The Scampington & Chipside Garden Railway

Project: Sculpting a Figure

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture. You can then view the all the pictures in the form of a 'gallery' by clicking either the 'Next' or the 'Prev' buttons.

Note: the ideas described here were first promulgated in the form of two articles published in the Spring-2008 and Summer 2008 editions of the G-Scale Journal.Thereafter, it was shown on the SCGR Build Blog. Of course it would have been easy to just cut and paste the text from either/both of those sources into this new page - but I rather thought I would at least try to clarify some of the procedures with some new photos - indeed, of a figure which doesn't "figure" anywhere in those other places.

So, making your own figures? I must admit it sounded pretty daunting to me when I first mulled the idea over. But I ask your indulgence at least until you have read to the end of this page. Possibly by then, dear reader, you might be more inclined to have a go for yourself. Just for the record, before we start: I am not in any way linked to any of the businesses or products mentioned anywhere hereafter, other than as a happy customer. Doubtless there will be others out there in the infinite cosmos that is the internet these days - go search them out!

The first thing I would say is, that I am probably using the word 'sculpt' a little loosely. I may be many things, but a true, card-carrying sculptor is not, sadly, one of them. I freely admit I am wholly incapable of producing anything even remotely humanoid from scratch. There are those in the railway modelling fraternity who can, it seems, conjur up the most amazingly life-like figures striking the most realistic poses and finished to an extra-ordinary degree of skill. I am and always will be incurably envious of those people. A gentleman in the US called Chris Walas is well known for his sculpting talents. Indeed, he has been known to run on-line sculpting classes from the excellent website at MyLargeScale.com. Even though, to my eternal shame, I myself lacked the patience or the resolve to stick at his techniques for creation of figures from scratch, nevertheless there are valueable lessons to be learned within the assembled pages. I would urge anyone contemplating making their own figures, regardless of the method they eventually use, to first read this.

The inspiration for what has become my de facto method of figure construction came from a book obtained at a local hobby/craft store (the clue to the name of which store I have just given you!), entitled 'Modelling and Painting Figures' published by Osprey Publishing. For those interested in securing a copy, it is referenced by 2 ISBN numbers, ISBN-10: 1-90257-923-2 and ISBN-13: 978-1-90257-923-8. It is a well illustrated book, packed with ideas and tips. The best thing about the book for me, was that it gave me the idea to construct my basic figure from body parts culled from other figures; then, to fill any gaps and add additional detail using an appropriate epoxy putty.

One of the first things the book mentions is the need for a reasonable tool set. The same store from which I bought the book, also very kindly sold me a basic set of modellers' sculpting tools. To that set I added other tools as I felt the need. Photo 2 shows my current set.

So, to the figure. I recently decided that my MoW crane tank loco needed a driver. Yes, yes, I know - LGB and any number of other companies do driver figures... and very nice they are too... well, they're OK I guess - if a bit, well... plasticky? I wanted a figure that would look natural, just leaning on the cab 'window sill' looking down the line. Sounds straightforward enough? OK! but hang on... what figures could I use as my base?

Well, I happen to like the figures produced by Preiser, as they are invariably well made with a good level of detail in the moulding - particularly the faces and hands. They are available pre-painted as finished figures in their own right, and also as unpainted figures. Obviously one could cut bits off either - however, it stands to reason that the additional cost that one normally expects for purchasing pre-painted figures will be wasted as the remodelled figure, once finished, will need to be completely repainted.

For this example I chose one of the figures from the Preiser 'Track Worker' set (Photo 3). The figure I chose was originally intended to be wielding a rail lever, hence the pronounced backward 'lean'. Now you might be tempted to wonder why I chose that particular figure as my starting point... in that case, dear reader, I shall succumb to the temptation to explain. It was the body which I considered needed the least actual cutting-up in order to get it to adopt the pose I wanted. The track worker set has parts for 6 figures, some of which would have been better suited to my requirements apart from the simple fact that I had already used them elsewhere.

The next step was to start cutting the limbs off as necessary, and rearranging them. The thing to bear in mind with doing this is, to try to minimise the amount of cutting. For one thing it's more effort, and for another you are destroying detail that will at some stage need to be reinstated. I cut the right leg off at the hip, and the left arm at the shoulder. The right leg was itself separated into the thigh, lower leg and foot. The left arm was cut above the elbow, just around the line of the 'rolled-up sleeve'. For the right arm, I used another piece from the kit. Although the shape and size of that arm were right, the hand was not, so I removed it with a view to finding a more appropriate replacement.

In order to put the body back together, I drilled holes (no deeper than about 8mm) at appropriate points on the various parts, and joined them to each other with short lengths of single-stranded copper wire (the kind you find in ring-main wiring). The chief benefit of this is it allows you to rearrange the body posture to get it just how you want it before joining the parts permanently. Photo 4 shows the results of the procedure thus far - including the copper wire 'skeleton'! It also shows that there were numerous points where the bits did not fit together very well; this was a minor problem, these salient points were easily cut and filed away before filling.

Indeed, what of the filler? I found terra-cotta Milliput to be particularly useful, as it offered a good colour contrast to the white of the plastic. At my tender age, my eyes need all the help they can get! Milliput is a two-part epoxy putty which hardens over a period of about 12-18 hours without the need for baking. Once fully hardened it can be sanded, drilled, sawn, scraped and indeed painted. I have found that a 'Dremel' is a very useful tool to have, as it makes the task of smoothing the filled areas and removing any excess filler much easier. photo 5 shows our driver with the gaps filled and sanded, and adjusting very nicely to his intended new role at the controls of a Stainz crane tank loco. I deliberately held off fixing the right hand at this stage, as there was a chance with all the filing and sanding still to be done that it might be broken off accidentally. I confess here and now that the left arm has no hand on it at all. There didn't seem to be any point, since at no time would you be able to look at the figure and see the hand even if it was there.

At this point I decided that a thin coat of grey spray primer would help matters by highlighting any remaining lumps and bumps, and of course providing a good keyed surface to which paint would eventually be applied. It was important, though, not to over-spray as otherwise some of moulding detail would have been lost.

Having removed any outstanding blemishes, I then added back some of the missing detail: in this case, the rolled up shirt sleeve on the right arm, and the right side of the high-visibility vest. At this time I also removed most of the hat moulding, as it looked very German - which in itself is OK, apart from it didn't fit with how I envisaged my driver would look. What was left was intended to look like a baseball cap. I also fixed the right hand in place, using a thin piece of brass wire as a joint.

You are most observant, dear reader, in that you have noticed that the material used for these details is different to the Milliput used previously. This is another two-part epoxy putty, called Kneadatite Duro; also known almost universally by its many users the world over as 'Green Stuff'. There is a clue in the picture as to where that nickname originates! This material is different in texture to Milliput, in that it is more elastic, and even when 'cured' still retains a certain flexibility. This makes it particularly useful for modelling thin layers, flapping clothes and so on. Green Stuff is more expensive than Milliput, and so I would suggest that it makes sense to use Milliput for the larger expanses and gap filling, and leave Green Stuff for the little details. The only note of caution I would add, in respect of Green Stuff, is that it has the tendency to stick to the fingers - particularly within the first 30 minutes of being mixed. To avoid any inadvertant damage to your carefully placed Green Stuff arising from 'sticky finger syndrome', it would be most beneficial to have a small bowl of water close by in which to dip your fingers prior to trying to manhandle it.

In studying the face of this particular figure, it occurred to me that he looked a little too civilised for a driver of a hard-working, dirty crane tank locomotive. I decided therefore that he should have a slightly 'wild' look to him; to that end, I used a small amount of Milliput to adorn his face with a beard and a rather bristly 'handlebar' moustache. As a finishing touch, and to hide some blemishes around the point where the head was joined to the rest of the body, I used a small amount of Green Stuff to make a neckerchief.

It only remained thereafter to paint the figure, and turn him loose on the loco. As is my habit, I used acrylic paints and a variety of techniques as described here.

So, is it sculpting as the purists would know it? Well, probably not. The point is that using the fairly simple techniques as demonstrated here, I now have a figure for my loco that I am quite proud of; the quality of which I could not have hoped to even remotely match in trying to sculpt the whole thing from scratch. By the very nature of its creation it is almost certainly unique in the world, and in my view it actually adds to the value of the loco as well. I am officially: happy!

Why not have a go at this yourself?

---