# O Scale Birds



## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

O scale birds are hard to find.
Anyone know of a source for them?

I found these and I am in the process of trying to make them look like pigeons.
Every RR needs some pigeons right? 
These were listed as Medium sized birds. That is a dime I have shown with the one.

Not done painting them yet. I wish they had some to simulate some that are flying away.

I never knew this, look at some of the pigeon colors that fly around in Venice.
Cool, I wouldn't mind pigeons so much if they looked like these. :thumbsup:

http://www.boredpanda.com/colored-pigeons-in-venice-piazzas/

















Anyone know of more O scale birds?
I would like to get some seagulls too.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Are these what you found?

http://www.locopainter.com/store/product.php?id=191

I also dug up this, but they kinda look like chickens. Why would chickens be on the roof?

http://modeltechstudios.com/oscalebirds8pack.aspx

This Arttista company seems to make lots of different animal sets, but you can't tell what the birds look like in the blurry picture.

http://www.dollhousesupplies.com/arttista-o-scale-miniature-birds.html

You might be better off making your own birds with a mold or something. I'm sure the epoxyman would have some ideas!

This guy made some pretty nice ones out of solder.

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/cheap-peeps---building-budget-brass-birds


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## KarenORichmond (Nov 14, 2011)

I have seen birdbaths with birds pop up on ebay. believe they were plasticville and you could then paint them.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

eljefe said:


> Are these what you found?
> 
> http://www.locopainter.com/store/product.php?id=191
> 
> ...




Yes the first one is what I got, they do look better then their pictures, has some wing detail molded in that you can't see there.

The chickens sitting on the roof I saw too, I passed they looked kind of funky. 

I wonder if I can fabricate a mold up somehow and pour something in to make some seagulls. I do want some seagulls. 

I never saw that solder way.

The doll house site I came across but I don't see ANY birds in their photo that is with their description? Am I missing it?

Thanks for your effort. :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

KarenORichmond said:


> I have seen birdbaths with birds pop up on ebay. believe they were plasticville and you could then paint them.


Karen you do know I am looking for 1/48 size birds?
A birdbath?

I completely missed the word plasticville. 

I want free standing or sitting or in motion (flying) birds.

If anyone comes across any let me know thanks.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

big ed said:


> The doll house site I came across but I don't see ANY birds in their photo that is with their description? Am I missing it?


The birds are item number 1212. The picture shows several different item numbers. The one labeled 1212 is really hard to see.

I guess it could be birds. Or squirrels. Or the Ark of the Covenant. Whatever it is, it's about to get run over by a lawnmower.


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## James Stoker (May 19, 2013)

You can try the Pegasus 1/48 animals. I accidentally ordered the HO set, so now I have some really small livestock and chickens. Even in HO the detail is amazing. There are chickens, turkeys, and something that appears to be a crow in the set. I also have the 1/48 "California Miners" from Pegasus, and they are fantastic. If you are going to try to replicate some birds, I suggest trying InstantMold and Greenstuff. InsantMold is a plastic you heat in boiling water and then form it over the positive that you want to replicate. Greenstuff is an epoxy type of plastic that comes in a strip and is easy to mix small amounts. Here are a couple pics showing my first try at using this method, replicating some highly detailed cactus (also from Pegasus).


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

That looks good I have to check that out further, Thanks.

I guess there is a site?


The hardest part would be finding the first one to make the mold.
I have had no luck in finding 1/48 seagulls.

But that sure looks like an easy way to mold things, Thanks.

Edit,
Whoops, I see your link now.


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## James Stoker (May 19, 2013)

I added the link after my initial post. At Scale Hobbyist the price on these Pegasus sets is great (~$6.50) but the shipping is a killer at about $8. I ordered 4 sets of figures and the shipping was the same, so you may want to get more than 1 set. The InstantMold/Greenstuff is a great system. I had used a two part plastic many years ago when I was Military Modeling and it was pretty hard plastic, the GS I got with this set is pretty soft when set- about like HDPE "Army Men" plastic. You can use other materials like Bondo in InstantMold too.


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## James Stoker (May 19, 2013)

I remembered seeing some N scale pigeons someone had made at Shapeways, so I took a look and they are there on the list. I know these can be enlarged. I think Shapeways can do that for you or you could try getting ahold of the creator of these. They are all sitting, too bad there isn't some variety. Pretty cheap @ $8.50 for 121 of them, and he has another sheet with 484 of them for about $15. These could be chickadees in O scale too I guess.



















I figured there would be more birds available on Sapeways. Lots of "Romulan Birds of Prey" and such. I saw a couple other birds, although they are very large, I do not know if these could be shrunk or not.










Eagle at Shapeways










Cool owl at Shapeways


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

N scale pigeons. Now I've seen everything!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

eljefe said:


> N scale pigeons. Now I've seen everything!


I guess you would just paint those one color. 




InstantMold and Greenstuff sounds interesting I will have to search that stuff.

The only problem would be for finding a seagull for the initial imprint/mold?
But I might try that for other things. If you boil that to make a mold then make your items can you reboil it to make different things too? Or do you have to use a new one to boil.
I never saw that before thanks for the ideal.

The owl is not for sale, I wonder how big the eagle is?
Edit,
Whoops I see the size listed.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Tell me James, when you make the item you only get detail on one side right?

Or does it come out with details on both sides?

Like say a bird, it has wing details on both sides the way I see the mold working it would only show detail on the side that is facing down, right?

Or do you stick the hard copy in the mold so it is completely covered then after it cures you cut it out? Then you would get all the details shown on both sides.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Ed's custom breed of Pigeons.
A flock of Blue headed, speckled Columba livia's. 

I think I will add a little gray to the blue on the head. 
Even though they are O scale they are hard to paint detail on. 

I wonder if I get some more could I paint them up to pass off as seagulls?
What do you think?

Edit, I got to paint eyes on them yet.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Ed, now all you need is a nice custom bridge to put those on


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## James Stoker (May 19, 2013)

big ed said:


> Tell me James, when you make the item you only get detail on one side right?
> 
> Or does it come out with details on both sides?
> 
> ...


You can do two sided molds. With those cactus I only did one side, and even so you can see that the mold actually went around the curve to the backside leaving a negative curve from the front face. The InstantMold is flexible enough to peel away from a negative overhang somewhat. You can also cut around negative overhangs as you are suggesting. InstantMold only sticks to itself when it is very hot, so if you are heating two sticks you want to make two molds with heat them separately. If you need a bigger piece, you just heat however many you need in the same pot and they will fuse. Do not do this in your favorite pan, it can stick to the pan when very hot. Lacquer Thinner dissolves it if you have some stick. And yes, you can simply reheat and use this stuff over and over. Not sure exactly how many times you can use each mold before you need to redo it, but I think you could use it quite a few times before you start losing detail.

Here is a video showing how to make a two piece mold.

Edit: Youtube embed problem- I made a hotlink above to that Vid instead.

And here is another thread where I was discussing IS/GS a week or so ago.










You can see that the mold wrapped around the cactus in this pic before I trimmed the flash off of the GS copies.

Those are good looking pigeons. Please keep us filled in with whatever you try! :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

OK, Thanks James.
I will have to digest all of this. 

And I still would have to find a hard copy to copy, back to square one for the birds but for other things that looks like a great way to copy. :smilie_daumenpos:

My birds flew the cook and took a trip to the sea shore. 

Here towards the end,
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=13154


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