Anyone Ever tried building a model Park replica?

8000 pieces? Wow. You are definitely blessed with more patience than me! I have patience for things that I am interested in, but if its not something that appeals to me 100%, then my interest disappears. One of my problems is that I HATE repetative work... if I have to make a large number of "something" at work, it drives me nuts... I would much rather do one copy of 50 different things rather than 50 copies of one thing!

If I were to build something, like a Faller Mouse coaster, I would probably be so interested to see how it works that I would push myself to complete it, no matter how frustrated it made me. Plus, I hate to let something get the best of me... I would have to finish it just to satisfy myself!

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

Cummons models aren't expensive for what they are. Look at the quality of a Cummons compared to a $15 IHC. They are way out of my price range though. The two year waiting period would really try my patience as well.

8000 miniature people?!?! I hate painting people and one thing I need to do to Ripple Rock is populate it with visitors. Pre-painted ones cost too much but I can't bring myself to paint them all myself. Painting the carousel horses was bad enough and that didn't even come out that great.
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Ripple Rock Amusement Park

Two years wait? Well, if my mind wasn't made up before that, it certainly is now ;)

I've been checking out the Faller models that are available on ebay and I'm seriously considering the Mouse and the Drop Tower. Anyone had any luck with them?

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

There's a lot of discussion about Faller rides on the ridemodelers yahoo group. It seems the mouse is a bit tricky to get it run reliably. It's a cool model though.
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Ripple Rock Amusement Park

If people would dress all the same, it would be easy to paint them... line them up (i.e. glue them on to popsicle sticks... 3 or 4 to a stick) and start painting... all pants, all shirts, all hands and faces, etc etc etc. Easy enough to do if the people are all dressed alike... a pain if they are not.

With the 2000 of the 8000 that I have painted of my mini civil war armies, the Union was much easier to paint... light blue pants, dark blue coats. The Rebs were much more time consuming and monotonous... all grey and brown shades, but nothing standard... different color pants and coasts.

Your "customers" for Ripple Rock would be in this latter case. People do not all dress alike... lots of cleaning of brushes. Also, in HO scale, you are border line on detail... just getting large enough to start being a pain (as I found out when I painted up my 15mm Medieval, American Revolution, and Civil War minatures).

I also share you gloom at painting horses... carrousel for you, cavalry for me. There is something about painting minature horses that is a pain.

When bills are paid off and work around the (fairly new) house is done, one thing on my wishlist is to do something with model railroading (did it as a kid when I had half my parent's basement to use, but the last rail was pulled up over 20 years ago). I had kicked around an idea of doing something amusement park related with it. But to 1) save space 2) save money 3) save time, I believe the only amusement park that would ever appear on any train layout I would build may be the sign at the entrance of the park and then have the park obscured by trees with just perhaps a ferriswheel and roller coaster lift hill visibile over the trees (and painted onto the back drop).

Veering WAY off topic... the talk about the model rail road made me think of an idea I was kicking around for a possible layout... a mining / logging rail road in the late 19th century / early 20th century, and naming it after Hershey's Dry Gulch Rail Road. Points of interest and land marks around the right of way would include the towns of Milton and Snavely, Chaos Canyon, the Trailblazer Mine (right next to Mine Town), Great Bear Falls on the Canyon ?River (just down from the Canyon River Rapids), Wildcat Creek, Spring Creek Lumber, etc. One of these days...

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Half of the people surveyed agree, half disagree and another half are unsure.
*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 10/10/2003 4:23:06 PM ***

I had a few models one was of superman the escape, one was a kiddie coaster of my own design and then i was in the process of making a wicked twister and hypersonic xlc when we moved, all of which have disappeared or were in pieces when i found them. Lets just im not too happy.

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Michael Gibbs,
" why can't we tear down the walls, and show the scars we're covering" ~Scott Stapp~

That cummons stuff really is not that expensive. I have that same working octopus ride at home.....EXACT same one.....for only 12 dollars. I purchased at my local hobby shop. I think those prices are a bit off.... By the way, has anyone ever heard of this site? http://www.therailz.com/ I found it while searching around. That would have been cool if this guy would have made a full scale, but looking at the date, it looks like it has been done with for a while.

Anyways, just thought i'd show you all. Enjoy

Lee - I highly doubt your $12 octopus is a Cummons model. In fact, $12 sounds about right for an IHC model (which will operate and actually looks pretty decent except for the big pastic base).

SLFAKE - Maybe I can paint all the people the same. Pretend that there is a company buyout and everyone wore their uniforms. Ugh, nothing worse then dabbing on a microscopic blob of paint, cleaning the brush for 2 minutes and then dabbing on another microscoping blob of paint and so on. I like your railroad idea. It would be neat to see how many people would "get it."

I've been developing a history for both Ripple Rock and a shortline railroad - The Camp Hill and Grovemont. Someday I'll actually build it. I plan to have the railroad run excursion trains to the scenic Ripple Rock Valley. The park will also have a trolley service from downtown Grovemont.

I've come across a a few more interesting places:

http://cedarislandpark.com/

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5620/models.html

http://www.trainweb.org/parktrains/model/

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Ripple Rock Amusement Park

Millrace, yeh, your right. I forgot that it was IHC. They almost look the same. I just got rid of that stupid base....its WAY to big....and just made a seperate base with it and added grass and all that stuff. I also built a Wild De Mause the other day and it turned out really nice. I covered the concrete and made it more "fairish." It honestly looks a TON better that way. So if anyone gets the Wild De Mause make sure to get grass to put on the ground instead of the concrete.

Well when I was very young I built parks out of cardboard and paper. Very cheap but fun. At one time I started work on a Carowinds recreation. I got all the rides in place(mid 1980's) but got discouraged and quit when it came to the architecture of the buildings. Later I started building the IHC and Faller models but haven't messed with them in years thanks to RCT. At our old house I had them all set up in the garage.This was not good for them and when a garage door spring broke and landed on them I lost several including the pirate flume and breakdancer.

Half the park was basic rides the other half were movie themed, Jurrasic Park,Godzilla,Batman,Looney Toons, Star Wars, and more. Micro Machines and similar toys were great for theming to movies. Going to the toy store was fun for the first time since I was a kid.

Anyway sitting in the garage all those years collecting dust, battling the elements, the encounter with the garage door spring, and finally our having to move to a new house has left the park in shambles. The components are stuffed in a box in the storage room. Oh well

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JOHN

I have the Wild Mouse and Power Tower from Faller, they are both tricky to get running, I don't have either running yet. I may be able to get the Power Tower to run with more work, but it's frustrating. And, I think the Mouse is a lost cause. But, they still look nice as non-operating models. I have had a little better success with Faller's Big Dipper coaster. It runs, although it took alot of tweeking to get the train to stay on the track, but still is alot better than the mouse.