HO Scale Circus Models


enjineerbill

enjineerbill

Avid People Watcher
I'll start this thread to share photos of my circus models in varying stages of completion. I had a circus thread before, but I moved the pictures in the host albums and screwed up the thread, sorry.

Anyway I'll post my circus related model pics here.

This is a portion of vehicles being done for a freelanced show. A railroad circus from the early fifties. The rail equipment here is for pictures only, a new set of railcars for this train are currently being painted. For the record, all of the vehicles pictured here are being refurbished from previously completed models I have acquired. Most have been completely torn apart, rebuilt and painted.

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May all your days, be circus days!

Johnny
 
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CSX_road_slug said:
Looking great as always, Johnny!:cool: What is that blue truck in the bottom image - a "human cannon"?
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Yep, like Jerome said, an old Walthers resin kit. Really consists of 7 parts; body, cannon(2 pieces) and the 4 wheels. It was based on a cannon used by Hugo Zacchini, the first human cannonball.

Johnny
 
This week, work continues on some wagons receiving considerable reworking and painting. These wagons are from the out-of-production Life-Like models. Originally they had plastic see thru windows that had cage bars painted on, even on the ends. The original wheels have also been replaced with a wheel that reflects the change from wooden-spoked ones. Although still not finished, here are some views of the scratchbuilt ends and sides of them. There will be 12 wagons of this type on the current train I'm building, all with different 'jungle' scenes on the closed sides.

Front:

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Rear:

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May all your days be circus days.......

Johnny
 
Johnny, what wheels are those?? I've noticed you've used them on a lot of your wagons. They look much better than the Walthers wheel sets to me.
 
wheeler1963 said:
Johnny, what wheels are those?? I've noticed you've used them on a lot of your wagons. They look much better than the Walthers wheel sets to me.
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Hey Jerome,

They're from Highway Miniatures(Jordon) the mack truck wheels. That's what the real shows used when they switched to hard rubber.

Johnny
 
More LL models

One of the things I like doing, is using available models and giving them an upgrade of sorts. Here is a flat that has loads that were commercially produced years ago. From right to left; 'cat' tractor, dog wagon and the "Five Graces" bandwagon, all made by Life-Like. The tractors came in red, blue, grey and a few other colors, while the bandwagons were red. Besides paint, other changes have been made to help with updating to the era I am modeling and take the 'toy' look out of them. For a comparison on the dog wagon, I placed a stock model in the foreground. This one is stripped and ready for some modifications. Most notably the small cages now have see-thru mesh and single width hard rubber tires.
The last cage wagon is a Prieser model. These are excellent models of actual cages used on the long gone Hagenbeck-Wallace circus. They were known as 'corporation cages' in that there were many of the same type built for the show. From Prieser, these came in white or red with lettering for the Hagenbeck show. They also had the wooden spoked wheels when new. I'm glad I don't have to paint wagon scrollwork in 'N' scale!

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Johnny
 
Here are some quick shots of the new winterquarters sign marking the entrance to the railroad car shops area.

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May all your days,
Be Circus days..

Johnny
 
Car Shops

Here are a couple of shots of the, in progress, car shops area. Still alot of work to do here but happy with the look so far..

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Johnny
 
wheeler1963 said:
Johnny, looks like you have a well laid out plan for the shops. Nice work!!!
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Hi Jerome,

The plan, as always, exists only in my head. I build as I go basing the things I model on what I remember or envision. I then try and photograph what I've done and using the photograph add what is missing, repeating this step numerous times. Unconventional modeling perhaps, but it works for me. Thanks for the nice words.:)

Johnny
 
ChevelleSSguy said:
I wish the Walthers circus wagon kits werent getting so expensive.
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Hi Chris,

Yeh, I too am amazed at what folks will pay for on the auction sites for the wagons, although I'm guessing the folks who do pay those prices have no other options. I'm pretty sure that Gem City Amusements are re-issuing some, if not all of the wagons. Gem-City is a business run by circus fan Ralph Pierce who puts out some very nice circus tents. Watch Craigslist for circus stuff, I just bought about 70 wagons, a full set of tents, a huge case of cast-metal animals(elephants, horse,etc,..) and 20 rr cars for an unbelievably low price.

BTW, feel free to post your models in this thread, it's for HO scale circus models and meant to be shared.

Johnny
 
I agree, great job! I remember passing circus cars in a yard while on a train to Florida years ago.
Do you have a track plan you can share, it looks interesting.
 
Hey thanks Kenny, pleasure is all mine, I'll post more after we get settled.

Rico said:
I agree, great job! I remember passing circus cars in a yard while on a train to Florida years ago.
Do you have a track plan you can share, it looks interesting.
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I didn't, but it was easy enough to throw this together. The plan got it's start from the Ringling car shops at Baraboo, Wisconsin, which still stand and house historic circus rail equipment today. Although the big shed there is 3 tracks.

NOT TO SCALE:
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The railroad serving it is, of course, the MadCoW.

Johnny
 
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