Scratch & Bash
:
Accessories
Maintenance People on and Around Your Loco
Dec 22, 2010
By Noel Widdifield |
Author
Bio
After I finished the GP-9 and set it up on the track, it still needed something to make it look more prototypical. Since it had all of the access doors opened, I wanted to put some maintenance people on and around the loco so that it would appear that it was being serviced.
|
After I finished the GP-9 and set it up on the track, it still needed something to make it look more prototypical. Since it had all of the access doors opened, I wanted to put some maintenance people on and around the loco so that it would appear that it was being serviced. Had I been at my house in Maryland, I would have gone to my workbench and looked in the people storage bin for some figures to use. Since I have no similar bin of people in Florida, I went to my computer and searched for some figures on the net. That eventually led me to eBay where I found a set of LifeLike "People Working" figures. I have used all four of the LifeLike sets in my railroad in Maryland and found them to be pretty good figures to start from. A few years ago I wrote an article on these figures. Read it Here.    
The set includes four men who appear to be working on the railroad with picks, shovels, mauls and a jackhammer. I didn't think that they would need those for the job I had in mind for them, so I started by cutting the tools off next to the figures' hands using side cutters. This left some of the tools or handles remaining on the figures. I used a sharp hobby knife to cut and shave the remaining parts off of the figures. I also used the hobby knife to shape these areas so that they blended into the trousers of the figures.   
I used Model Master acrylics to paint the figures. For the two Caucasian figures I used Skin Tone Tint Base Light and Skin Tone Warm Tint. For the two African American figures I used Skin Tone Shadow and Skin Tone Base Dark. These colors represent the true color of skin very well. I use a very thin brush and worked on the face and hands of the figure first. Then I painted the clothing and boots with additional acrylics in the appropriate colors. All of these paints are flat and look very realistic when applied. I used a Tamiya Color Flat Blue (XF-8) to color the blue jeans and jacket. After the blue dried, I dry brushed over the jeans with a flat white and used it in varying degrees to "wash out" the jeans.     
The figures come on a clear plastic sheet. I cut the sheet so that each figure had a base to work with while I painted them. I put the figures next to the loco and took some photos and then I cut the plastic base off and put them up on the loco so that they appeared to be working on it through the access doors. Once I saw the photos of the figures, I went back and touched up the places where I hadn't completely applied the paint in some areas. I can't wait to get back up to Maryland and place the loco outside the roundhouse. It should look pretty authentic. So this pretty well finishes this project. I think I may bring it to the ECLSTS in April.      
| Figures |
| Noel, What a great addition to the scene. Short and simple I like it. |
| Jerry Madsen - 12/23/2010 - 21:35 |
Top of Page
|
