Model Train Accessories

Model train products are a great resource for 1/72 modelers. You can often find things in HO, OO, and even S scale that make great pieces of stowage and equipment for 1/72 scale models.

The following are some of the items that I have in the bits box.

The first sprue is from the Faller Tools and Barrels set (180906).

The only items that need to be assembled are the two wheelbarrows.

The handcart dollies are a bit rudimentary, but look fine from a distance.

I think the tools are all usable for 1/72 scale, though maybe some of the handles need to be lengthened to be scale accurate. A bit of work also needs to be done to remove ejector pin marks on some of the tools.

The next sprues come from the Preiser Beer barrels, Beer crates with bottles set (17105), and the Busch Ladegut set (1132).

The next pair of sprues come from the the Busch Ladegut set and the Preiser Farmers Market & Accessories set (10304). The tiny hand scale and weights are amazing.

The final sprue from the Busch Ladegut set are a bunch of long pallets.

The next sprues come from the Preiser Sacks set (17102), and the Preiser Cargo set (17100).

Next are some comparison pictures of similar items from the different manufacturers.

Various sacks from different companies. Merit is HO/OO scale, while the others are HO scale.

I think the second Faller sack may actually be a resin recast that was modified to have some burlap texture on the surface.

I just love the vintage Merit box.

Garbage bags from Busch, and potato sacks from Preiser.

Wooden crates of various size.

The Faller crate is not that great, having wood panel texture only on the top. It's also the only crate that has a hollow bottom.

Different types of cardboard boxes.

The boxes include ones sealed with packing straps, tied with string, and closed with staples.

Wooden barrels of various size and shape. The first barrel is made of actual wood, and it came in a random lot of train accessories that I bought. The Faller barrels are pretty much devoid of detail, and kind of poorly shaped.

Milk cans, metal cans, and beer kegs.

I'm actually not sure what the 4th part with the curved top is supposed to be, but I'm guessing it's some kind of metal can.

Last are a couple of cable spools (At least, I think that's what the Faller part is).

The Rabbit of Caerbannog

Killer rabbits have been part of popular culture since the Rabbit of Caerbannog was introduced to audiences in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. However, long before the film, foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodents were illustrated in the marginalia of medieval manuscripts as a darkly amusing inversion of roles between the hunter and the hunted.

Look... that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

For gaming, the Rabbit of Caerbannog led to the creation of the Vorpal Bunny in Wizardry, and has been statted up by countless DMs for use in D&D.

The first place I checked for 1/72 compatible rabbits, was with manufacturers of HO scale model train accessories. I found a rabbit hutch made by Preiser (28099) that included several rabbits in brown and white plastic.

I broke open the hutch to get the rabbits out, but they actually turned out to be accurately scaled at 1/87, so appear very small next to 1/72 scale figures. Next, I decided to search OO scale accessories, and found candidates from Dart Castings and Langley.

The Preiser rabbits come in three poses. The ones in white plastic are hard to see in the picture, but they are about half the size of the OO scale rabbits. The next three rabbits come from the Langley Wild Animals set (F146), and the final two rabbits (or rabbit and hare) are from the Dart Wildlife Selection set (A31). Dart also has a standalone set of rabbits (A6), but the image on the website is not particularly clear, so I could not determine if the pose matches either of the ones in the comparison photo, or if it is something entirely different.

None of the rabbits were in the particular pose I wanted, I so decided to just sculpt one on my own. The ears were made with flattened staples that were shaped with a file and then attached to the head. The head is a separate piece since I was thinking about casting some more of them up.

With the left over Kneadatite, I decided to sculpt one more rabbit that would fit with the killer rabbit theme. Or more explicitly, I decided to sculpt the mask/head of Frank the Rabbit from the film Donnie Darko.

The original sculpt came out too much like a human skull, so I built up the maxilla to protrude out  a bit more. New teeth will be added at a later time.

Richard Kelly (the film's writer/director) says that Frank was influenced by the rabbits of Watership Down. Personally, outside of the Black Rabbit of Inlé or perhaps General Woundwort, Frank's image is about the last one I would come up with with respect to envisioning the rabbits of Watership Down.

Snakes... Why'd it have to be snakes?

Snakes have been used symbolically by humans since at least the dawn of civilization to represent many different things, both good and bad. In the typical fantasy setting however, they are commonly portrayed as sinister creatures associated with evil cults.

Due to their small size, there are not many miniatures of normal snakes. The most accurate sized snakes come from HO scale train accessory sets. The first two small snakes are from the Busch Dandelions set (HO1220), while the larger constrictor is from the Preiser Showmen set (16342). For metal miniatures, there are two snakes from the Citadel C29 Creepy Crawlies series.

The HO scale snakes are just the right size, but they are pretty much devoid of detail. The Citadel snakes on the other hand, are slightly large, but I don't think they look too horribly out of scale.

Giant snakes are plentiful in the world of fantasy miniatures. The first are a pair of snakes from Grenadier – the Giant Snake from the Denizens of the Swamp boxed set (AD&D 2010), and the Sludge Serpent from the Horrors of the Marsh boxed set (Dragon Lords 2010). I've also included the Citadel C29 cobra again for a profile shot.

Next are a pair of giant snakes from the Mage Knight CMG – the Snake (Conquest #CM03), and Whisper (Conquest #CM04) originally had lizardman riders, but I removed them from the saddles.

Finally, there is the Iron Cobra from the Fiend Folio. It is described as being the creation of a great magic-user or minor deity, but despite being AC 0 and reasonably resistant to spells, it does not present much of a threat to even a party of 1^st level adventurers.

There are two miniatures of the Iron Cobra that I am aware of. One is from the D&D CMG (which I don't own), while the other one is the Reaper Iron Cobra (Dark Heaven Legends 03655) shown below along with the Citadel cobra.

The Iron Cobra is supposed to be 3' long (even smaller than the Citadel cobra), but the miniatures that represent it are all much larger in size even compared to 28mm figures. I wonder if this isn't because people based the size of the Iron Cobra by this picture instead of actually reading the text.

I prefer the larger size, and it is easy enough to re-stat the monster to reflect this change. In any event, since it is an artificial construct, I don't see any reason why there can't be different types produced according to how the creator wants to use them. Small versions could be used for tracking and assassination, while large versions could be used as guardians.

This is nowhere more apparent than in real-life, where mechanical snakes have become a reality thanks to the marvels of modern science. Small mechanical snakes are designed for use in search and rescue operations, while larger mechanical snakes...