DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

First design for Pinchy. Both parts of the arm are paper tubes, while the claw and the (non functional) upper cylinder are cardboard. Apart from where the claw is connected, there are no toothpick hinges and it instead relies on tiny droplets of glue. As such, I have little faith in the design and don't know how long it might last. The base is an upside down wick tab with a bolt of staples glued on top of it.

Now finished. Not too proud of the face, hence why I chose not to reveal it up to this point. The yellowed eyes happen to look even more villainous, which I didn't really intend. As brilliant as Pinchy turned out, it does have the same problem the TnA one has: the arm can't stay up. The claw is also fairly weak and can barely hold things like a wheelset or a tree. Hoping to find how to strengthen it and make it a bit more durable. All those issues aside, the full model looks great for a one of a kind custom solution. That said, I feel my original loco designs have a bit more "heart" put into them. Looking forward to making Daisy and/or BoCo before I'm done with the chassis this year.

I said I would (finally) jump on the TOMY Daisy bandwagon, so this is my take on her for the powered ex Annie chassis. It turned out to be one of my better designed tops due to leaving enough room around the battery pack. Unlike the others before her, she will have the same green spray paint as Henry (Spenry) with the rest being hand painted. The side windows will likely have to be squished in order to fit properly, and she will likely lose some of them. She's also the only one to have her own bufferbeams, mainly to help make more room for the face. I initially planned her to be a filmed/CGI hybrid (CGI sized face with the filmed model's features), but it proved a little restrictive due to how my faces are made. However, it might actually call for using the 3D pen this time. I'll see after she's painted up.

Added some more detail to Daisy last night before priming, including a method I haven't used for faces before: 2D cardboard shapes (top layer only) to make the forehead, cheeks and mouth, which I was able to smoothen by the spray paint going into the gaps. The nose is also a piece of cardboard with the ends glued to each other. While the side windows will be painted on, the ones on the ends have "frames" to ensure they're at the correct height. I no longer have the white used for Henry and the Express Coaches' primer, so she had to be primed silver instead.

To my disappointment, the green spray paint ran out just as I started to paint Daisy with what was left of it. This meant I had to paint the entire model by hand like I usually do. However...



...the acrylic green turned out very similar (albeit slightly too dark), and the only thing I had to do was mix it with yellow to add a layer of lime green after it dried. The spray paint also highlighted the residue of the top layers on the sides and top, so the acrylic did a much better job masking it. After that, I proceeded to paint all the other details.




The front and rear windows are acrylic, whereas all the side ones were done with a twin tip marker. I'm not too surprised I got the exact number despite having little space, given the 3D printed versions got it right too. I thought about using acrylic paint on a soft wipe or cotton bud for the makeup, but feared it might ruin the face. To get the blush, I went with a non permanent pink marker and smudged it off. Actually rather effective until it has to be reapplied (it will, someday). Only the eyes look a little too flat and not recessed enough.



Naturally, the trickiest part was the yellow lining. It would've been easier if I did it before adding the windows, and the roof looks very wavy on the left (viewer's right). She turned out to be one of the best ones I've ever done.

First time I noticed this thread DalaG, you got some good ideas there and produced some good attempts as well, congrats!

Thanks, Nigels! After all the updates I added (as well as changing my signature to link to my threads of interest), I knew it would find more exposure. Which ones did you like more than others, if any? I must say each one has been great fun to come up with, especially the materials and methods I utilised. Should be needless to say I find them a lot more rewarding than the (almost always) poorly done repaints I would do in my early days. Until now, my personal favourites on here have been Jack, Alfie and the non Thomas engine designs. They're all just the beginning, however, because I'm still gradually working towards the plans I announced in last year's update (and a few other surprises).

Personally I liked the Skarloey model, maybe its the colourful nature of the model or something, but definitely more attractive to me.  Mind you thinking about it, could just be I prefer steam trains to diesel/electric, I always find the latter pretty boring, not much character to them.  Bit like cars these days, I mean who genuinely likes SUV's from an aesthetic perspective?  Not me for sure, just like most of the hybrids etc... these days remove their badges and you can't generally tell them apart, boring as hell.  Now steam trains have character and individuality, I know some people will say they all have a boiler, smoke stack and a cab.  But there are all those special steamers out there, for example the W1 and the GT3 which I recently added to my stable.  But even forgetting the showpieces even the little tank engines vary so much and have so much character.  But I digress somewhat as that is a bit of a hobby horse for me.

Just a thought, but have you ever considered using plasticard to make the train bodies/chassis?  It may well be a better material which will give a better finish to the end models...

Yes, I quite liked working on these (currently) wind up narrow gauge tops over the course of Sukkot. Because I only have one such chassis and it can often get stuck with certain ones (and not even work on its own track), I've thought about giving them unpowered individual chassis and building coaches, trucks, Rheneas, Rusty and other engines like them.

I just happen to share the same view, including road vehicles. A look at my real railway photos should make it relatively obvious. I thought I should also make some original (freelance; barring the Class 08) locomotive designs, and the powered ex Annie chassis is my only suitable one for most diesels, electrics or long coaches/trucks. I just need to rewire it and get it working again someday. After what you've just added, I should totally start building more steamers (real, freelance and Thomas, even unpowered ones). I like how the GT3 looks, so it has definitely been considered for an upcoming scratchbuild - likely for Spencer's chassis like Henry. Regarding the tank engines: I recall an Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST named British Gypsum and owned by a Deviantart user; might build an unpowered replica of it as a tribute.

While I do agree about the plasticard and wish it were widely available, cardboard is much easier to come by and I'm fine with the results it can give. Not to mention, the 3D pen can also be of great help for thin parts that need to be robust. To this day, the only part on a TOMY/TrackMaster frame I don't know how to reproduce is the activation tab/motor retainer.

Sounds like you're going to be very busy indeed, I agree the GT3 could well be a good fit for a Spencer chassis, but would probably work just as well on a Gordon or James depending upon what you have to hand.

One small engine you may want to consider for the small wind up chassis would have to be the ultimate original steamer - the Rocket, I think that would look great on a small chassis.  Unfortunately I missed the release of the new Hornby version during the pandemic or else I would have definitely added that to my collection.  Talk about a miracle of miniaturisation.  I thought the little Rushton was stunningly good, but the Rocket does have far more detail due to its nature.  The recently modelled Hornby Peckett's are also nice ones to look at, very much like a more sophisticated version of Bill and Ben.

I'll have to have a look at the activator tab/motor retainer to see if I could replicate some on my 3D printer for you, which chassis design ones are you looking at?