I just finished up an animated prairie dog town for my O scale railroad. I used HO scale Rustic Rails beavers. They have the same body shape as a prairie dog, and the size looks good in o scale, I just had to modify the tails. 

Figuring out the the animation action was the difficult part. Initailly I "toyed" with the idea of making cams and followers to create the up and down motion. However I decided that it would be too complex.  I decided to use magnets to actuate the up and down motion. The repelling magnetic field causes the piston to rise, and make the dog appear to pop up in the hole. The unexpected neat thing is they also slightly rotate around and emerge in a different direction. 

The animation,  under the scene  is a disc that rotates with magnets radomly placed and glued with the repelling field up. The pistons have the magnets on the bottom with the repelling field down. As the disc rotates under the magnet the dog pops up. Each piston has a stop collar top and bottom. A small 1.5 volt gear-head motor drives the disc through a Delrin plastic link chain and cogs to reduce the speed. In the future I am possibly going to write an article for one of my favorite hobby magazines.

In this seasons winter months I also finished my submarine kit from Pegasus Hobbies #9120 1/144 The Nautilus Submarine Kit. I had it on display at Caboose Hobbies for a couple months this spring.

 It was fun to build, I used games workshop paints for most of the corroded copper look. The base color of the hull was Rust-oleum hammered bronze spray paint.

The octopus pink and white base color was painted with enamels via an airbrush. I then did the detail painting with brushes and Vallejo paints.

I added some led lights to the eye of the octopus, inside the main cabin, and on some of the forward deck lights.

the rusted base was made from gator foam, some trim, and rust powder. The bolt heads are resin castings that I create. Lot's-o-fun.

WOW! It's June 2015 already, time flies...  Although I have not posted anything here I have been very busy building models. I will have several posts in the next few days, maybe I can get most of the builds brought up to speed here on my blog...
First news...
I have been creating some new Gn15 critters and rolling stock. These freight cars were intended to go with a sugar cane locomotive that I displayed at the Pasadena CA National Narrow Gauge Convention.  The pictures following are of the locomotive I scratch built out of brass, plastic and wood. The resin figure was once offered by sculptor Richard Kapuaala on his website "Scalehumans.com" I painted the figure with Vallejo acrylic paints.

This loco features a ESU Loksound DCC sound decoder with a custom sound file. They are neat! Very fun to watch and listen to running down the track. 

Above is a sample of the Gn15 whole cane cars I created to pull behind the locomotive. The basic flat car that is the basis of the cane cars got me thinking....

 This "basic platform" could be used to make up a bunch of different cars for different purposes.

Some Gn15 man-trip cars based on the same basic flat car that is on the cane cars.

 From there things just went into overload... I also created some fuel tank cars to hold fuel oil. Remeber.... "No smoking around these tanks they are leaky!"

Then one day while I was surfing the internet I stumbled upon an industrial shop built crane in Brazil. I had to make one of these cranes.... Here is the prototype crane:

And below is my creation, it completely works using the small hand cranks. The little pawls do lock the spool in place as you turn the hand crank. Pencil is to show size of the model.

I am working on some Koppel drop side cars and in the future I would like to make some sand cars, an explosives skip, little gondola, maybe a brake van... Fun! G

Heisler completed

Why, yes Patric my On30 baby heisler is completed... I painted it to look similar to a Westside Logging Co. heisler.

ON30 Termite & Tarantula Heisler #12
Built by Gerald Styles

Model description/features:
Rivarossi HO scale heisler locomotive chassis

Soundtraxx DCC sound decoder, with synchronizing cam
Cab is partial Wiseman Model/V&T shops heisler kit, part scratch built.
Loco cab frame is scratch built in styrene
Front boiler support frame is scratch built in brass
Boiler is scratch built in brass.
Fuel Bunker including water & oil fill caps and is scratch built in styrene and brass
Crew: Arttista figures
Many, many, PSC brass detail parts

Progress on my little On30 Heisler conversion. This is the almost finished model ready for primer.  I still need to add the bell and pop off valve.

Behind the water fill hatch is a scratch built oil fill hatch with eye pull ring.

Brass hand rails, lots of extra details.

In this side view picture you can see the added bell.

Note the sand delivery pipes under sand box. The sand fill cap is now in place.

The steps to the cab are Gramps tank car parts. I thought they looked more interesting than a plain step. I decided to paint this model to look like a Westside Lumber Co Heisler. The cab roof underside hides the speaker for the Tsunami sound decoder. Figures and curtains should hide most of the motor inside the cab. Next up will be the final painted model.

Small figure problem

I think I have a mini figure problem.....I have become a figure fanatic. I keep painting more and more. In fact I have so many, they are now on several shelves in a small display case (not just on the model train layout).  Below is just one shelf....

I have been painting figures in different scales, O-scale 42mm, 54mm, 32mm, and large scale 1:20.3.  Historic and fantasy. Below is a small diorama I called "Lunch Time". I created the scene with O-scale (1/48) size figures. The figures come unpainted, and are a pewter like metal. The gent in the middle is a Mackenzie Iron And Steel Railroad figure "Juan eating beans", the gunmen are gaming figures from Reaper Miniatures. https://www.reapermini.com

The single "revolutionary" figure below is 54mm. Comes unpainted raw metal. This figure is produced by Andrea Miniatures. A figure from the Golden West Series "Viva Zapata!" He is approximately 3" tall.

The single miner figure below is 44mm close enough to O-scale. Comes unpainted raw metal. This figure is produced by Reaper Miniatures.   He is approximately 1.25" tall.

Cheers, G

Recently, I have been working on my On30 Heisler again. I set it aside a few years back and did not finish it. The model is built on a Rivarossi brand HO scale heisler. I am using some of the parts from a Wiseman Model Services conversion kit, scratch built brass boiler wrapper and front frame, also I added PSC details, new steam chests, roof tool boxes, ladder. I scratch built the cab under frame, and changed the roof and fuel bunker. I wanted to make it look more like a Westside Lumber Co. heisler.

 

I some how squeezed a Soundtraxx geared steam DCC sound decoder into it. Really had to work to get a nice speaker in the underside of the cab roof.  I will post more pictures as progress happens..