Carl, you were the guy who figured out how to make glasses for my HO Harry Potter. So I have a new challenge. I’d like to throw down the gauntlet.
I want to have lilliputians throw my switches. No the mini-me’s don’t have to actually do it, just look like they are. You can use turtles to throw the turnouts and dummy Caboose switches, but they should move and the guys throwing them should move with them–and look like they are doing it.
Maybe it’s been done.
So there you have it.
I Double Dawg Dare You.
The first thing I would do is limit the travel on the Caboose throws. Instead of having them go 180 degrees, put in some plastic so the total travel is maybe 30 degrees. That will require some kind of springy linkage between the points and the throw.
Next, cut the arms off of a “track worker” or other figure. Use something like stripped insulation from #18 wire to fashion new arms, and attach one end to the figure and the other to the Caboose throw. Paint appropriately.
I was thinking of those little plastic horses that have elastic thread running through the legs and neck. When you push on the bottom of the stand, the horse colapses and if you do it correctly, you can make him dance. I was thinking of running that elastic through the figure’s core so that he can move and bend at the waist. The arms would have to swivel as well.
I like the idea of limiting the throw.
Caboose throws are way out of scale anyway - others make scale size throws, the challenge is then to make them move.
Stand a typical HO figure next to a Caboose throw - the arm is longer than the guy is tall. Only because they are meant to be operated with our 1:1 size fingers.
–Randy
Seems fairly straght forward Chip, pretty much like my animated painter from last year although I would need to go and order the componants online if you want me to build one for you and make a step bystep instruction.
Get a scale stand and use the actuator bar(is that what its called) to move the stand.
Cut a figure up at, the waiste, shoulders and elboes.
Use a pinvice to drill holes at these points to accept some 0.025 wire to use as a pivot.
Reassemble the lil dude
Glue his hands to the stand and his feet to a connected base.
EDIT : oh and I would have the lil guy sprung so that his natural position was upright, that way when the animation started, first his arms would extend to their fullest before he moved the rest of the way, and viseversa for the other direction, a more natural motion.
Sounds simple dont it, but I know from last time getting the lil fella to move right was a PITA to get the pivots right.
Lemme know if you need anything else, [:D]
Have fun & be safe,
Karl.
On second thought - I woud limit the throw of the Caboose even more - like maybe 20 degrees total, centered at the top. Then I would adjust the figure’s arms so they were straight out front, on either side of the throw lever, and put some ground foam around his/her feet. When the lever moved, it would carry the whole figure with it, but the short travel distance would mean that the figure was really just “rocking” from one foot to the other, and no flexible body parts would be required. The movement would be noticeable, but not extreme, and it would be much easier to fabricate the little folks.
Don’t know if this will work for this set-up…
To get the “spriingy linkage” put at least part of the drive through a piece of hard(ish) / springy wire and put an omega loop in the wire.
What you might need to do is put the figure on a spindle which runs verticlly down through the baseboard to an actuating mechanism. i think that this would work for any f the kinds of figures mantioned here.
An omega loop is self adjusting.
You might need to take the original drive from the ground throw, sned it away a few inches and bring it back again with the loop in there somewhere… sorry this is a bit vague without a sketch… what I’m saying is that the drive may need to be much bigger to provide the adjustment you need.
You might be able to achieve something with a combination of bell cranks … same as is done between an Armstrong lever and the tie bar of a swicth.
Hope this helps.
Hmmm. Interesting answers. It seems to me the little guy would have to pivit both at the waist and at the elbows.
My thought too Chip, I’ve got something in mind that I will try out tomorrow, much simpler than the pivots , so if you need a switch man at several places you can have them without spending hours on each one. Unfortunately its kinda hard to workout the whole mechanism without a tortoise and a scale ground throw , but I’ll get there.
Karl.
Don’t spend any money on this. It is an intellectual exercise. I’m wondering how it would look having a bunch of Lilliputians hanging out at some switches and others magically throwing themselves. Possibly in isolated scenes.
At any rate, it’s a pondering not a dream.