Friday, July 27, 2018
A Paddock Full of Sheep
A Paddock Full of Sheep
Over the last few months I have been trying to distract myself from events earlier this year and have done a few different 3D printing projects. Two of these are HO sheep both in free range and wagon loads.
Both the free range sheep and the wagon loads can be seen in this photo of 5085 climbing the grade to Wollar with a stock train of sheep.
Those who know the layout will note that the stock train is headed towards the country, away from the Bylong abattoir and the city abattoirs so the sheep must be being moved for agistment elsewhere, 1965 being a year of drought (yes, I know my backscenes are too green for a drought).
The sheep wagon loads have been designed to fit both the Austrains NSWGR GSV four wheel sheep wagon and the Eureka Models BSV bogie sheep wagon.
I have now offered them for sale on my Signals Branch Shapeways shop and while the price may appear to be of some concern the quality can be seen in the above photo and the 64 free range sheep work out at 57 cents each which is a bit over half the hobby shop retail price of approximately AU$1. The wagon load sprue has 100 sheep so these work out at 37 cents each.
The roofs of the above mentioned sheep wagons come off by slightly levering at the roof corner. The GSV floor comes out by slightly flexing the lower body sides away from the solebar. The BSV bogie wagon floor comes out by first pulling the buffer heads out of the wagon and then slightly flexing the lower body sides away from the floor.
It is advisable to spray the sheep on the sprue prior to snipping them off as it is easier to touch up the white snip area than to hold and paint the sheep individually. For Australia, a light brown is more correct (dust) than white as would be found in England or Europe.
While these sheep a just standing I hope to modify them so that they are grazing or looking another way, etc.
I hope that the modeller will find these useful.
Clarification of Sheep Wagon Loads:
1 sprue of 100 sheep has 4 blocks of 25 sheep which will do 2 GSV four wheel sheep wagons or 1 BSV bogie sheep wagon. The legs are dangling free so to speak, no floor on the block of sheep.
