Well, Santa asked what I'd like for Christmas and the guilty part of me says that I've blown the budget this year (FEF3 I didn't really need) plus i've bought many things as I "needed" them (structure lighting, etc). But in exploring a bit, it occurs to me there could be some nifty goodies that aren't too expensive, but I might hesitate a bit from the cost/benefit analysis. Santa could be just the cure for that.
Below are two example that I came across, and a few items like this might add to the layout and make me and Santa happy. Please nominate other examples (let's say, under $50):
An American Model builders (stationary) steam engine:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/152-107
A Woodland Scenics old time back hoe (excavator):
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/D237/page/1
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I like the detail parts by J.L. Innovative and Bollinger-Edgerly Scale Trains (BEST.) Musket Minatures has great stuff, too. Gold Medal Models makes fine thin metal stampings that you cut out and fold up for bicycles, phone booths and shopping carts. These items are only a few dollars each, but they add a lot. Skids, barrels, gas pumps, beavers, conveyor belts, industrial wall fans and hundreds of other tiny parts turn empty loading docks into scenes, and draw the viewer's eyes into your layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Vehicles, painted figures, animals all come to mind. Small, not too costly, make for a lot of wrapping and numbers of packages under the tree. (My mother was good at that.)
You might want to think bigger than single items. Are there scenes you would like to create? For example, how would you use your stationary steam engine, set up, attached and working in a machine shop (needing other tools) or replaced and removed to the scrap pile? Your excavator could be in a working scene needing workers, trucks and other construction equipment to go along with it. Do you have/want a farm scene, needing barns or other buildings, tractors, trucks, animals, crops and fences?
Just some thoughts.
Have fun,
Richard
Maybe not all-time favorites, but I tend to enthuse about what is new and interesting to me.
Thanks to ads in the NMRA Magazine I was already prepped to be excited about the various detail parts offered by Model Tech Studios http://modeltechstudios.com/
and you really have to dig deep into that website to glean all that is in it, as well as their sister firm Finished Models http://www.finishedmodels.com/
The offerings on those sites were made all the more real to me when I learned that they were at this last weekend's Trainfest in Milwaukee. Spent some serious cash there and referred others who also acquired much that is not only interesting (dragline buckets in HO and O with the O also being suited to really large HO) but available no place else. Building and layout detailers need to visit those sites. There is too much to summarize here.
And at the always-interesting City Classics booth at Trainfest I acquired HO scale parking meters just as I remember them in my old hometown, available from Hi-Tech Details. http://www.hitechdetails.com/
Check out the offerings of these small but imaginative suppliers.
Dave Nelson
Paul,
I built that same back hoe, weathering it as a machine that has had a hard life-but still with some useage still ahead of it. Since you asked about my favorite detail item, let me tell you the story behind my choice: My father was an avid builder of all types of model aircraft, even winning an occaisional award for certain styles of indoor flying models. While the family was sorting through his numerous boxes of items that he had collected before a massive stroke took him from us, we found a small box that once held a coffee mug. Inside that box, wrapped in a sheet of scratch paper was a couple of HO scale gliders that he had carefully constructed and saved. I now have one of those gliders in an open field ,being prepped for flight- and the other glider stuck near the top of a tree at the end of the field. He had a knack of losing free flight gliders in similar fashion, so this seemed appropriate as a sentimental way to tie his hobby with mine.
Don H.
Dave Nelson:
Thanks for the links to those very interesting detail suppliers! I can see some things like their rotating exhaust fans in my future.
As for what details I really like, I don't think it is any secret that I am into working vehicle lighting. I have about 15 HO vehicles with working headlights. Most of them have tail lights too, and one has working signal lights and clearance lights.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Although I have not built them yet, I bought one each of an Iriquois steam roller and a steam driven cement mixer from Wiseman Models. They sell through an Ebay store here:
http://www.locopainter.com/store/category.php
Take a look at all the goodies and I'm sure you will find something to get your creative juices flowing!
http://www.locopainter.com/store/product.php?id=360
Glad you're getting your Holiday gift list in order! Ed
Oh, Paul, You'll need a boiler for that engine, won't you?
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/American-Model-Builders-HO-Multi-Tube-Boiler-Kit-p/amb-106.htm
I have quite a few neat little things around my layout. But I think the thing that gets me going the most are the 3 CMW TD3610 busses I have. When I got them earlier this year I couldn't help but laugh with delight. They are so cool and brought back some great memories. I remember riding them countless times as a kid when my mother would take me to the city with her. They were noisy, smelly, and didn't like hills...but fun to ride, particularly for a kid.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
dknelson Thanks to ads in the NMRA Magazine I was already prepped to be excited about the various detail parts offered by Model Tech Studios http://modeltechstudios.com/ Dave Nelson
I have been looking for a conveyor for yearsm for my engine service ash pit! Thanks Dave!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
If you don't mind building kits, Rio Grande Models offers a variety of off-track machinery and vehicles, as well as some unique rolling stock. While these can seem complex, the instructions are pretty thorough and the results are marvelous. I linked to their HO line, but they also offer many items in O and S scales.
http://www.riograndemodels.com/HO.htm
I built this Austin-Western grader from one of their kits.
If you like trucks or cranes, Sheepscot Scale Products offers a line of great kits, too.
http://www.sheepscotscale.com/site/
This Bucyrus-Erie crane and boom are from their kits.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks, everyone for the ideas, links and photos. It will be fun to check out these leads, and the weather this week may provide lots of indoor time.
Take a look at Vectorcut for HO tools,stret details such as manhole covers and a great line of resin paper laser cut letters for raised lettering effects.
My old layout depicted a freelanced railroad running through Oconnee and Pickens Counties in northwestern South Carolina. It wouldn't have been complete without one of these...
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
One might also consider Durango Press/Medallion Miniatures
www.medallionminiatures.com/category
I love especially their speeder kits, of which I have two; I have only built one so far, to go with my scratchbuilt motor car shed/ signal maintenance shop. I built the shed from drawings in an old issue of Scale Rails and added a detailed interior, including two worker figures.
reklein Take a look at Vectorcut for HO tools,stret details such as manhole covers and a great line of resin paper laser cut letters for raised lettering effects.
Great idea, Reklein.
Go Vandals, eh!
The best ones are ones that you make & are unique to your layout. I made a hanging shark for my pier from a 1/4' dowel & some card stock. Also made tar paper rolls by painting tissue paper, cutting it to scale 3-4' widths, rolling it & wrapping an unpainted band around them...just look around & try to find something unique to model.
A new Taco Bell has arrived along the Glendale Branch, a treat for train crews.
I have thought about maybe making a little scene where some truck driver tried to beat the train and got his trailer smashed. The irony would be that next to the crossing there would be an operation lifesaver billboard. It is very prototypical for you rivit counters, and it would be very unique. I would use a dummy locomotive, nonpowered tracks, and foil for the trailer.
I have the weston figures I bought for my old HO layout in the 60's and 70's and treasure them. Campbell has them but have discontinued many...(mold issues?) All of the modern figures especially for engineers and train crews are pretty much garbage IMO. I need period people and few are around that are worth buying. The period of my choice being 1920-1950. I have found that if I order what looks good from walther or elsewhere the figure is backordered (forever) or no longer around.
Old Weston was the best and priced that way too.
I placed an image of a marginally acceptable but bad engineer in one of my NG consolidations. Check out the giant balloon hat. I will pull him out and attempt to saw his hat off and repaint to an acceptable level.
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
steamage A new Taco Bell has arrived along the Glendale Branch, a treat for train crews.
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site