 

 

 

A modeller made three versions for Magnum PI. One was made for blowing up.

 

Oh wow, I didn't know there were more than one. I do remember Thomas blowing the bridge up, and even back then I was honked off!!!

Though I enjoy building Japanese Second World War subjects their treatment of POWs and subject people were pretty horrific. I read Iris Chang's 'The Rape of Nanking' a few years ago and frankly I had to put the book down a few times and walk away. I've heard she did over play some of the history but still the Japanese record in China was a horror show. 

Peter: On a happier note, you're off to a great start. Sanding down all those dowel rods looks like a pain but I love the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAdJ4plSyc

Gamera

...Sanding down all those dowel rods looks like a pain but I love the results.

Actually, it did not take too long at all, about half an hour. I used a fairly course sandpaper.

Yes, I understand about needing to take a break from sitting too long with 'shattered reality'. There is 'Vicarious PTSD', a real condition where a person can take on PTSD from prolonged exposure to cases of PTSD. That is why 'Minder' was created, to bring some lightheartedness to the build.

Thanks GMorrison for video. It does bare the strange mix of comedy with the traumatic. It is difficult to make light what is inherently heavy. Even Jerry Lewis showed similar difficulty in the movie "The Geisha Boy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B01etvmr2VY

I knew my worktable was old, and sagged in the middle, but when a dowel rolled under the base I knew something else was wrong. The base board was also bowed. I knew that painting the raw side would not straighten it enough. Decided to add an opposing bow by using another board from the same source. This time, I will also make it larger so I can include a display frame.

Glued the opposing bows together. Later, I inserted several screws from underneath.

Minder sure takes some risks. Here he is directing my cut.

Planned to use 3 mm Clear Perspex for casing. Used scrap 3 mm Perspex, plus a thin card, as a spacer while securing the framing to the board.

Top-right: Had to take a few test cuts to figure out which was the best 45 degree cut (I have no angle jig).

After installing the frame, Minder discovered I drilled an extra row of holes at both ends.

Broke the spatula on first application of wood putty. Poor quality spring steel from China. Cheap is not necessarily better. So. I brought out my old spatula, I use for mixing, to do the job.

Then after some sanding . . .

I continue to be in abject admiration of this project.  And, also of your continuing documentation of it, and in two distintly different venues.

The pressures you put upon yourself are ever so complicated.  And your "relief valves" an excellent example to of all on how to cope with that pressure to make things right even when the various media and our frail humanity get in the way.

In simple photos is looks all so effortlessly easy, the work of a true master.  Which can make it all too easy to forget that a 'master' is not excused from the hard work.  And Murphy is always waiting to dash ice cold water with no notice.

At work, I'm managign the construction of right at US$82 million in projects--all I ever see are the flaws, the not-quite-rights, the blemishes.  It can wear a person down.  To where you you need to focus on something else, anything else for a bit, to let your eyes see anew.

May friend, you are amazing.  And, I'll knock the block off any who says different.

CapnMac82

...And, I'll knock the block off any who says different.

Well, I better not say differently

Thank you Mac for such a high complement. I sure hope we can always see the positive in everything and accentuate it to those that still seek it.

I always performed better after a pat on the back, even when I actually have to physically do it for myself. Well, actually, it works better that way, because one rarely experiences such physical confirmation. I remember the first time I did that to myself. . . I almost cried.

Anyway, it is especially nice to have such good friends here on FSM forum.

A few weeks ago a friend shared a few stories about his father, who was one of the POWs. One of the stories he told was how his father witnessed five blokes fight tooth and nail over a dead rat.

Gamera

 I read Iris Chang's 'The Rape of Nanking' a few years ago and frankly I had to put the book down a few times and walk away.

 

It's one of the books I've picked up several times, and put it down because I know it's a horrible part of history.  I'll get to it eventually

'Shattered Reality' always takes time to pick up the pieces. And when ready, we fill in the gaps with what we did not want to know, but needed to know for its hidden truth of who we are.

Trying to make sense of the construction techniques. This movie bridge was really slapped together in a near enough is good enough way. It was built to hold a train with carriages, and to be blown up after construction. It was not built to last.

Was prompted by others to use cut/filed-in joints. I did this where appropriate. So, in a way, I followed the original designers, I compromised, in that the model was not going to actually hold anything of significant weight, but it needed to look like it could.

Below drawing got altered later on.

Raymond G

I wish I could help. However, I will watch with anticipation. This is one of ky favorite movies. Ray

Thanks Ray. I am not seriously in trouble with the build. Just being honest about the challenges we all have with our model making. Thanks for watching.