Living the dream.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a sparkling clean new weekend!
For years I have been lamenting about how there are no quality sculpts of HO scale figures, and how I wish a Wargaming company would produce a quality product for HO scale model railroaders.
Well... IT HAS HAPPENED! Knuckleduster Miniatures has a line of "Old West" 1/87 scale figures for model railroads.
I ordered several packages, and I was blown away by how well they are detailed, and how much fun these are going to be to paint.
-Above photographs from Knuckleduster website
These are some of the figures I ordered:
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
The package on the far right above is titled "Soiled Doves", and is a group of professional female companions. The sculpts are all fun and PG rated, nothing like those nasty Noch figures. The sculpt of the lady in the bathtub with the rubber ducky is priceless. That pack is highly recommended.
Look at the quality of these castings. These are definitely table-top wargaming caliber works. They are right on-par with Essex miniatures, which is a good table-top standard.
-Photographs by Kevin Parson
I think I can work most of these into my 1954 scenes. Cowboys are cowboys.
I really hope Knuckleduster has success with this line, and they expand their offerings to newer eras. I would buy every figure they make that fits in with the mid 1950s.
Oh... if only my workbench was assembled! Oh... I could be painting right now!
OK, we are off to a start. I hope a lot of people have fun things to share this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing it all.
-Kevin
Thanks for opening WPF Kevin.
Wow, those figure really hold up even under close magnification. The price isn't at all bad, either! You can see expressions on their faces, and nothing looks bulky. And you're right, cowboys are cowboys in any period.
For a lack of anything like progress or new stuff, I'll respond to one of your comments from last week. You said something like "It has a coreless motor, whatever that is"
Here's what that is:
Pull the rather normal looking end cap off a coreless motor, you can see the commutator on the end of the rotor.
Pull it out, and look inside the case of the motor, there is a cylindrical magnet fixed solid in the center, where you'd expect to see the armature of a regular motor.
The rotor in a coreless motor is a hollow cylinder of windings that spins around the magnet. It is called coreless because it has no iron (actually laminated steel) core that the windings are wound around, like the conventional armature here.
You can see the windings in the coreless motor in the shots above, and here:
Coreless motors have zero cogging, since they dont have ferrous core sections coming in and out of the permanent magnetic field. They are super efficient- run on milliamps, pretty powerful and smooth and quiet. I've read that they don't stand up to overheating, and it would stand to reason, as they dont have the core to help absorb and dissapate heat buildup.
I have a few in models, but these wouldn't be subjected to long heavy haul situations, so they'll hold up just fine.
Kevin. Thanks for starting WPF. A great looking set of figures etc.
Southgate 2. Interesting seeing the inside of a coreless motor.
Not much from me. I just ran trains this week.
IMG_2018 by David Harrison, on Flickr
IMG_2026 by David Harrison, on Flickr
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Glad tidings and here we are again as February marches along! Thanks for setting us up for another weekend of photographic fun, Kevin
Those are some finely detailed figures all right. Thanks for the heads up on those. I like to keep a dozen-or-so figures near my bench and anytime I have a dram or two of paint to use up before cleaning the brush I can grab some of those and add a few more colors. This helps to keep a variety of colors on the figures and slowly but progressively gets them closer to being finished.
Thanks for the informative look at coreless motors, Dan. I have a pair of the Kato AMD-103 locomotives with coreless motors mounted within each truck. I thought that was going to revolutionize model locomotive design but I guess it never took off.
As always you are showing some well-detailed and interesting scenes, David
I mounted the fancy clock on the facade of the bank building. First I replaced the incandescent lamp with a pair or SMD LEDs then gave it a bit of a dry-brush verdigris look:
Bank_Clock by Edmund, on Flickr
My first inclination was to mount it 45° to the corner but I'm glad I put it where I did as it is more visible this way.
Bank_Clock-lit by Edmund, on Flickr
I got the lighting installed in the middle, office building. 32 LEDs inside that little cube of styrene
City-Night by Edmund, on Flickr
I added a marquee to this background hotel just to make it a little splashy in the night:
Hotel-noir by Edmund, on Flickr
On to more great stuff, Folks!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning from cloudy and cool Northeast Ohio! Temps will be in the 40 today with rain likely to melt some of the 2+ ft of snow on the ground.
Kevin, thanks for starting us out, nice looking figures, I remember selling the D&D figures when I worked at the shop these look just as good.
Southgate, most of the locomotives with coreless motors ended up with replacements as they could not bear the stress of operating on a layout with long strings of cars. All the repowering gurus have replaced them, the worst was the motor in the Westside K-36.
David. running trains is always a good thing, great looking pictures.
Ed, that Cityscape scene sure looks good, nice detail work with the clock and figures populated the scene.
Bear, you never cease to amaze me with you Bear Toons!
Well, I got a some cars finished this week!
First up, the 12th Completed Canadian Wheat Board NSC 4550CF Covered Hopper, added a Plano Roofwalk and Walkover walkways then painted with Scalecoat II mixture of Reefer Yellow and Boxcar Red along with a Black Underframe, then lettered with Herald King Decals. These were purchased by the Government due to the Crows Nest agreement which grandfathered wheat rates at the early 1900 rates which made it unprofitable for the railroads to supply new equipment.
Next another IMRC kit, the PC&F R70-20 Mechincal Refridgerator Car, Painted with Scalecoat II Daylight Orange, White and Black Paints, then lettered with Champ Decals. Used to transport California produce to the Midwest and East Coast via the SP and UP to the eastern railroads.
A teaser for next week, Rapido RS-11's as replacements for the RS-3's hauling a coal drag at the Strongsville Club layout.
Thanks for lookiing!
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Another great WPF is growing. I've got some random shots around the layout.
Switching at the Silverton station
Loading up the REA truck
Morning freight prepares to leave Durango
Heading out of Durango
Dropping a reefer at Tefft
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thank you to everyone that has contributed so far and getting Weekend Photo Fun off to a great start!
Dan: Thank you for the information about coreless motors and all the pictures! I'll bet the fact these have zero cogging contributes a lot to how far that chassis will move when just coasting on the flywheels.
David: There is nothing wrong with just running trains for a while. I am looking forward to the days when I can do that again myself. Your pictures are always wonderful.
Ed: The finish on the large fancy clock is perfect. Your whole downtown scene is coming together wonderfully. Your night time pictures are dramatic and effective.
Bear: Don't send me any figures! They will just join the hundreds (maybe thousands) of unpainted figures in the bins. Wargamers always have a few hundred unpainted figures just gathered about. Those do look good.
Rick: Thank you for sharing more pictures of your beautiful freight cars. I also always enjoy the pictures on you club layout. The Rapido RS-11s sure look good.
Mike: Locomotive number 64 is a beauty. Your pictures look fantastic.
I hope I did not miss anybody.
I will be back later with more.
Kevin, Thanks for kicking off the WPF with a little of the old west.
Dave, Part of the enjoyment in viewing your layout is being provided a portal of sorts to some good times in the late 80s, watching Shining Time Station with my son.
Ed, You're really goin' to town, that's a snazzy clock.
Rick, Nice rolling stock, especially like the PFE reefer', easy to forget the combination of skills masterfully employed in creating such fine models.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Happy Super Bowl weekend. Regards, Peter
Good stuff everyone.
Peter nice dumpster shot!!!
Mike great shots of you layout as usual.
More great looking cars Rick.
Ed, loave the city shots.
David. Always like to see trains running on your layout.
Dan, thanks for the inside view of a coreless motor.
Kevin, thanks for starting us off. very detailed figures. Should be run to paint.
This weeks contribution is a short coal extra on its way to the paper factorys on the Wisconsin River.
Enjoy the Superbowl everyone.
Scott Sonntag
A few more fantasy beer reefers.
Nice showing this week, Gents. I'm just catching up with it.
Kevin, I'm looking forward to when you temporarily shrink yourself to 1/87 to paint the detail on those figures.
David. Isn't running the trains ultimately what it's all about?
Ed, your city scenes are amazing. The clock looks great, and the night scenes are so colorful and make the buildings look like they'd be cozy inside..
Bear, Always keeping it fun (including the poke at my Safeway truck last week).
Rick, nice clean work as always on the big modern freight cars.
Mike and Scott, Like David;s shots, nice to see the action of the workaday trains.
Peter, It's all in the angles! You've got that down.
Pike 62, The beer cars on Super Bowl Sunday, I'm sure that wasn't a coincidence!
Finally, a lot of innocent motors have died over the years to satisfy my blasted curiosity to just take a li'l peek inside for a minute! The least I could do is share the findings, and to say what you all probably already know, don't go probing around into something when it is working just fine.
Dan
Southgate 2Kevin, I'm looking forward to when you temporarily shrink yourself to 1/87 to paint the detail on those figures.
I never though of doing it that way!
All this time I have been expanding the figures to 1/1 scale to paint the detail, then shrinking them back. Your way would save a lot of paint.
I think we could develop this concept into an April Fool joke for Model Railroader in 2023. What do you think?
Excellent contributions by everyone this week. No wonder it is the best thread of the week.
Thank you for your mentions on my contribution. Some times I just relax and run trains. This past week all my locomotives have had a 'blast' around the layout. Great fun.
The story of the real line to Sovereign Street and beyond was built by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company. Yesterday I joined the L&Y Railway Society. Looking forward to receiving some literature.