The myLargescale.com Figure Class!

by Chris Walas

Finally! Presented with all my apologies and excuses for being late and sloppy, we can finally get going on making our own figures!

Our large scale railroads are reflections of ourselves. Every choice we make tells us something about ourselves. The steam or diesel locomotives we run; standard or narrow gauge (or any combination of scales!); the busy urban setting or the backwoods logging line all reflect what appeals to us most as larges. Hundreds of little choices bring our railroads into existence. I spent several years "fiddling" with various aspects of the hobby until one day when I was finishing an early kitbash, I needed a specific kind of figure for the loco and there was just no "right" figure available at the time, either in the scale or the pose I wanted. I made my own. It wasn't very good. In fact, I probably would have been better off chopping up a store bought figure. But while that figure may not have done what I wanted for the loco, it did change everything.

From that moment on, I just couldn't stick a Bachmann figure in my Shay and I couldn't stand to look at that LGB engineer with his arm held high for...what? My perception of what my railroad was going to be had been amended. The character of the Rogue County Narrow Gauge RR and its subsidiaries, the Shagamauw Lumber Co. and the Helldorado Mining and Mineral RRs are going to be defined not only by the character of the locomotives, rolling stock, and buildings, but by the character of the people that drive my trains, ride my trains and even the people that stand idly by and watch my trains! From that first figure on, I've been making my own people to fit my railroad. I feel they bring a uniqueness that can't be matched by any mass produced figures and a unity to the look and feel of the railroad. They're not the best looking, best painted, best sculpted...well, they're not the best anything. EXCEPT, they are the best reflection of me I can bring to the people on my railroad. And figures do bring life to large scale. Compare an empty coach to one with a dozen figures in it. Which would you rather have on your layout? I still have trouble watching some of the beautifully made large scale locomotives as they tool around people's layouts without a fireman and engineer!

Even more important, your figures let people know your attitude toward your hobby. If your train pulls into the station driven by the standard issue Bachmann engineer, it's one thing. But if that same train pulls into the station driven by a cigar chomping, grimacing curmudgeon that same train now has a whole new identity!

When I began making figures for my Rogue County RRs, I had done precious little sculpting in so small a scale. I've sculpted for most of my professional life, but the smallest sculptures tended to be 1/6 scale up to 1/1, full size sculptures and even a fair amount of larger than life sculptures. I found that after sculpting a 50' Tyrannosaurus Rex, a 3&1/2" figure was mighty small indeed. A lot of the techniques, tools and materials I knew no longer applied in this smaller world and I had to teach myself a new approach. I've tried a lot of things, and most of them worked, but they weren't necessarily the best or most comfortable for me. So I weeded them out of my active file of techniques and reduced my approach down to the process I'm going to impart to you in this series of articles.

Doing these figures is not an exact science, it is a subjective experience. Those of you modelers who are used to measuring and cutting styrene will find this an entirely different experience. My goal is not to teach you to copy what I do or what anybody else does. My goal is to supply you with an introduction to the processes and the materials and to show you enough techniques to get you going on your own. The whole purpose of making figures in the first place is for YOU to be able to make the figures YOU want, in the poses and sizes you need.

But be forewarned! There is a learning curve to the process and don't expect to produce Michelangelo's David on the first attempt! For some this will be a frustrating and difficult learning process while others will pick it up like it was nothing. The key to success is simply not giving up. Stick with it and you will be able to make your own figures.

So let's get on with it!