Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502240001
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CROWDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In 1991, however, Millard temporarily put those crafts aside and took on a staggering project: building an HO - 100-to-1 - model of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center complex in Salem.
``I really wanted to do it because I never did a project this big, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,'' the 67-year-old Millard said.
In March 1991, Millard's former neighbor, Barbara Brady, chief of office operations at the VA, asked if he would be interested in constructing a model of the 220-acre complex. Brady got the idea for the model after reading an article on Millard's Hotel Roanoke model, which has been on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation for about three years.
Although he had no formal art training, Millard, who was receiving outpatient treatment at the 527-bed hospital, agreed, and 31/2 years later had produced a model that makes everyone who enters the main building do a double take.
He worked on the 28-by-9-foot model for about six hours a day, but had to take a few months off in early 1994 when he had back surgery.
Millard, who lives in Northeast Roanoke County, did most of the construction in his basement, until the project got too big. Last March, he moved it to the medical center.
The model, which was unveiled in October during the hospital's 60th anniversary, sits on seven 4-by-8-foot tables and contains most of the medical center's 69 buildings, 252 working street lights, about 300 trees and about 400 vehicles.
It is constructed in HO scale, or 1.87 millimeters to the foot, the standard scale for model railroads. Using blueprints - including six for the main building - and photographs, Millard started by constructing the VA's original buildings in the middle and working outward.
The buildings are made from illustration board; Millard drew in the bricks and overlapped tiny strips of paper for the shingles. He assembled the model from the ground up, rolling out paper ``grass,'' then laying out the streets and parking lots and finally setting the buildings in place.
The parking lots have strips of paper to mark each individual space. The roads and parking lots are made out of gray cardboard. The trees are sponge and fiberglass, with trunks made of twigs from Millard's yard. Although the VA provided most of Millard's materials, many of the HO-scale cars were contributed by hospital employees - some even match the employee's car.
Millard, formerly a master sergeant and weapons systems supervisor in the Air Force, said the newest building, which houses the model, was the hardest to complete because of its size. It took about two months to construct, while the other buildings only took about three weeks each.
``I got discouraged quite a few times, but I stuck with it. When you get tired of it, you just push it aside.''
``He got frustrated many times,'' said his wife, Winnie. ``He kind of needed a little push to say, `Yes, you can do this.'''
``The real challenge was bringing it all together in HO scale and not compromising the size,'' Brady said.
The model is not only an attractive addition to the lobby, but also a helpful directory.
``Having worked here for 20 years,'' Brady said, ``I realized that as large as the hospital is, it can be confusing.
``We have people walking around it [the model] all day. They'll walk by and they'll see it, and then they'll come back and look again. People are very much awed by it. Some people ask, `Where did they buy this?'''
``People are really taken aback when they see this,'' said Pat Edwards, the medical center's public affairs officer.
``I've never seen a model in a VA hospital to even compare with this,'' said Dr. John Presley, director of the medical center. ``It's brought the employees together; they can look and see the whole unit.''
Millard, who did a fabric painting of the Hotel Roanoke and has made HO-scale railroad buildings, plans to use the model as an advertising vehicle to see if other VA medical centers would be interested in having one.
Before starting on the model, Millard, who has been ``interested in woodwork and painting since I can remember,'' sold wooden crafts and paintings.
He said he had to put aside other projects to do the VA model.
``I had to stop everything else just to do this,'' Millard said. ``When you do something like this, you've got to have a clear mind.''
by CNB