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Scenery - People & Animals Articles

"S" is for Scarecrow

Using an S-scale figure, the author makes a scarecrow for his O-scale field. After surgery, the figure receives wig hair to simulate straw.

August 15, 1945... President Truman Has Just Announced... The War is Over!

Using a 1:35 scale figure to model a town's statue dedicated to the war heroes of WWII.

Bringing Life to Your Layout Part 1

The author shares a number of photos and several ideas for making a scene look more lived-in.

Bringing Life to Your Layout Part 2

The author describes adding many 1:64 vehicles, as well as many smaller details to his layout, all to indicate that the layout is alive.

Buck the Trend: Build a Fence with Style

How to build a buck fence. Includes prototype and model photos.

Camping and Music

Using the parts from a musical birthday card, the author describes how to make a camping scene that includes music.

Custom-made Figures

The author uses acrylic paint and water putty to build up layers of the body shape on wire armatures to build figures in various scales. He also provides information about to finish them.

Details, Details, Details

S-scale doesn't have many figures (at the time of this writing) and especially missing are children.

Distinctive People Make the Difference

This article covers how to properly place figures, how to modify them so that they take a more unique pose, and how to paint and weather them.

Farm Factor Figures

The author reviews and prepares 3D-printed figures made by Farm Factor 3D. Includes photos of the finished models. The company also sells cows in various poses.

Figure Painting

This article describes how to paint unpainted Preiser figures. Paint and colors are discussed, as well as how to paint facial details.

First Look

A quick review of the Miniprints 3D-printed figures available in most scales.

Hoboes and the Rails

Holsteins and Heavy Freight

A fictional story about a small scene at an SP siding, with several close-up photos.

Making People Unique

The author describes how he takes the common Preiser figures and makes them more Americanized, changes their limbs, and paints them to look different.

Modeling a Camp Fire

The author describes how he built a painted turntable, through which light shines and is reflected above in the scene that simulates a camp fire.

Modeling the People

Painting tips and tricks for painting N-scale figures.

Modifying and Painting Figures

The article covers modifying the plastic bodies to get them to do something other than the manufacturers' normal behavior. It also includes information about adding such details as hands, newspapers, rags in back pocket, etc. Finally, painting and what-not-to-do to figures completes the article. Includes a list of all the manufacturers making figures in HO, N, Z, O, and S scale.

Open House at Fletcher's Field

Building a diorama scene of a RC airfield.

Painting and Improving Scale Figures

This article describes how to realistically paint figures and how to improve factory-painted figures, including animals.

Painting Scale Figures

The author describes how Cindy Brown, a professional artist, goes about painting O-scale figures. Discussed are the tools and paints, and then the various techniques for each part of a figure.

Painting Your Way to Better Figures

The author provides some tips for positioning and painting figures.

Penn Creek's People

The author discusses several model figures that are usable in an S-scale layout.

Personalize Your People

The author suggests that we should spend some extra time on our figures to make them be positioned in a pose other than the way the manufacturer produced them, and painted in a different style. European figures can be Americanized. Lots of tips on how to do these, as well as a good number of photos of examples.

Plastic Surgery for Plastic People

The author describes the ways he modifies figures to fit the scenes.

S Lore

Modeling an S-scale rattlesnake!

Short and Easy

Gaylord Gill shares how to build a birdhouse in S-scale.

The Color of Flesh

Just what is the color of "flesh"?

The Scenery Clinic Pt. XXI

In this final installment of this series of articles, the authors describe how they add details to complete a scene.

The State of S-scale Figures

The author reviews all of the currently-available S-scale figures on the market.

Weathering Figures

Painting and weathering people and animals.