#22 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hi Graham93,
Those two video's are amazing, I didn't think their arms would work like that. Also the passenger in the rowing boat smoking a PIPE, or am I mistaken, I could see smoke coming out. Those are just brilliant.
All I can say is thanks form posting them, amazing, I don't have the thought's like that, I did have a Six Million Dollar Man and his boss man Oscar Goldman dolls and I cut them in half to use them in a 4" speed boat, and I found two pencil sharpeners in small crash helmets and took the sharpener out and they fitted the heads just right. To think now they worth a few quid my son's said I was crazy cutting them in half doing that. They were their originally but I didn't nick their Action Men.
A few years back my wife and I were walking around a boot fait and I grabbed an action man boat, well I think it was and a Barbie Dolls boat and I said I was going to turn them into R/C boat's and still not got around to it. To think Barbie is the all go now. I had been looking for Barbie doll on boot fairs last years but people are asking too much money for them now. But I still haven't started doing them yet. I am slowly building an Aeronoat Classic speed boat. The kit to me is well below standard, I should have bought the Aerokit's Sea Hornet that would have been better value for money. I do have one that I built way back in 1974. I need to strip the paint and do a full refurb, It used to have a Enya 19 glow engine in it. But all my boat's will now be going electric. Too many places banning IC engines so I sold hem all off.

BOATSHED

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#21 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

This is so cool Graham!!!!!! Thanks for posting them!!!!!

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#20 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

and a recent video which includes "Katie the Kayaker"

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#19 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hi Boatshed,

Here's a video of Bill and Ben in the rowing boat. You need to watch carefully to see Ben (the passenger) in action!

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#18 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hi ChrisF, I like the picture that you added and the thought balloons you added. The woman on the boat sounds just like my wife😂🤣

BOATSHED

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#17 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hi Graham93, I see you say you have use action men figures and a Disney Ariel figure. I am wondering do their arms work in they way you need them to for the rowing?
I would love to see them in action on the water, do you have any video on the water yet?

BOATSHED

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#16 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

What a great post /forum you can look and get plenty of information from these posts this is what it's all about thanks to all of you peter l 👍👍👍👍

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#15 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Excellent detailing Greg👍
Especially the instrumentation, more than I've seen on some older naval patrol boats.
I feel sorry though for the apparently single crew member🤔
Chief cook, bottle washer AND Cap'n, helmsman and deckhand to boot!

Oh and BTW: Please pass on my order to the cook: 2 sausages (beef if possible😋), 2 fried eggs (sunny side up), and chips. Real English chips please, not American chips (=English crisps) or so called French Fries, which actually originated in Belgium.😁
Cheers, Doug😎

Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug

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#14 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

I have crew on some of my boats. They would look a little odd without!

These two boats were built at 1/6th scale. Part of the reason for choosing that scale was so that there would be suitable figures available. The two crew in the rowing boat are Action men, suitably aged. The kayaker is a Disney Ariel figure.

All the figures were sourced from eBay for just a couple of £.

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#13 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Most of my model fishing boats are based on inshore and mid-shore Canadian lobster boats, which I build either 1:18 or 1:12 scale, and many of them, the client wants full R/C.
Being large scale, means the wheelhouse windows are large enough to warrant detailing the interiors.
I have bought some figures to scale and I do the interiors also.
- I'm including couple photos of interiors, plus working crewman near the gear

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#12 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

ChrisF
I see you have some of the Happy Family characters too. They are posable most of the time, but I’ve seen ones where the knees do not bend.

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#11 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Great topic Lew! Hoping some more builders chime in... Your work is very detailed... Each picture is a scene we all can imagine... Excellent work! 👍👍👍
Dave RR

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#10 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Love it Chris... Sounds like my girl. She actually helps me in this part of the build... Very creative opposite type 😉

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#9 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

They look anxious to hit the water. Looks like the girl is aboard and ready to go.

Lew

Lew
Florida, USA
Home page: https://www.RCFlorida.org/lmb

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#8 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

I haven't got to the point where I'm adding figures to my builds yet but these guys wanted to start getting into the act a little while ago!

Chris

Scratch building 7 Faireys at a scale of 1:12

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#7 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Len and all...

I'm happy to see this subject take off. Going beyond just building the boat, figures and other items complete the "art" that many model builders create. Like you said, you added figures to your 1/14 scale trucks. I do likewise for my 1/16 scale armor. (The armored car was an M16 with a quad 50 turret mount and and significantly modified to be an M3 troop carrier.)

It does take a lot of research and work. A lot of 3D figures on Shapeways (ugh) are of poor quality and very overpriced. for my PT61 gunboat I have about a dozen figures. At 1/20 scale, USN figures are hard to find. Fortunately, I found some Tamiya pit crew figures that could be modified (grinding and filling, cutting to reposition limbs, etc.). Also, the PT crews in the south pacific tended to be more "un-dressed" (photo) so by adding the figures to reflect this even enhances the model. The same 1/20 scale Tamiya pit crew figures are now sailing it the trawler off of Hull (UK) but in miniature in a pond in Florida.

The 1/40 scale figures on my Wiesel are actually 1/35 scale WWII Russian naval infantry. Simply by cutting the figures in half at the waist reduces the height perfectly.

Many model boats not lacking figures but a lot of other nautical needs scattered about the decks as well. But that could be a conversation for another subject!

Lew
Florida ☀️😎, USA

More info on figures: https://lewsmodelboats.org/M-scale-figures.htm

Lew
Florida, USA
Home page: https://www.RCFlorida.org/lmb

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#6 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Lew first off thankyou for starting this thread and it looks like it will be generating some great pictures. Second your work is to be complemented and is inspirational. I like to man all my builds and this goes for 1/14 scale trucks as well as boats. Len

LEN1

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#5 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

I use Hasbro Happy Family figures in the Lobster Yacht.

The J-502 are 1/72 figures.

On Vosper the crew and “military passengers” are 1/35 figures.

The Ville Class Tugboats are figures found at second hand stores that were 6” tall, Friendly Family and Military G.I.Joe type with carved off military garb.

The figures riding on board the St.Pierre Dory are Hasbro Friendly Family figures which the male figures are 6” or a 6’ tall person.

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#4 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hey Lew, great pictures! I agree that the figures add "life" to the boat. Especially on the water. All of my builds have figures... My 1/48 figures are from woodland scenics and from China via eBay. ( I have 75 people on the Creole Queen) The 1/8 and 1/10 figures are from Diamond select ( movie characters) and the 1/6 are from monster high (grand kids toy box). The figures in the Typhoon were $15 each. So you can find them cheap. You do excellent work, thanks for sharing. RR

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#3 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Thanks for the post Lew. I do my best to get figures and interiors into everything I build...especially if it's runs, flies or floats. Just adds another nuance to the build and I enjoy the challenge of sourcing figures. By way of explanation...

Right now there's a gentleman in Spain who is doing wonderful work for me albeit pricey. He did my 1:16th scale USGC crew and my 1:24 Caltex captain and mate plus three additional figures. (52Euro and 48Euro respectively).

3D printing has been a boon for the hobby industry and some of the work almost goes beyond scale to almost lifelike. Jeff Shiu in China raised the bar on figure sculpts to the point where the figures have a discernible personality...re: the tank commander picture. Sadly he has also become the most pirated figure sculptor on Earth. Jeff's figures go for $45 a piece.

The last photo is of a 1:29 scale train engineer that I ordered yesterday from a young fella who specializes in human figures in multiple scales on Etsy (of all places) for $5. He takes 360 degree 24P photos of regular people and he's off to the races!
I am trying to get him to get some folks dressed in seafaring garb!

The Sopwith Camel pilot was a kit bash of mine...from an old 1:12th scale bust that cost about $10 years ago.

The James Hunt figure in 1:8th scale was cheap about 10 years ago, but it was a limited run by a sculptor in Belgium for a man who markets (impossible to find) large scale F1 kits. Today that figures goes for 140Euro and up.
😉

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#2 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

Hi Lew, I enjoyed your post, and seeing the pictures of your various figures and interiors. Too often I see models of open boats that have no one at the helm (or wheel) which, in my view, detracts from the boat.

Interesting to see that you also use Bruder models occasionally. They are available in the UK where the current price is around £13. The scale is 1:16 which suits some of my boats.

Sourcing figures is problematic at best. If you are prepared to pay £55 - £60 per figure there are one or two companies that will make accurate facsimiles of whatever subject you choose. My pocket does not stretch to this so I look for figures elsewhere, sometimes even China !

I agree that model boats look better for having figures on board, even if they are Ken or Barbie dolls, or Dr.Who fugures. 😉😉

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#1 2 years ago

Crew, People, and Detailed Interiors

One of the responses on this forum was "I generally don't detail interiors". That's OK, but it kind of ignited my thoughts on this and I thought it would make a good topic for this forum.

While I avoid adding interiors and people to my builds if they are not visible, I feel that in certain instances, crew and/or people and/or interiors are appropriate they they are clearly visible. Not so much as for when the boat is in the water but when sitting on the tables when not in the water. We almost always use a covered shelter with tables at our meets. The models are in plain view of other members as well as casual visitors to the park.

There are instances where the boats are in the water and some figures would look great onboard. A number of times I have seen open run-abouts operating without "anyone" on board. At least a Ken or Barbie doll would look better that bare seats.

Figures on board give a sense of some realism, even just "sitting there" when used properly. These figures also present a good reference to the relative size of the vessel so I will frequently have some figures on deck.

All of my models range in scale from 1/10 to 1/40. I enjoy these larger scales because if I get close to the model physically I get a sense of actually being on board observing what the real boats were like. I've been aboard various boats and ship running from my own canoe up to touring a supercarrier but not much like the models I build.

I have only one model boat with a non-wheelhouse partial interior, and that is my towboat, because the engine room double doors are open.

Almost all of my boats have some level of detailed wheelhouse interiors because of the large scales with noticeably large windows. I have only one boat that has opaque windows and that is my 48 ft USCG motor lifeboat. However, to overcome this I have figures on the flying bridge and deck which distracts from the "unviewable interior".

As there is frequently a problem trying to find the correctly dressed figure in the right scale, the figure(s) often become a building task on to itself.

Just my opinion.

Lew
Florida, USA

Lew
Florida, USA
Home page: https://www.RCFlorida.org/lmb

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