Water Well - KMart purchase Wall - This has snow "blobs" Coca Cola Christmas Figures - Very nicely detailed. Deer - White snow bases. Blacksmith - Very nice details although he's a bit small.

Modifying Christmas Figures

Starting just after Labor Day, many of the local shops start getting Christmas figures and buildings.  Lemax figures can be found at Michael's and Loews.  Walmart and K-Mart also have wonderful figures.  Most of these can easily be used on Large Scale Layouts with little of no modifications.  The bad thing about some is the "blob" of snow that are cast with the figures and items.

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The best tool to remove these "snow" blobs is the best tool for Large Scale modelers - the Dremel.  Here you see a variable speed Dremel and the 2 rotary sanding heads I use to take off the "snow".  Use a very high speed if you have a variable speed Dremel

After you have removed the offending white snow blobs, you should then take the edge of the rotary sanding head and add texture to the base.  Use different angles and various "cuts" into the plastic to simulate the current base.  Note that the tree trunk has also been worked on. Just tap the top edge of the rotary sander head on the portions to be reworked.  This material is some type of plastic.  It is apparent by the smell as you grind it off.  I would also suggest wearing safety glasses when you are doing this.  This "plastic" is very thick.  These figures will beak in dropped on a hard surface but they are not as brittle as ceramic.

After finishing up with the Dremel, it's time to repaint.  I used Testors enamel paint on this piece.  Since this is an enamel paint, I thinned it with turpentine.  I used Testors "wood", "military brown", "grey" and "sand" to get some of the colors back.  A layered approach is best.  Above the "wood" color was used.

Here you see the particular Lemax figure I got at Michaels.  A mom bear, a cub and a tree.  I started to remove the "blobs" of snow with the dremel that I own. Note how predominant the snow is on the cub on the right.

Here is the finished bear.  On the right, you can see how the bear was startled by a steam engine as she was sniffing around the cabin. These figures are all extremely well detailed and generally are much cheaper than buying some of the Large Scale figures that are currently being sold specifically for train layouts.  There are some buildings, bridges, boats, walls, lights...a plethora of items. See the links below for some other items.

Water Well - KMart purchase Wall - This has snow "blobs" Coca Cola Christmas Figures - Very nicely detailed. Deer - White snow bases. Blacksmith - Very nice details although he's a bit small.

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What you need. Dremel Tool. Cylindrical Sanding heads Safety Goggles Outdoor paint Brush Lemax figures or something similar