Looking to add some fish to my river to imbed in the epoxy. Only thing I could find was by Sequoia Scale Models in Walther’s catalogue(out of stock). I contacted SSM and advised they no longer make them. Also checked out Woodland scenes. They only had one fish that was being held on a line as part of their ‘family fishing set’. Anyone have any other sources or ideas. Was thinking of making my own from modeling clay but don’t think I have the talent for that.
Thanks in advance for any help
Joe
General suggestions for modeling fish seem to be:
Rolled-up Bits of aluminum foil
Small pieces of solder blobs
Printed fish images on photo-paper
In all cases, pour a layer of (model) water, add (afix) the fish (among other things) onto that layer, then pour more layers of water so the fish are embedded in the water (like they should be).
Use small grains like wheat or barley, maybe rice.
Rich
Seeds from rye bread.
European company BUSCH offers a small animal set HO 1153. It has two different kinds of fish in it: one style shaped like a carp and one shaped like a salmon. These are cast in white plastic. The set also includes two styles of frogs, which I could set on a log in my pond. Walthers may well still carry this set.
Bill
My one friend used pieces of painted wire. When seeing fish through a pond surface, you mostly see the top and only a little of the side, no matter what angle you’re at. The wire fish were installed between pours of resin so no support was necessary. If you want you can get really fancy and paint the undersides of the “fish” light colors like real ones, but that detail probably won’t be seen. Add a fully modeled fish jumping out of the pond to complete the scene. They eye will see the complete fish and fill in the details on the wire fish.
S&S
If you think HO fish are tiny, try modeling the hooks and worms. Oy.
Steve S
When I go through boxes of 50 and 60 year old train magazines stored in garage, I sometimes find silverfish which are actually not a fish but an insect. Half an inch long. They look (and move) a little like fish. Perhaps a kitbasher could kitbash a few silverfish into scale fish. Might be best to preserve them some way first…
I would nanotechnology might be the approach for modeling hooks. This is based originally on discovery of artificially created form of carbon, Buckminster fullerene which has molecules of exactly 60 carbon atoms with bonds like a geodesic dome. Nanotechnologists have been modifying this material to build molecule-scale nanotubes, and even machines. Half of a cross-section of a nanotube should make a neat hook. No, I don’t know how to do it myself…
Just a few suggestions, hopefully helpful.
I would take a small disposable plastic cup, or cut a small shallow basin in some scrap foam, mix up a few tablespoons of Envirotex and try various various suggestions. I think the caraway seeds from rye bread sounded very good, or slivers of aluminum foil. Something else that might work (or might not, hence the suggestion that you try a test first) is to print the fish on a computer and then cut them out and put them between layers of poured water. I’m not sure how color-fast inkjet printing would be to Envirotex, but to be on the safe side I’d take the artwork to Staples and have it printed on a laser printer.
Preiser makes waterline ducks, geese and swans which look very good on top of Envirotex ponds. I’ve also got a set of beavers from Musket Minatures. I took one of those, ground of the legs and flattened the underside to make a “waterline” beaver for my swamp.
Fish in native fresh water are very difficult to see from above, or for that matter, in the water. Their colors tend to be camoflage with the background and even the lighter bottoms correspond to less light on the bottom of the fish to even out its silhouette underwater.
This is a defense mechanism that keeps them hidden from birds of prey like eagles that like to eat them, and also from other fish and turtles that also like to eat them.
Is it really worth the effort unless you are modeling a Japanese garden or something with goldfish in it?
In the back of my roundhouse, above the workbench, is a 1:87 copy of Miss August, 1967, DeDe Lind. She was my college roommate’s favorite. Given the location and size of the picture, she’s completely invisible to even the best-informed viewer.
Was it worth the effort? Absolutely.
So, looks like the OP has a number of suggestions now (ahem - I see a few people repeated my suggestions - well, I did steal them from others in the first place anyway), and taking into consideration Redore’s caution that fresh-water fish can be rather hard to see (what about catfish? Or, model a fish hatchery!), who here with estuary/shoreline modules has modeled bigger fish, like sharks (no, not Baldwins, you know which sharks I mean), or whales even (beached?). You know someone has done it…
This had me bemused for a second, as on first read I thought Mister Beasley had glued a female figure (probably a Presier nude) over a workbench in some sort of gory/horror fashion, and I hadn’t pegged him as a guro-fan. When I realized he meant a HO scale Playboy centerfold, well, heck, doesn’t every male modeler of legal age (or so…) with a physical layout have something similar hidden somewhere?
When I had an early 20th century layout, I had a pinup back in the baggage room of the depot which was reduced photographically from a period “French postcard.”
This thread reminds me of an article MR ran some decades ago about HO bees. It wasn’t even the April issue.
Meanwhile, we have yet to hear back from the OP.
Rich
Fish are often quite easy to see from above. When looking for fish it was most often easier to see them from a bridge. The key is being at an angle that eliminates glare from the water. When fishing in my younger days it was often quite easy to see fish in creeks and streams.
Most of the fish will be between 1 foot to 2 feet long for fresh water game fish Think trout and bass, some smaller, and a few bigger catfish, and carp.
PS maybey the op is out trying to make some fish?
Rob
I got so preoccupied checking out DeDe Lind on Google images that I forgot what the question is.
Oh yeah, fish.
Dave Nelson
I think I would try making generic fish shapes using latex caulking. Touch the start of a bead to the underside of a horizontal surface and pull away gently. The caulking should taper to a thin point (or tail) on its own. I wouldn’t think details like fins could be seen through 1:87 scale water so no need to bother with anything more than an elongated teardrop shape. Paint the cured latex shapes an appropriate color then place in your lake, pond or stream prior to pouring your “water.”
I can’t think of the name - even though I was just looking at it a few days ago - but an MR/Kalmbach ‘how to’ scenery book from about 20 years ago had a section on making fish. The modeller used small pieces of aluminum foil IIRC, and added small dabs of light green paint on them. When embedded in resin water, the effect was quite realistic.
Put a model of a BEAR next to the stream. Fish are all gone, no need to model them or explain why they are not there.
ROAR