Pass The Jug!

     I gave the spirit wagon a coat of Testors "rust," which looks good to me, but has a bit of a shine that I'll have to deal with later. I also decided that it looks better with arch bar trucks. Thinking ahead to furnishing the car with its eclectic load, I broke out the Walther's "wish book" and turned to the section on super-detailing parts. Barrels galore, and I'll be buying a few of them, but no jugs to be found. No problem, I can always turn my own!

     I scrounged up a bamboo chopstick from the kitchen, which seemed a good size and density for carving. I cut a rough cone shape on the end, then laid it flat on the table and rolled it back and forth to get the turning action while holding the blade to it. I cut down to the bottle neck, then switched to a small flat file to smooth it out. Bamboo has a great texture for carving, and the work went fast. Turning the file at an angle, I smoothed out the slope of the jug top until I had the basic jug profile. (I have several prototype examples for reference.) At this point, all that's left is to cut it off the end of the chopstick, which is easy to do by the turning method.

     Painting worked out very well. I simply stuck them on the end of the knives and dunked them in the paint. Floquil "aged concrete" for the body, and Testors "rubber" for the top are a dead-on match for salt-glazed stoneware jugs. I'm stymied as to how to make the little finger loop that goes beside the neck, and this bothered me at first. Loop of wire? Tiny bead? Nothing I can think of works out. But the more I look at it, the less it bothers me. The overall look screams out "moonshine jug!" just fine as is.

     I'm very pleased with the result, and made both jugs in under an hour. I'll finish out that chopstick and have a nice less-carload of jugs. Barrels are trickier, so I'll buy them. Now as for the still, well, I'm really looking forward to making that!