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Chris Walas - Fantasy Model Railroader TMTV general discussion
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Frequent poster 555 posts jwhitten Frequent poster 555 posts
jwhitten

With respect to Joe Fugate's initiative to implement a new Freelance column, and his list of categories for model railroad types, I have been racking my brain for a particular modeler that I had seen in the past. Fortunately Ray Dunakin came to the rescue and helped me remember the guy's name-- Chris Walas. Chris is a special effects artist in the movie business (he even has his own Wikipedia and ImDB pages...) Anyway, I saw an old web site of his back in the late 1990's where he was modeling "Fantasy" railroads, including motifs such as Railroads operated Orcs and Trolls, Vampires, and other fantasy creatures. His modeling is very whimsical and fun to look at. Unfortunately, I have not been able to come up with a current web site for him, but Google has a number of images available to at least see. (And it's possible that the Internet Archive has a copy of his old web site someplace, though I haven't yet located it.)

If anybody knows of a more recent posting of his work, I'd sure be interested in seeing it. In the meantime however, here are some random images that I got from Google which illustrate Chris Walas' style of work. (His old web site had a lot of these photos which were captioned and grouped together by "Fantasy Realm").

EDIT: FOUND IT! Here is Chris Walas' "Rogue County RR" web site. Make sure you click on the little photo in the upper left to drop down the menu for the site. It's a little non-obvious. But it's chock full of wonderful pictures, like these!

Enjoy!

John

 
Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in its final days of steam. Heavy patronage by the Pennsy and Norfolk & Western. Coal, sand/gravel/minerals, wood, coke, light industry, finished goods, dairy, mail and light passenger service. Interchanges with the PRR, N&W, WM and Montour.
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jwhitten Frequent poster 555 posts
jwhitten

I also forgot to mention that

I also forgot to mention that I was able to dig up a REALLY, REALLY cool PDF article that Chris Walas did where he details his techniques for making his custom figures. Even if you're not into fantasy railroads, you'll probably REALLY like reading through this. He shows how to build up armatures, use various sculpting mediums to flesh out the bodies, and tools and techniques for making faces and details.

Here is the link to the PDF.

John

 
Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in its final days of steam. Heavy patronage by the Pennsy and Norfolk & Western. Coal, sand/gravel/minerals, wood, coke, light industry, finished goods, dairy, mail and light passenger service. Interchanges with the PRR, N&W, WM and Montour.
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MikeC in Qld Super User 1,066 posts
MikeC in Qld

There's a guy who knows how

There's a guy who knows how to have fun!

My Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628
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Dave K skiloff Prolific poster 4,031 posts
Dave K skiloff

I've got to

show my kids this.  Both are quite into the fantasy genre and would probably appreciate it.  Thanks for posting, John.

Dave
Playing around in HO and N scale since 1976
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Dave Meek Regular poster 404 posts
Dave Meek

Thanks for the find!

Thank's for finding this again, John. After your comment on Ray's thread I had been wracking my brain to remember. Chris' stuff is wonderful and I'm flattered you thought it might have been mine. 

Dave

oter-sig.jpg 
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jwhitten Frequent poster 555 posts
jwhitten

Phantasmagorical

Quote:

Thank's for finding this again, John. After your comment on Ray's thread I had been wracking my brain to remember. Chris' stuff is wonderful and I'm flattered you thought it might have been mine. 

I agree. I'm only sorry that some folks might be put off by the word "Fantasy" in the title and not venture forth to discover his genius for themselves. 

John
Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in its final days of steam. Heavy patronage by the Pennsy and Norfolk & Western. Coal, sand/gravel/minerals, wood, coke, light industry, finished goods, dairy, mail and light passenger service. Interchanges with the PRR, N&W, WM and Montour.
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Tim Latham Regular poster 491 posts
Tim Latham

Wow!

I think its neat!

Tim Latham

Mississippi Central R.R. "The Natchez Route"

HO Scale 1905 to 1935

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/timlatham

 
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skyshooter Regular poster 127 posts
skyshooter

Wow, pretty innovative and

Wow, pretty innovative and different. I like it, a lot like the Craig Bisgeier's 1892 Housatonic Railroad, great fantasy world.
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