Thanks, Louis, for that information. You, and anybody else, is more than welcomed to contribute to this build. Much appreciated.

Louis @lgardner, adding 'Minder' to the mix helps me to get some balance. A sort of art therapy.

Peter, this thread has taken on a life and significance of its own. The photography is beautiful, the writing is sublime, and the build itself is instructive, creative, and executed with grace. To top it all off is a moral direction that is both admirable and speaks volumes of the man you are.

Bravo.

Creating a bevel frame for the 3 mm Perspex sheets that will encase the diorama. Used scrap 3mm Perspex, plus 1 mm card, for a gap spacer during construction.
Not having a jig for cutting angles, I made a few initial errors (top right). Glued and nailed the frame to the base.

'Minder' is asking why I added an extra row of piers. The last position where a pier would be is where the bridge deck joins the land. The pier is not needed.
So now I have six spare piers, which will become handy. Last night I was thinking of making a few more piers just for showing POWs debarking tree trunks for piers. Now I have six for this mini diorama.

As soon as I started applying wood putty, the spalulate broke. It was a reasonably new. Lucky I still had my old spatulet of over twenty years.

Thanks Gary for visiting this build log, and words of encouragement. I am only moving along up till now. Tomorrow I will return to the other bridge, Wardell bridge, for a while. Then back here whenever I can.

Somehow I find that saying of Col. Saito somewhat bittersweet 😉

Wonderful to see this taking shape Peter!

Beautiful work Peter, really well done!

Thank you James and David.

David @dirtylittlefokker, I checked that Tamiya case. Nice search from you. Much appreciated.

Two days ago I spoke to local Perspex dealer about making a cover. He said the hard part is gluing the long narrow sides together without misalignment. Then sanding and polishing the edges. The Perspex sheet 3 x 1220 x 1220 = $106. The Acrifix glue = $20. The dealer will glue sides for $30. Total $156 with me still cutting the sheets.

(I am sure I could align the top narrow cover onto the four sides in one go. I would first build two simple extended uprights for each side. Then place top within the aligners, and then lower it onto the glued edges.)

Because I have empty pockets, I emailed Owen, the president-secretary of Casino Military Museum, about the cost and their need to have the model encased if they still want the model (next year). How they get it encased is up to them.

Used a square for fitting in the centre piers at both ends. It was a bit iffy due to the taper.

Then the out piers had to lean inwards as well as maintaining correct height. Solved the problem with a square block of dressed wood. Used it as a template for aligning the piers when gluing.

Photo was taken at a higher level which, visually, almost eliminated actual degree of lean-in.