[DKRickman]

Hello folks,

Having stumbled upon the Masterclass several years ago, I began  lurking here on occasion.  After a lot of thinking and dreaming and working on plenty of other projects, I decided it's time to start work on my first 1:20.3 locomotive.  Somewhere in my murky past I aquired a Bachmann iscus train with their little 0-4-0T, and I've managed to lose or discard everything except the chassis, motor, drivers, rods, cylinders, and bell.  Inspired my David Fletcher and the other impressive builders here, I'm gogint to try my hand at scratchbuilding the rest of the locomotive.  One part I'd rather not make, though- does anybody have, or know how to get, the bottom plate for the chassis? I seem to have discared it by mistake at some point, and my wheels keep falling out!

Freelancing a locomotive in large scale is certianly a change!  It's kind of nice, being able to look for whatever feels about right for a given part, rather than having to match the specific bit of a prototype locomotive.  In HO scale, my friends know me as an anal-retentive rivet counter.  I will scratchbuild an entire locomotive because what I can buy has too many spokes in the wheels and a boiler 6" too high.  Well, that and I can't afford the models that are up to my standards.  Fortunately, it seems much easier to build a high quality model in a larger scale!

One more comment, and I promise I'll shut up.  One of the things that's always bugged me about G scale is the general toylike apearance of almost everything.  I've seen G scale equipment that have coarser detail than a scaled-up N scale engine!  That's a big part of what first caught my attention when reading through the Masterclasses.  Finally, a large scale model that takes advantage of the medium to have more and finer detail than is possible in the smaller scales!  Thank you for an impressive and inspiring collection.

 

[sbaxters4]

Welcome Ken.....

We all have our reasons for modeling in Large Scale rather than the smaller scales and they all are valid... so go for whatever makes you happy but above all have fun with it... good luck with the engine rebuild and just remember.... WE EXPECT PHOTOS along the way....

 

[Torby]

Pleased to meet you!

One cool thing about this hobby is there are so many related activities you can have fun with.

 

[jimtyp]

Welcome to MLS!  Or maybe welcome back

I haven't scratch built anything yet, but when I get more time (insert retirement) I'm planning on lots of that.

Nothing wrong with being a rivet counter, just implies you have a greater sense to detail.  I wouldn't call myself that mainly because I don't know enough about the locos and rolling stock to be one.  But I do appreciate the higher detailed locos and rolling stock that some manufacturers provide, of course at a premimum.

As far as G being toy like, you may not have seen the recent loco from Bachmann, the K-27, or offerings from Accucraft, or Aristocraft (for deisel).  You have to look pretty hard to find something not right.  However, I think what makes G different from other scales is it seems like folks have more fun and even have whimiscal trains.  The smaller scales it seems folks take things a bit serious, nothing wrong with that, it's just not for me.

Looking forward to seeing progress pics of your loco!

 

[vsmith]

An RC eh? Hmmm, to me a scale is something fish have, but I'll overlook that for now


Contact Bachmann service department and try to get a replacement bottom plate, CALL them, dont email them, via the Bachmann website. Explain and describe the model and the missing part, they should be able to provide a replacement. Check to see if theirs any other parts that are missing that you may require and get them all in one shot.


Another option is to try and get one cheeply off Ebay, This is actually the option I would choose, because you can use the extra parts from the two Porters to help built the Mason . 

I too am VERY tempted to build that Mason also, keep us posted  on the progress and yes, I also expect pictures

 

[vsmith]

Posted By DKRickman on 03/26/2008 6:32 AM

One more comment, and I promise I'll shut up.  One of the things that's always bugged me about G scale is the general toylike apearance of almost everything.  I've seen G scale equipment that have coarser detail than a scaled-up N scale engine!  That's a big part of what first caught my attention when reading through the Masterclasses.  Finally, a large scale model that takes advantage of the medium to have more and finer detail than is possible in the smaller scales!  Thank you for an impressive and inspiring collection.


Just to be specific to this comment, as you gain experience you'll find that even the cheesiest looking toy train can be transformed into a really nice scale model by nothing more that paint, weathering and lots and lots of detail parts from Ozark Miniatures and Trackside Details!
/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif

 

[Mik]

First of all, hello.

Second, you'll probably soon find that, unlike some smaller scales, there is really no "wrong" way to enjoy large scale The large scale community goes from the scratchbuilt super prototypical uber detailed, to straight out of the box New Brite. And from prototypical operations on handlaid track to just going roundy-round on plastic stuff....and everywhere in between.

Nothing wrong with rivet counting, I just don't have the time, patience, or money to do it ..So I employ the three foot rule (some use ten) I chose Lehmann Toytrain because of their indestructability and durability (When I got into large scale my girls were small), price, and lack of space for anything bigger. (Their quirky looks have grown on me. As was said above, a little paint and a few castings make a world of difference.) But I also enjoy looking at the wonderful handbuilt pieces other have done, so please post (lots of) pics. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif

 

[Gary Armitstead]

Just a comment here about the "toy train" look in large scale. An old friend of mine, Paul Burch,  who now lives in Gig Harbor, Washington and is a member of MLS, can put that statement to rest. He has recently posted some photos of his "bashed" Aristo GP 40 on his beautiful layout. The scenes are as close to the "real thing" as you can get. Hopefully he will post them here or you can go to the Aristo website to see them.

 

[blueregal]

all of the comments above past, present, future, all boil down to one principle "Its your railroad do it your way, and the way you want it to look, and enjoy" Who cares about realistic (I think we all strive to make look as real as possible) but in the end enjoy what you have, share with others, if they want to be critical, that's they're problem. Enjoy what you have created and "who cares what others think" You're the one who has to please yourself no one else!!!!!!!!!!Nuff said The Regal

 

[DKRickman]

Thanks for all the kind comments, guys! I'll definitely be posting photos as the work progresses.

Regarding rivet counting and similar A-R tendancies: There was a time when I didn't care one whit about accuracy. The I went to work for Norfolk Southern, and all of a sudden I started to see everything that was out of scale on my HO models. Funny, working around trains 24/7 gives one a sense of what the real thing looks, feels, smells, and sounds like (let's not get into taste, please).

Still, I like the freedom that large scale gives me to explore things that never existed, but could have. Even going with 1:20.3 (a choce that seems to automatically indicate a desire for some degree of perfection), there's a definite sense of "so what?" if something isn't EXACTLY perfect. At the moment, I'm thinking of focusing on 3' narrow gauge set in the 1880s, so that I can have my favorite little steam engines, and all the equipment will be small enough to look good on tighter curves.