Painting the HO ScaleHumans - Skintones

I went back to try and find the ScaleHumans on Shapeways because I forgot to bookmark it. Shapeways drives me crazy. ScaleHumans is the name of sculptor's shop on Shapeways. That's the easiest way to get to his stuff (Shops/scalehumans). If you are trying to look for him as the designer you need his name, not the shop. The sculptor is Richard Kapuaala (designer/rkapuaala) and that gets you to his bio on Shapeways and you can get to his shop from there as well.

Back to the painting. I finished up the fleshtones on these. I, of course, went a bit to wide with my last skin tone and had to dial it back with a glaze of my dark skintone (Burnt Red Brown, A.MIG-0134). Then it was back to the main highlight (applied a bit more carefully this time) and followed that with one more higher just to emphasis some of the facial features.

The facial details on these is a bit better than the ones from Modelu. That little bit of exaggeration by the sculptor goes a long way to be able to make the details pop.

Skintones:

Burnt Red Brown - A.MIG-0134

Red Leather - A.MIG-0133 

Burnt Sand - A.MIG-0118

Painting the HO ScaleHumans - Detail Wash

After some relatively intensive training over the last week and a half I have finally found my way back to the workbench.

I'm back to the HO scale group from ScaleHumans on Shapeways. I only had time to do the basic wash to bring out the details on these. This really made the detail pop, but it also emphasized the printing lines on them as well. You can definitely see the difference between the Tan Fine Detail plastic and the Clear Ultra Fine Detail plastic. When I order again I'm definitely going with the Clear Ultra Fine.

Like with previous work this initial thin wash is done with Reaper Miniatures' Brown Liner. Because I do two thin washes I use Vallejo Airbrush thinner to thin it out instead of water.

These seated engineers are all printed in Ultra

.

Pretty sure this one is in tan

These three are all done in tan plastic

This is a mix. The two on the left are in tan the two on the right are in ultra

More Railroad Figures - ScaleHumans on Shapeways

In my quest to find better modeled railroad figures I hit Shapeways and quite frankly was a bit disappointed by what I was finding until I worked my way through the truly massive list and found ScaleHumans.

He does a lot of figure modeling and has a selection of railroad figures available in a variety of scales (much like Modelu). This aren't scanned they are 3D sculpts. Screen resolution being what it is I figured they only way I could get a good idea of what they might look like was getting an order placed. And off an order went. At the time I ordered three sets, 2 in HO and in O. I ordered everything in a tan plastic and that was probably a mistake. One set of the HO figures ended up being canceled because it wouldn't print in that material. I emailed back and forth with the sculptor and all of his stuff should only have been available in the Clear Ultra Fine Detail Plastic.

The sets arrived this past week. Off the bat they looked pretty good, one O scale engineer had a broken hand and two had hat brims that didn't completely print. One HO scale engineer also had a broken hand and that sucker slipped right out of my hands and disappeared forever. Most of the hat brims didn't really print very well either. The O scale ones were all fixable without to much effort, the HO we will have to wait and see. The two HO sets are interesting. The set that did print in the tan plastic are definitely bigger than the ones printed in the ultra fine. I may re-order than tan set in ultra fine to see if they come out the same as the tan or smaller like the ultra fine. Don't hold your breath it will be awhile.

Here are the sets I ordered (these are how they appear on Shapeways):

HO Engineers and Crew Pak II (7 figures)

6 Figures HO Scale 1:87 Scale

1-48 Fig pak 2 Engineers and crew

The HO Engineers and the O scale Engineers are the same figures. The other HO set is not currently available in O scale.

The O scale engineers getting their pins.

The front of the brim is missing on this one.

And a good chunk of the side is missing on this one. Both relatively easy fixes at this scale.

Quite the difference in size between the HO engineer pack and the other HO pack.

Acquisition - 78-79 Ford Bronco in 1/87th scale

I continue to peruse through Lance Mindheim's new book and because of that I have been looking at cars and trucks in HO Scale. Lance recommends getting the best quality vehicles that you can because of their visual impact, although he also says you should avoid using people because of like of quality. I can't say I disagree with that but unfortunately these two things go together. On top of that finding enough different cars for the time period isn't easy either. I finally resorted to Shapeways and found a designer that goes by madaboutcars. He is not kidding, he has over 1000 offerings of mostly cars on the site. I decided to get one to check the quality. Since solid cars are just going to look strange I opted for one of his interior/exterior models which are pricey to say the least. I ordered a 78-79 Ford Bronco without thinking about it being way outside my time period but I doubt the average train enthusiast is going to notice that little fact.

I'm really pleased with the quality of the casting from Shapeways, there are a couple of rough spots, especially down the driver's side of the truck but nothing that can't be dealt with. I'll have to figure out a way to add windows (I think there is a product out there for that used by aircraft modelers) and I think these will work really well. At least I can add a driver and passengers without a problem.

Calamity Railroad Project - Thinking of Cabooses

I am off on another tangent. While looking at 1/56 scale armor on Shapeways I somehow came across running gear for a DSP&P RR waycar. I have been toying with the idea of building and actual C&NW RR caboose from plans that appeared in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette and this would provide a firm foundation on which to build that. If all goes according to plan, and rarely does that happen, then I would eventually build two of these and that portion of Calamity's railroad would be done. I have two of the Bachmann cabooses, one has been converted from and eight wheel to a four wheel caboose and the other is waiting for the same treatment. I just need to decide if I want to build or convert at this point.

The Shapeway parts were designed by Michael York and sold on Shapeways through the Oahu Railway and Model Company. He has some interesting parts and I would certainly recommend his work at this point.

DSP&P Waycar running gear. These waycars were flat roofed in the beginning and when taken over by the C&S had cupolas added. These should work well for some of the C&S cabooses

The original conversion from some 4 wheel running gear I stumbled across on eBay. Not quite right.

Back to the drawing board with some new wheels and Grandt Line pedestals

This looks much better with this parts.