Railway passengers and staff

[Nurser]

Hi all, here's the progress on the railway staff and passengers I was on about a while back.  Two ladies, two staff and a gent. No hats for the ladies yet and no heads for the men.  Significantly I'm off to town for new glasses today!  Hmm,
Hector   Oh these are 1/32nd Gauge one.  The missing ankles are because the floor of the carriage is overthick for strength.

[jacq01]

Oh these are 1/32nd Gauge one.  The missing ankles are because the floor of the carriage is overthick for strength.

Do we have to believe that I 'll think you discovered that after returning with your new glasses

Jacq.

PS Very well done. What material you used?

[John McGuyer]

Imagine what you can build when you can actually see what you're doing.

John

[Nurser]

Some toungue in cheeking going on here
The new glasses are great. My eyes seem to be getting better instead of worse!  Can age have any benefits really?

The figures are carved in Milliput. It's an epoxy putty available everywhere in England. I always use the grey/green version.  I just mix it up and make a rough shape to a measured sketch, then cook it a bit.  One way is to put your domestic oven on at 60 degsC until it turns off, then slide a tray in with the figures on and leave it there till the oven cools.  Some people put them close under a lamp with a 60 Watt bulb (I never found that enough).  Now, because I have a coal fired range in my caravan, I just leave them in a baking tin on the edge of the casing till hard.  I don't use an armature.  I've tried that and you always end up breaking through the putty and coming up against a hard bit of wire you can't carve. It's just sod's law at work.  If a bit breaks off I stick it on with Powerbond (an English aerospace cyano).   I carve with chisels made from broken Swiss files and a modelling knife and the odd little file. It's all very "make-it-up-as-you-go" type stuff.
I've found a book on anatomy or life drawing helps get the proportions right. You wouldn't believe where bits are on the body till you read one!  Here's a couple more for 1/32nd NG rail layout I was thinking of building.
Hector

[Nurser]

These things really do look like sh*t in the pictures, don't they?  They're not that bad, honest.  Maybe it's because they're not painted and the putty has different colours as you add bits or maybe because they're so much bigger in the ads.  Also I'm a crap user of the digital camera!  Oh well, you get the idea, anyway.  The guy on the left is supposed to be an arrogant, but shabby old shunter and yard chief smoking a pipe and getting his fob watch out of his pocket and the other fella (who ended up looking like Steve McQueen!) is a sideways driver of a Lister Autotruck type diesel loco.
Hector

[jacq01]

  Hector,

These things really do look like sh*t in the pictures, don't they?

Don't ask me, to me they look allright, maybe your new glasses..............

maybe Russ can give some tips regarding photo's. I am in the same position.
Often my photo's look too dark to show the details I want. maybe because thr
distance is too short. I dunno.
The pose of the figures are very good, ot shows clearly you had that pose in mind.
Faces are always hard...............

Jacq

[finescalerr]

You want some tips for taking photos?

1. ALWAYS use a tripod. That way you can shoot a long exposure and your photo will not be dark. When you use the tripod, use the camera's three or five second delay feature. All cameras have one so you can take a photo of yourself.

2. Shoot at the smallest aperture. That means f/9 on most digicams and f/22 on most SLRs. That will give you plenty of depth of field (more of the photo will be in focus) but will require a long exposure. That is the reason for the tripod.

3. If your camera does not allow manual settings and does everything automatically, shoot outside in the sun. Automatic digital cameras need a lot of light in order to get decent depth of field.

Don't try to take shortcuts or ignore these simple rules or your photos will turn out badly.

Russ

[Nurser]

Thanks Russ, I'll bear that in mind when we get some sun!  Right now we have 80mph winds and driving rain for most of the week.
These shots are only to give an idea of what I'm up to.  I have an old, simple Fuji digital camera I bought in Frankfurt Airport duty free in 1998 when my old Praktika stopped working.  It still works, so won't be getting replaced anytime soon.

Yesterday I had to modify the figures to fit the chair as provided and the table to fit the figures.  A pain in the arse really, but the final look of the group in chairs at a table in a dining car will be worth the trouble.  It's a good example of "you can't scale nature".  Ever tried fitting a scale figure in a scale car?  Can't be done.
Hector

[marc_reusser]

Neat figures!....though I must ask....any reason they all seem a bit on the plump side?


Not to step on Russ's toes, ....one point I would like to add....."WHITE BALANCE".....always, adjust/set the "white balance" of your camera at each shooting session.....and if you move the lighting or camera during the shooting, you may need to readjust/re-set it for that shot/series of shots. This eeems to be one of the most overlooked items when shooting...and often helps fix a lot of the "discoloration" issues.


Marc

[Nurser]

F numbers, white balance?  Guys, it's a point and press early digicam.  No adjustments available.  I'll check the manual which has just turned up, but I can't see anything on the machine itself.  I thank you for all the advice which would be great if it were a nice proper camera with film in it, but I can't get film at a sensible price for my OM10 or a manual for my Canon semi-auto, so old Fuji it is for now.
It eats batteries so it gets used within the range of its short power lead.

Marc, if you think these are plump, look at everybody else's figures.  Most are the proportion of something from some ghastly sci-fi scene.  These are measured.  The shunter guy is meant to be fat, because it goes with his character.  The Edwardian figures include a big bossomed mature lady in all the copious layers of clothing they wore.  The walking staff member is your typical "emaciated dego with 9" hips" to quote Monty Python, but the guy taking the order is a little short, rotund geezer for a bit of variety.  The seated gent and young woman are far from plump.  I draw the figures before I carve them to be sure.
I had to reduce the old bird's beam a bit to fit the chair I was sent by the client.  If these were from the 20s they would appear much slimmer because the clothes were far less voluminous from that period.
I'll post some more terrible shots when they're finished.
Hector

[finescalerr]

Don't get your panties in a bunch over photography, Hector. Go back and read my third suggestion for point and shoot cameras: Shoot outside in the sun. Gosh, one would almost think you find photography an unpleasant chore! But, without good images, how else may we appreciate your brilliance?

Russ

[John McGuyer]

Hector
"Marc, if you think these are plump, look at everybody else's figures.  Most are the proportion of something from some ghastly sci-fi scene".

I think they look great. You are making a real effort to get the proportions right. Sometimes I can't understand why folks go to all the work to make something scale then put in figures that look like cartoons. Of course, if I made them, they'd look like stick figures.

John

[marc_reusser]

The "plump" wasn't a negative comment....just an observation on my part...Harry is plump...and Burt seems a bit fleshy about the face....as did the left-hand fellow in the other image.  It just seems that more than 50% of the males were a bit "plump"/fleshy...and struck me as a representation of current day America rather than early 1900s England

I think the sculpting is great...I couldn't do it........so no worries. 

.......besides...you have to understand I am by nature a person that generally has an extreme dislike for figures in model scenes, even if the sculpting is expertly done (be it by individual, mfr, or a combination thereof), 90+% of the time I find the quality of their final painting to be abhorrent and poorly executed/represented....they look moore like gaudily painted wax statues...and thus generally distract from what would otherise be a nice scene/model. I can probably count on both hands the number of fellows I think paint figures beautifully/realistically/believeble in 1/48 and 1/35.


Marc

[Nurser]

Marc, ah, now there I agree with you.  Most figures are, like John says, cartoonish, with silly poses and almost all are badly painted.  Gloss being the downfall of most figures. Indeed, most layouts.  The only shine on a layout should be on a freshly shopped loco, coach or road vehicle and of course, water.  But even then, there is a "perspective " of gloss.  It only really makes itself apparent if the viewer is close to it.  I always use absolutely flat paints like Floquil or Pelikan Plaka, then detail with gouache or watercolours which I often rub off with fingers.  Too much painting of folds in clothes also looks like a cartoon.  And most faces make them look like stiffs.  Mr. Verlinden rearing his ugly head again, there, I think.
Burt and Harry are from the 60's for a narrow gauge scene.  I suppose you have to have a driver for a sideways diesel like a Lister, but I still don't like figures on a layout if I can help it.  Burt was just a bit of a joke.  He could hold that pose for ages outside his hut.
The worst kind of figures are those involved in action.  OK for a single shot in a mag, but anathema on a live layout.  And then you get the saddos who make them move.  Fishing or opening gates.  They look like animated statues on rails. Aaagh!
The bulk of the figures I do are commissions, so on the principle that work's work, I have to do them and try to get them right.  I wouldn't use them myself!

Russ, I didn't answer you.  I would indeed use sunlight. My dinghy dio came out great because I got 20 minutes of bright sun before the gloom set back in.  It's just that at present we ain't got no sun when I'm in.  I don't really enjoy taking pictures, no.  It's just something I have to do.  I take a much better picture with a proper camera, but have no film and until a couple of weeks ago, no scanner.  I'll try to catch them in a better light, though, when I do some more.
Hector

[John McGuyer]

I do like engineers in the cab. Somehow seeing a train run around with an empty cab looks strange. Seeing passengers inside a passenger car helps also. While they are not something I would want to build, in our club (Del Oro Pacific) we have several animated modules and they are very popular with spectators. To the point that they have been covered by several local TV stations. One is literally a forest fire with working helicopter and sound.

Hector, just remember while most things are flat colors, McLarens are shiny.

John