My On18 Battery Storage Loco

Built on the top of a Kato N-gauge 11-103 motorized unit, I'm building this loco basically around this Grandt Line "Porter Engineer" metal casting. I want him to appear to be at the controls. I've seen too many models where the driver seems ill fitted to the model or after the fact the modeler tries to find a figure that fits. This time the engineer will have a custom cab build around him!

Some of the detail parts I'm getting off a Tichy Train Group HO scale COALING TOWER LIFT MECHANISM (Part Number: 8008).

It has lots of neat parts that can represent controls.

Explosives Shack

On30 Dynamite Shack for the Hardscrabble mining area of my layout.

The Mine Models of Junior Yamachi

I'm inspired by the models of Japanese modeler Junior Yamachi. His mining buildings in particular intrigue me. I think it has a lot to do with the originality of design. He seems to capture the essence of these mine buildings without totally copying a prototype. I get a bit tired of seeing the same mining models over and over. It seems that American modelers are so focused on creating exact copies of prototypes where as some of the best European and Japanese modelers I've seen seem to approach modeling from more of a Hollywood set design approach. The buildings suggest what might have been instead of making a statement of this is what it was - exactly. I guess you might call it a bit of whimsy.

See more of Junior's modeling