Adding Figures

[Kamiyacho]

We are modelling Japan - it should be tidy!  But I do need to add people here.

[cteno4]

ok heres a little present i have been working on for curt's layout. we were talking about boats and i thought it would be fun to make a hobie cat as they have simple shapes and would be apropos vessel for the beach scene.

this was just a prototype to figure things out to how these could be made easily. i just ordered some more fine, straight steel rods that would be better suited for the rigging, stays, mast and framework. also made the mistake of not bending the mast as part of the main frame. few details i will do different in future ones. sail was fun to try to print out double sided on the printer and get it lined up! made it doing a small heel.

then to top it off i was just about finished with only some touch up painting to do and placing the figures and godzilla attacked. i must have knocked it off the desk last night and this morning when i stepped up to the desk there was an awful crunch noise and looked down and i had stepped right on it (luckily the mast was not sticking straight up, i have stepped on enough nails in my life). luckily for such a tiny craft it was not too hard to put back together!

i did manage to screw up my port and starboard when i was mounting the sails and ended up on the wrong tack for the direction of heel, so i just moved the rudders to be turning so the heel is from them doing a correction. oh well its been a few years since i had my feet wet in a sailboat!

cheers

jeff

 

[KenS]

Very nice model. You do an excellent job of having just enough detail to convey the sense of it being a real Hobie Cat, while still having a relatively simple model.

[cteno4]

thanks ken, i actually stripped a few details i put on as it got too much. always that fine balance of getting just the details that make the mind fill in the picture, while others ruin it! while the micro machines was neat in its minimalist form, it lacked a few things that then made it too toylike to fit well with the other stuff we have for n scale.

cheers

jeff

ps btw did you notice that the sheets were your 34g motor wire?! was the only thin stuff i had on hand. just ordered a few really fine nichrome wires which should be a bit better and can get colored with markers well. jr

[bill937ca]

We are modelling Japan - it should be tidy!  But I do need to add people here.

But only if they don't litter!

[cteno4]

It was funny in my trips in 1984 and 2003 to japan that Kyoto and Tokyo flipped. in 83 Kyoto was mellow and very clean and tokyo gruff, noisy, and dirty. in 2003 Tokyo was very clean and pleasant, while Kyoto had filled with people and tourists and was now fairly dirty!

cheers

jeff

[KenS]

ps btw did you notice that the sheets were your 34g motor wire?! was the only thin stuff i had on hand. just ordered a few really fine nichrome wires which should be a bit better and can get colored with markers well. jr

I missed that. I suppose the red color isn't necessarily wrong, and you won't notice the shine at any distance. But colored nichrome sounds like a better idea.  Good use of available materials though.

[cteno4]

yeah the shine is an issue, but like you say at a foot it goes away. the red motor wire does not color well, i tried it. this was just a prototype really as eventually i want 3 or 4 to have a little race going on. the regatta can even travel through curts layout for a while on one of his scenery cycles he plans to do.

btw usually on hobies they use contrasting color sheets to the trampoline color so they stand out to grab them fast (trampoline can become a pile of lines). a few even use different colors for each line. makes for pretty colors they usually dont do on other sailboat sheets!

now trying to do a spinnaker, that would be a challenge! maybe cut out of the side of a plastic bottle to get the shape? then it would need hand painting!

cheers

jeff

[bill937ca]

Check this out. 100 figures for 1900 Yen ($23.00).

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138140

[cteno4]

ha, had to happen, its the chinese architectural figures! these are usually like $5-10/100 figures on ebay. cheaper if you go in higher quantities.

cheers

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

Sometimes sacrificies have to be made...............

[cteno4]

more shark food! or for the mannequin truck cargo...

jeff

[cteno4]

burping curts great figure postings as i just thought of a use for all those extra legs!!!

a chinese new year parade in the city's china town and do a long chinese dragon!!! the chinese ones usually only have the legs showing!

better than the truckload of mannequin legs...

jeff

[scott]

more shark food!

I hear that humans are becoming rare worldwide because of the practice among personersharks of biting off the legs and throwing the rest back. What a waste!

[cteno4]

practice is called legging... 

jeff

[scott]

Apparently humanleg soup is a delicacy in some oceans.