# A question for 1:29th scale modelers



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm trying out a new 3D printing service. I want to give them a shot once to say how good they are and if I want to continue using them. I figure this is a perfect time to release a 1:29th scale figure, but I need to know a couple of things.
What is the standard height of your figures?
Will this guy be a good figure for your type of models?


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Considering that 1/29 people are solely lacking I think anything would work. The only figures I have are sitting figures. They are about 1.52" from the butt to the top of the head. I think anything in the 5' 6"-6'4" range would work quite well (~2.25"-2.60" could go to 2.75"? A little tall at 6" 6"). I would say most 1/29 modelers model 1960ish to modern. Do clothing styles change that much? 
I think that guy would work good. 

Craig


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

looks like paul bunyan or a sailor... I'd skip the cap and the beard, make a more ordinary looking guy. 

Greg


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I'd love to see some good quality 1:29 figures! I would say 2.24-2.5 high would be about right. There are a lot of 1:29 people modeling steam, esp. the "transition era." At least, that's what we do. 

As to that figure, it's not appealing to me right away. As Greg said, it looks like a logging camp or a waterfront figure. That being said, I could find a use for him!


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

With a slightly flatter (or somehow different, you're the expert) head, a bill to make a cap, and a the pants changed to bibs, he's make a great engineer or carpenter as well.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Some goodfeed back, thanks. How would this guy work for you folks. A show of hands determines wether or not I go into production on 1:29th scale with him, less than favorable show of hands and I just do him in 1:20.32 and 7/8ths.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Swap the left and the right hands and you would have a really good hoghead (engineer). His body looks like a young guy, but his face seems like an old dude, just my observation. Or a variation on that would be to straighten the legs (one foot higher then the other) and have he swinging on to a car ladder...


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

which scale are these two figures, you are showing us? 
it is hard for me to believe, that they are smaller than 1:20. 
i got a lot figures in 1:29 and smaller, but none of them got details like these two. 
beltbuckles, fingers, braces and facial feautures have to be out of proportion in 1:29, to be noticeable.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I'd like him for an engineer if the hands were swapped. 

I love the idea of a good line of 1:29 figures.


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

I go with Craig and Greg, anything looking like 1950's onward would suit most of us in 1/29 (I think) The last figure I could find a home for. 
Incredible detail on those two guys anyway, especially in 1/29. 
Rod


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## pete (Jan 2, 2008)

I love the facial expression to many people have no expression make a hat for him like your other old guy in 1/29 and sold i can use one sitting and one standing one as an enginer oh and the bib overalls sounds like a winner


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, make a hat available, and I think the body definitely matches his age, great detail. Swap the hands, number one need is engineers in the cab! 

Greg


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

The math is pretty simple:

In 1:29, and inch is 29 inches.

2 inches is 58 inches, or just short of 5 ft.

2 1/2 inches is 72.5 inches or 6ft.

So, most adults will be between 2 and 2 1/2 inches high, some will be just over 2 1/2 inches.

Kids generally are under 2 inches.

A 3 inch figure is 7 ft 3. 

Salt to taste for if you're making a tall or short character.

Wonderful to make some 1/29 people. The lack of people in this scale, and their cost, is what prompted me to learn to make them when Chris Walas was teaching. 


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

If I remember right John from Just Plain Folks had tried a line but they did not sale. 
I gave up and use 1:32 scale Christmas folks repainted


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Life-Like used to make a line of figures they called "G scale," which were very well suited for 1:29. I haven't seen them in a while, but something to keep your eyes out for. 

Later, 

K


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Asking again, how much will these guys cost? 

I don't want to be saying "I'll buy this or that" if there is really no way I can afford them. 

Greg


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Greg, I sell my 1:20.32 scale figures for about 9 bucks unpainted so these will not be more than that. BTW, The detail is fine for this scale, I've been following some of the miniature sites that do 35mm and 75mm soldiers. Those things are highly detailed. People take closeup shots of their dioramas and you can't tell them from the real thing. I want to achieve that level of detail in all my figures. I haven't reached that goal yet, but when I do I will be a happy camper.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

At that price, I can afford one for each loco, and probably in the cabeese too... The detail is great... I may have to learn to paint though ha ha! 

Greg


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Sounds like a reasonable price. I think how you paint the figure determines how well the detail will stand out, not the size of the detail. When do you think you will have this available by? I'm putting them on my wish list for my birthday! 

Craig


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Craig, 
I'm just feeling the water right now. So far not a lot of folks have expressed an interest. Those that have want changes. I can't afford the time or the silcon with only a handful of potential sales. There was a time when I could, but not since 2008.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Oh I was thinking you had made the figure using your new computer molding software, not scanning an existing physical clay copy? I understand these things take time and effort and it's not anyone's day job...


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, I did make it on the computer, but it is still like sculpting. The only difference is that I am moving polygons and their vertices around and not particles of clay. The computer does not do it for me,,, not sure I would want it too. I have too much fun doing it on my own. I do the blank first, rig it then pose it, then sculpt clothes on it. The clothes take a long time to do, so if I was to do the pose over with my blank I would have to pose him and then sculpt the clothes all over again. Some day I'll figure out how to make the clothes and the figure move together realistically and it won't be such a challenge, but right now its hard enough get a blank figure to move realistically.


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## Big65Dude (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick -

The "artistry" is evident in any case...


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I'll echo what Greg said--at that price I'd put one or two in every loco.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Okay. Well, keep the suggestions that people have made for future models. At any rate they are nice models.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

If, referring to the last figure shown, his arm is at the right height to lean on the cab window sill that would be great, but I suspect there would be a wide variation between models, so probably not workable. I would have to re-state that a sitting engineer would be the most desired figure, in my opinion... making a "universal" one would be top priority to me. 

Regards, Greg


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Greg, 
I hadn't thought of that. Good suggestion, turn the head a little towards the left and he would kind of look like he's looking out the window, or getting ready to hoop up orders... Are 
the Aristo and USA seats and sills the same height? I've never measured. 
Could cutting the head and repositioning it be done easier then the arm work? I guess a modeler could always decapitate and reposition too. 

Craig


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The seat heights are all over the map, as are the window heights, thus my comment about "unworkable"... if the hand was in the air waving, then you could probably get it to work in most situations. The horizontal arm would be a hit or miss on a windowsill. 

Decapitation is always an option, tougher on arms that have clothing on them. 

Greg


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Are they at least consistent between different makes of the same manufacturer? IE USA GP9 is the same as GP30 etc?


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

If I ever did release 1:29 scale it would be in kit form so, it would be easier to assemble the bottom half with a spacer in it than to cut off the head.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick is it? 

3D printer? 

The guys in another thread are looking for Shark Nose Diesels. 

Is the 3D printer big enough to do a G gauge Diesel?


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rkapuaala on 16 Mar 2012 07:44 PM 









Am I alone in thinking he looks abit like Dwight D Eisenhower?


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By vsmith on 24 Mar 2012 08:06 PM 
Posted By rkapuaala on 16 Mar 2012 07:44 PM 









Am I alone in thinking he looks abit like Dwight D Eisenhower? Vic,

Looks like LBJ to me!


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

Too friendly looking to be LBJ 
Ralph


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Randy, what are the dimensions of the piece? I've had 1:12 scale people printed and they are 6" tall and they usual print about 4 of them in a batch.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Likeness is base off of Cy Crumley. I just thinned him down to look like a drunk so I could stick a jug in his hands and seat him at a table or around a camp fire.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

He sure is a character!!! Really swave! Watch that he doesnt spill anything into the campfire or it will flare out of control and burn half of Southern California! 

I design boats in 3-D. I wonder what you do to shape a figure like him? I can move points around in any of the three orthographic views, the "3-D" view is hard to manipulate the shape accurately. what program are you using?


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Eric, 
I achieved his current likeness by shifting points around and adding polygons till I came out with the likeness, but I did his clothes in an application that allows you to work on an object as if it were clay. It is really fantastic.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm not sure the overall size since all my trains are in storage. But, lets say 24 inch long by 5 inches wide by 7 inches tall.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Just for fun, I have been "playing around" with Caligari's TrueSpace 7.6 Beta version. Lots to learn on that one. I like to play with the points to move shapes around. Need a high horsepower computer for the rendering process!


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Gary, 
I have a renderer called Daz3D it is actually very powerful despite the platform. If you are looking to render animations like Shrek, or any of the others out there, then you are going to need more than just one machine no matter how powerful. Remember in standard film there are 22 frames per second, in video its something like 30 (don't ding me on the frames speeds, I've forgotten the exact numbers but those are within 2 digits at least) 
So, one minute of standard film is 1320 frames. Multiply that by 90 minutes and you can easily see that one computer would be cranking out frames for well over a year before you finished one movie. 
But why render at all? I use daz to stage my figures for simple renderings that have maybe one light a basic backdrop and for the most part no texturing. That only takes less than a second to render. Where you get in to trouble is when you have texturing maps and lights. Not needed if you just want to see what a part will look like when you print it out. 
I used to render on my little Pentium 2 using Lightwave Studio 5.0 and I could put together a two minute animation at standard def in about 3 days. Just about 2640 frames. Even back then you just part it to an mpeg file so that you watch the animation without editing any of the frames. 
But, we are not animators, we are scale modelers, so rendering speeds are moot. What you need is functionality.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rkapuaala on 26 Mar 2012 01:20 PM 
Gary, 
I have a renderer called Daz3D it is actually very powerful despite the platform. If you are looking to render animations like Shrek, or any of the others out there, then you are going to need more than just one machine no matter how powerful. Remember in standard film there are 22 frames per second, in video its something like 30 (don't ding me on the frames speeds, I've forgotten the exact numbers but those are within 2 digits at least) 
So, one minute of standard film is 1320 frames. Multiply that by 90 minutes and you can easily see that one computer would be cranking out frames for well over a year before you finished one movie. 
But why render at all? I use daz to stage my figures for simple renderings that have maybe one light a basic backdrop and for the most part no texturing. That only takes less than a second to render. Where you get in to trouble is when you have texturing maps and lights. Not needed if you just want to see what a part will look like when you print it out. 
I used to render on my little Pentium 2 using Lightwave Studio 5.0 and I could put together a two minute animation at standard def in about 3 days. Just about 2640 frames. Even back then you just part it to an mpeg file so that you watch the animation without editing any of the frames. 
But, we are not animators, we are scale modelers, so rendering speeds are moot. What you need is functionality. 
Rick,

In the last years in my trade before retirement, I was using Solidworks and MasterCam. Making forgings and parts, then machining the dies. Solidworks was the software that really grabbed my attention for the simplicity of drawing forgings as opposed to using surfaces, in Mastercam. MasterCam has had a solid module in it for over 15 years now. Makes it nice to have the capability to do solids embedded WITHIN the software.In the early nineties, I started to use TrueSpace to do simple characters in animation, just as a hobby. Just after I made my post about TrueSpace above, I went to their website and found out the software was picked uo my Microsoft for a few years and then when the economy went south, MS dropped it. It's now freeware! I still have TrueSpace 7.6 on this machine and whenever I get bored with railroading, I play around with the software. Yes, if you are really into animation and modeling, a PC is not really powerful enough, agreed!


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

You should try out DAZ3d. It was free for a while, and they might still have a free download, but it is really a pretty good app for character animations. I create my figures in another a modeling software more designed for the sculptor than the designer or the machinist and import the meshes into Daz3d. I pose them in DAZ so that I don't have to keep doing the likeness over and over again. The only drawback is that my meshes are so complicated I have a lot of risidual junk to clean up after the pose, so they are all blank because if I pose them with clothes the mess will just be even worse. 
I tried Truspace when it was free back in the day. I used to do a lot of work in VRML and actually built some of my first humanoid figures in VI mapping out the coordinates on a piece of graph paper and transcribing them to a face set. Talk about sore eyes! I graduated from a text editor to LW 3D modeler which allowed me to build polygons in with a wysiwyg and then apply a metanurb to them so that the turned into more organic shapes that I could then manipulate with the other tools available in that modeler. 
I really liked Light wave 3D modeler. I have to say you could do anything in that thing. I even built a low polygon model of the shuttle and LIM based on measurements I took from plastic models. It had all the tools you need to build either an organic object or a mechanical one. There were lathe tools Boolean puches and unions etc. You could build things either with the mouse or by entering coordinates and/ or sizes for primitives or vertexes. 
You could build an object in layers so that you could make mechanical parts that operated independently. You could export to Obj files, vrml files and dfx files. It was really robust. 
I surely was sad when my license ran out.


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

If you want a free 3D modeling program, try Blender 3D. It is open source software. 
Back when I used True Space, Blender was much better, in my opinion. 
While True Space will always remain as it is, teams are always working to improve Blender 3D. 
Ralph 
http://www.blender.org/


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick, 
I have to agree with you about the "old eyes" going using TrueSpace. I just found that the myriad of dialog boxes containing so many icons, was just too much. I spent many hours "self-teaching" on this software and even with some of the tutorials that were available, TS was way too cumbersome! I'll see if I can download DAZ3d. 

Ralph, 
Thanks for the heads-up on Blender 3D. The first TS I bought, was version 4. Waaaay back when. My son was doing animation in middle school.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I have found a solution to my production issues. I started a new page  http://scalehumans.com/ultimate which will list my new Ultimate detail 3D printed figures at any scale. The default scales are 1:29 one 1:20.32 1:13.7142 1:12 not necessarily in that order. I will no longer be doing casts of any new figures. They will all be 3D printed only. They are 3x more expensive than casted figures, but since I'm not a high volume seller, it won't make a difference  Anyway try the link out even if you don't want a figure. I'm interested to get feedback about the new graphics and the figures that I will offer (2 so far).


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Those 3d printers are pretty amazing, aren't they?

Hmm. Rather too expensive for me. I wondered about 3d printing the master then casting copies. Of course, this way you don't have to worry about how to get it out of the mold.

I think Len beat me up one day. Caught me by the back strap of my overalls. 
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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Torby,,,, maybe someone that looked like Len, but my cousin didn't look for fights, or back down from them


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