№ 9 ~ Cast and Crew

Painting Up Some Folks to Populate Ol' № 9.

The Usual Suspects

These pewter figures by Andrew C. Stadden are beautifully sculpted, highly detailed, and very much in scale and proportion. They don't come painted though, so I'm going to have to make my first foray into doing that.

I glued them to blocks of wood to help make the painting process easier. First I spray primed them and then painted them by hand. There are plenty of videos on YouTube about painting figures that I watched before I started so I would have a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. This guy did a live stream of painting a Preiser figure in real time that helped a lot.

I chose figures that came closest to looking like these guys in this 1892 photo. I thought I would photograph a "reenactment" of this scene with my models.

Yes Sir! A reenactment!

Dandy

Say Mister! Ain't You Forgetting Something?

I know what your thinking: "One minute your building cars, the next your installing the overhead. What happened to laying track?!"

     Well, the truth is, this layout was begun years ago (decades actually!). And as it turned out, traction modeling is not an entry level endeavor. The basics of model railroading should be mastered before delving into traction. So the layout languished in storage for well over a decade before conditions were right to dig it out, dust it off, and pick up again.

Historical photo from the time of no color. Brass car, lead folk, white plaster. We've come a short way over a long period of time! Photo circa 1988 Dan D. Sparks.

The track work was done way back then. So to help fill in this "track gap", I was able to locate some old construction prints. So in between wrapping wires and repairing poles and fine tuning track, I will scan some of these and post them for your eyeballs to devour. Yes sir! Post some old layout construction photos for your eyeballs to devour!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ The Cheap Seats. And the Expensive Ones Too.

Here come the paying passengers! Filling #107 with folks.

Funny that Preiser folks are pricey. Pricey Preiser. But truth is, Preiser offers some outstanding figures. Best on the market if you ask me. So I really like using them in my modeling. But averaging over $3 per folk and rising, and each Niles car requiring around 25 figures each, well I'm going to place them strategically.

The Preiser site has cool photos of models modeling for the figure modeler modeling figures. (as an interresting side note, Germans make a distinction between human "models" and miniature "modelles"). Check it out.

Not only are Preiser figures well done, they are also available in era specific costume. So I picked up their 1900 era figures for the 1908 vintage Niles trolleys. Here is #12136 Seated Persons (above, with parasols removed),

#12137 Seated Persons, (I don't know what I'm going to do with that cat.).

#12190 Seated Passengers, (my favorite. I think these are very nicely done).

#10351 Seated Industrial Workers. (The working class ride the trolley too).

#12191 Railway Personnel.(remove the shovels and we got our trolley crew).

Woodland Scenics (#A1908 Sixteen Passengers) on the other hand, aren't quite as sophisticated as Preisers, but they are full of character and somewhat "generic" enough that they can fit many eras. Considering that the closest we ever get to HO models is about a scale block away,  Woodland Scenic folks will work just fine. Especially at a third of the cost of Preisers, Woodland Scenics figures average about $1.25 per folk.

So here is the plan. The Niles cars are "California Cars" which means they have a glassed in center section and open air sections on the ends. So...

 The pricey Preicer figures will adorn the open end sections where they are more easily seen and appreciated, and the Woodland Scenic characters will ride in the enclosed center section behind the glass windows. The figures are glued in with good ol' Micro Kristal Kleer because of its rubbery characteristics. If a figure is accidentally bumped, its less likely to snap off.

Some of the seats couldn't be filled because of mountings for the motor and shell. But I did manage to fit 24 figures in there! 25 if you count the double figure of a man with a child on his lap.

This is where the bulkhead of the shell attaches to the floor. So only the seat backs are present.

Figures add so much to model. Look how much life is in that populated car! You'd think the line was turning a profit. Yes sir! Turning a profit!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Folks!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Window Glass

Model Railroading isn't always fun. Sometimes its downright tedious!

My apologies for the late post but I'm finding that installing the window glass to be just that... tedious.

I'm trying to make good on this post about my method of installing the window glass. But I have run into some obstacles. While trying to install the motor assembly into the Birney body, it kept snagging on the seats, pushing them up. So I spot glued the seats into place with superglue. Turns out that the motor was snagging on some of the figures elbows. So I had to file those down. Now the motor is in there but so are the seats and figures. I can't access the windows to install the glass. If I pry the seats loose, the thickness of the glue remains so that when the seats are reinstalled, they will be sitting too high. Now I'm looking into superglue solvent.

In the meantime, I installed the glass into the front window. I cut a piece clear styrene to span the front windows and glued it into place. But...

As you can see, trying to maneuver the glass into place scratched the heck out of it and the glue got all over. Unacceptable. Lets punch out the glass and try that again.

This time I cut each window pane to size. Using two part epoxy, I applied one part to the window frame and the other part to the edge of the glass. This gave me time to get the pane into the car and into position for installation. Using this suction cup tool, the glass was carefully positioned into place. The two parts of the epoxy contacted each other, the reaction took place and set.

Now thats more like it! There's Birney the Motorman at the controls with a clear view ahead.

Yeah, Model Railroading might get tedious at times, but the results can be very satisfying. Yessir! Quite satisfying!

Birney Project ~ Painting and Detailing the Seats

Now that the seat assemblies for the Birney are built, it’s time to paint and detail them.

The trim color on SDERy equipment is brown, so I’m going to try out Scalecoat Roof Brown on the seats to see if it’s a good color for the trim.

Scalecoat is a high gloss paint, great for decals, not so much for seats. So I weathered the seats with some weathering chalk and then sprayed the seats with Testors Dullcoat to kill the shine. The seats on the left are freshly painted with Scalecoat, the seats on the right have been weathered and sprayed. After they have dried thoroughly, I can glue the figures in place.

I had to cut and file the feet off of the figures, not a natural thing to do! I also had to file some of the material off of their butts to get them to seat properly. None of this will been seen when the figures are riding in the trolley.

Once the figures are seated properly, I super glued them into place. The motorman I was able to leave fully intact since he sits higher and doesn’t have to deal with the mounting bar. Which is good because he is fully visible through the doors.

There! How’s that! Don’t quite notice the motor as much, hmmm? Yessir! Don’t quite notice the motor as much!

Dandy