Posting No. 43 - Got Pot?

No, not THAT kind of pot - I'm talking about a flower pot!  I was tired on working on the main structure so now I'm going to work on details.  What better way to dress up Grandpa Sam's then with a few flowers.  I could buy those $$$$ HO scale flower pots with flowers included; however, I figured that I could do better.

Since the Mrs. likes to go to Michael's Crafts and she likes me to go along I always keep a "modeler's eye" out for things that I can use.  The last time we were in Michael's I spied the following:

The pack of (23) was $3.00 and I thought hummmm - I bet I can make flower pots out of these!  I bought the pack with Kevin's structure in mind and we'll see how they work.  First we'll measure them. In HO scale size they are 5-1/2ft high by 1-1/2ft wide at the largest end.  The 1-1/2ft is OK, but we'll need to cut it down to size.

I put a tooth pick though the center and used my felt tip pen to mark a line at the 1-1/2ft distance.

How to cut this? - with my Dremel tool and a reinforced cut off disk.  I clamp the Dremel to my table for stability.  SAFETY NOTE:  ALWAYS USE PROPER EYE PROTECTION AND EXTREME CARE WHEN USING POWER TOOLS.

It only took a minute and here is the result with the cut completed.  We'll keep the long piece and perhaps cut it down to have a narrower opening additional flower pot.

I finish off the rough edges with sandpaper and sand the entire pot outside and inside with sandpaper for a rough surface for the paint.  I've mounted it on the end of a dowel rod to hold it for painting with Testors(tm) "Flat Brown".

While the paint is drying (forgot to get a picture of the painted pot) we'll get the flowers ready.  It just so happens that I have some Noch "flowering bushes".   They aren't cheap, but a little goes a long way.

The pack contains red, white & yellow.  I choose red.  Here is an individual bush.

The bush is way too big for our pot, so I trim off some (that I save for later) and insert it into our pot.

I like!  Just for fun we'll put it on the front porch temporarily to see how it looks.  It looks nice and at only pennies per pot I'll need to make some more with different color flowers.  Kevin, did Grandpa or Grandma have a favorite color flower?

I need to make some more pots and misc things.  Stay tuned for more!