O Gauge Duck the Great Western Engine Custom

Here he is! An O scale model of Duck! Making an O gauge Duck was always something I have wanted to do from the minute I began modeling in O scale. But, what I wanted to avoid was getting a super detailed O gauge pannier tank model and just painting it green. I wanted to make a Duck that still looked fanciful. And so comes my inspiration:

Hornby's OO scale model of Duck, released all the way back in the 80's. I have always liked this model over Bachmann's HO version. Bachmann's is absolutely fine, but I liked Hornby's nice mix of "realistic" but still looking like an engine from Thomas. A happy medium.

I found an old O gauge shell of a pannier on eBay and it looked just great! I had to find a green paint that matched Hornby's version of Duck which proved very difficult. But once found, I got to spraying the body (after letting it soak in a liquid that dissolved any glue or rust from the shell). The chassis is a lima 0-6-0.

And here are the two models side by side. The face eventually had to be repainted to a darker grey to match the OO version, but I think my challenge of trying to "upscale" the OO model proved to be successful!

Duck was a model that I had made twice before in my past. And they were absolutely terrible. I'd hardly call them models. They were, to put it bluntly, insulting to the hobby of "modeling." Painting something does not make a good model. Painting is carefully and smoothing, keeping track of details, and understanding how the locomotive is supposed to look are all factors that are integral. It was such a rewarding feeling to finally make this model I had been wanting to do for a decade.

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Narrow Gauge - not Narrow Minded!

Let me tell you about one of the most confusing scales in the world. Every time I explain it to someone they just cannot wrap their heads around it! Let me introduce you to a scale called "O-16.5" scale." This scale was designed specifically for narrow gauge track and locos/rolling stock to fit in scale with O gauge locos/track/rolling stock. Take a look at this picture here. If you work in O Gauge and have a Lionel Thomas but wanted to make a custom narrow gauge engine that was in scale with Thomas, you would have to use O-16.5. What you see here is a custom Skarloey model in O-16.5. Notice how he sits and runs on HO/OO track... yet his is significantly taller and wider than literally any HO/OO model train on the market. O GAUGE NARROW GAUGE MODELING IS NOT HO SCALE. It just so happens the rail width between O-16.5 and HO/OO scale is exactly the same. But if I wanted this picture to look more accurate and realistic, I would have to swap out Bachmann's black EZ Tr...

Lionel Beau (Thomas & Friends Custom)

Right before Bachmann released their HO model! I don't care what anyone says, I liked Beau when he appeared in the Thomas show, even if his inclusion was only a mere few minutes. I thought he had a quirky, kooky personality. And as a fan of American locomotives, Beau ticked all the boxes for what I believed would be a great character. This model was very easy to make as it was simply a repaint of a larger scale "RTP" Lionel 4-4-0. Ignore the tender sticker peeling, I had taken this photo just a few moments after applying it to the tender! The face was the hardest part to make for this model. There were never any toys made of Beau so i had to get creative. It was 3D printed! I finished this model just in time for the summer so I am looking forward to running this loco all summer long. This is a model not many people asked for, but if you make models for others and not yourself are you even enjoying the hobby? Beau is cool.

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