Train Your Garden

The engineer of the WESL has entered into an annual model building contest called “The Mik”. Mik was the screen name of a gentleman named Alan Bupp, who posted on a web forum called largescalecentral.com. Mik is unfortunately no longer around; since 2009 his friends on the forum have held a contest each year in January in his honor. Each year has a different theme; it is usually either something that rolls on the rails, or goes alongside the rails on a layout.

This contest is great – it stimulates the mind, spurs people out of their winter doldrums, and results in a lot of activity on the forum – everyone posts progress pics and descriptions of their builds and offers helpful constructive criticism where pertinent. There are folks of all ages and skill levels participating; this engineer is on the lower end of the skill spectrum, to be sure.

This year’s theme is A.W.N.U.T.S. AWNUTS was kind of a viral modeling theme a few years back, it stands for “Always whimsical, not usually to scale”. For the most part, RR modelers attempt to model realistically; the models should closely match their prototypes. Having a theme like AWNUTS permits more fantastical thinking and allows for a bit more creativity.

One of the rules for the Mik is that the challenger must first post a “napkin drawing” showing their plan. Here is mine: Codename Heavy Damage.

It is a “War Rig” in the style of the Mad Max movies, specifically, Mad Max: Fury Road. My title above is from another Mad Max movie- Beyond Thunderdome. Roundy-round is how some large scale modelers describe layouts that complete a loop, enabling the trains to just go around and around. The plan below shows the concept art for the War Rig in the movie.

WESL had a donor F7A locomotive that had some bad front-end damage, so a good candidate for reimagining.

The first thing to do was determine how much room the crane needs to swing at the back of the platform. It turns out 6 inches is the right figure.

The donor crane is from a “toy train” car made by LGB. So, the middle of the F7 train shell had to have 6 inches removed. This is a big deal to this train shop; such a destructive undertaking had not yet been attempted. The top and sides were carefully scribed using a square and level, and then the Dremel team went to work with a cutoff wheel. The cuts were decent and only left a gap of a few millimeters to fill on one side. Most of the cut line will be obscured by detailing on the model.

The fill putty was sanded and then the shell was masked for painting. A matte black undercoat was chosen for the first layer. The front part of the train roof as well as the side vents will be chromed. The roof of the crane and the VW combis will also be chromed. The WESL design engineer decided that the drawing above needed some balance, so there will be two crows nests instead of just one, and the articulating saw may be eliminated. The photo below shows the rough placement of the major pieces for the rig.

More progress was made in the WESL shop over this very chilly January ’26 weekend. A pilot was needed for the rig front end. The lead design engineer considered two main options: 1) something close to the brush guard / plow used in the movie, or 2) something like an elevated, scooped snowplow.

The design team voted and choose the former, but opted to make it more like an old school “cowcatcher” pilot while retaining the character of the build for the movie.

So the initial pieces were cut from brass sheet, including the side pieces and center bar. The pieces were assembled with micro fasteners and then curved to fit the front of the F7.

This assembly was then affixed to the locomotive shell, along with a plastic backplate.

Then vertical tines were added in pairs (after the center tine, which was first), glued to a bottom plate and the backplate at the top.

More tines were added until the full width was built. Then the tines were painted to look like they had been sharpened. Bright silver at the edge, and then a darker silver near the back of the “grind”. A triceratops skull adorns the top of the pilot.

I also made a wrecking ball from a golf ball found on a local course.

More detail and detail painting was done. The skeleton arm and “Valhalla” are just laser printed on weatherproof shipping labels.

The rear of the loco received attention too; the crane deck was framed with cedar. A mini crane tender deck was added behind the crane to hold the extra crane hoist cable and chains. Some drums and a gas can are stored back there too. A small uplink dish sits on the crane counterweight for communication with the Citadel, Gas Town, and the Bullet Farm. These details can be seen a few pictures down.

Finally, the VW combis were mounted to the top deck.

If you look at the “War Rig” blueprints near the top of this post, you’ll notice in the upper right hand corner a side elevation view of the rig and its trailer. There is a transfer bridge that allows the crew to swing from the rear top of the rig to the top of the trailer. The WESL design engineer wanted to include something like this bridge for the crew to use to board (raid) other rail vehicles. So the main bridge element was crafted from poplar. Eventually this will be replaced with an all brass assembly.

These were mounted on brass rods and then side brackets were made from poplar. The assembly was then epoxied to the loco shell. “Do not, my friends…” is a quote from Mad Max: Fury Road.

Chains and railings were added to the bridges. These features permit the raiders to use different parts of the bridge.

The raider above holds a tool used in setting the rails; it is a tool to help the crews muscle the heavy rails into place. But it also looks a bit like a weapon.

More detailing was done to the model. A 1/35 scale machine guns kit was sourced and assembled; these weapons are the main defensive line for the train crew.

It was wired for lights. Some taillights were added as well as a blue light for nighttime operations in the rear crows nest. Bumper tires were added to the rear and sides.

Finally, the crew gets a chance to practice their scary poses. Imagine seeing this thing come out of the dark at you…

Below, a couple of short videos of the rig outside.

A catwalk was needed on both sides up top. This allows the crew to move around more easily. ABS sheet plastic was cut into 6 mm wide strips to simulate 2×6 planks.

Some triangular joists were then cut to go under the planks.

The planks were partially sawed to make each look like three boards. A catwalk was installed on both sides.

The wheel arches on the VW combis needed to be covered. More ABS and hexagon bolts.

These covers were painted. A cross deck was built between the two catwalks.

Above, a small homage to Mad Max director George Miller can be seen by zooming in on the crane boom.

The project was finished (at least for purposes of the Mik contest, these kind of projects are never really finished) with weathering the locomotive. A rust wash was applied to the entire model, and then black and dark brown paint was dry brushed mostly onto the catwalk and crane deck to look like grime and soot. A matte clear coat was then sprayed over the model to help prevent UV and weather degradation of the paint.

The contest building phase ended on Feb 8. Voting is later in February and the winner is to be announced on March 1. There are lots of great competitors, check them out at https://largescalecentral.com/latest

Some bonus content for the build: After consideration, the rig has been named “Last Leviathan”. An 80s movie definitely should have been made about this beast; the VHS cover art as imagined below (thanks AI!)

A future feature, “Last Leviathan v. Snowpiercer”

An imagined scene from “Beyond Roundydome” starring Tina Turner…

Content warning…massive destruction 😁

The fearsome crew terrorizing the townfolk…