Hi all,
I am really new to garden railroading and need some help. I have found some nice fiugures for my narrow gauge railroad but have not been able to find any animals that look right with set. The rolling stock is all bachmann ET&WNC, figures are from Fine Folks and Railroad Avenue, vehicles are kits from Hubley and structures are from Garden Textures. Any help on where I can find some livestok and other animals in 1/20.3 or 1/22.5 would be apreciated.
Thanks
Charlie
How “nice” is good enough? Have you tried the five and dime? Seriously. – I found mine as bagged farm and zoo animals in the toy aisle at the local KMart. Some of the foreground aminals I repainted, most I just used as-is
Okay, I had to throw away (well, give away) about half of them because they were the wrong scale, but at $3 a bag I ended up with enough cows, horses, sheep and pigs (and a bear) to suit me for a LOT less than Preiser. My 6YO (then 4) was more than happy to have the 6 (scale) foot tall roosters and the rest of the cast offs.
If you are a bit fussier or just want something spendier, Breyer’s “Paddock Pals” horses are 1:24, and I think there are cows and other stuff available the same size from them
Don’t forget you can always use smaller than scale items in the background to force perspective…just make sure the things that are side by side are too disparate
BTW I’m sure you already noticed the regular “big hauler” stuff is 1:22.5
Yea found that out the hardway. the person who sold me the original set stated it was 1/20.3 thats why i got the fiures in that size. live and learn the biggest issue I have is that there are no train shops around and buying online is a definit crap shoot as to what you will get what looks good in the picture does not always match the real thing. I have looked in K Mart but did not see any animals at that time. I know I too have some x-large chickens my wife bought for the set because they stated for “g scale” on the package. they are about half the hight of the figures. Plan to work a still into the layout and use them as a joke “the sour mash grows them big here”
The scale varies a bit, but for horses, cows and larger animals (even a T-Rex!)see if you can find a local stockist of Schleich or Papo figures. You’ll want to see them though as the smaller animals are usually around 1/15 so you need to choose carefully, I usually have a figure to compare scale to see if they look about right. They are a reasonable price and very good models.
Another plentiful source of “almost to scale” animals is the eighty eight cent wall in the toy dept. of Wal~Mart. True, about half will be “throwaways”, the 6 ft tall chickens, etc. The cows in the Farm set are about 5~6 ft tall, the elk in the forest set are about 5~6 ft, the T-Rex in the Dino set is about 15 ft tall. Farm and Forest set have 100 pieces for $0.88, the Dino pack is 25 for $0.88.
BTW I HAVE found a “prototype” use for chickenzilla…I was at a fair or something and saw a 12 foot tall chicken statue mounted on a trailer in front of a bbq stand…goofy people were actually posing their kids for pix with this thing!
You can also buy Safari brand animals, which are basically a knock-off version of Schleich, but a lot cheaper. Michaels craft stores carry them and so do some hobby shops. (Michaels has weekly coupons you could use them on. . ) Don’t forget about dollar stores or even Walgreens. I’ve seen some decent stuff (yes, minus the giant chickens) there for cheap.