Visit - Sugar Cane Claw (Item Number ODCLAW) in a 1:50 scene - Northwest Dragline Model 25-D by Spec Cast

Copyright 2020 Nicholas Kalis

Visit

While I model the Oahu Sugar Company in Fn3 (1:20.3 scale), this scene is 1:50 scale in an effort to employ reduced scale. This term may seem odd as most model railroad authors would call this forced perspective. Yet, forced perspective is really a different animal.

This crane is a 1:50 scale Northwest Dragline Model 25-D by SpecCast; it was produced for the 2009 Toy Truck'n Construction Show - a modeler and collector convention - as their show model. This model - a hard-to-find item - is of die-cast metal construction.

I replaced its original bucket with Model Tech Studios Built Up Item Number ODCLAW O scale logging crane claw www.modeltechstudios. (ouch at $28.00),com who performed the weathering. Another example of how a model railroad can only be built with compromises. Until I get the chance to scratch build a perfect claw, this one will serve as a stand-in - and one that no visitor has ever complained about.

My modeled sugar cane (visible in the above photograph) was modeled by de-constructing an imported hand broom. The tops of the straw were painted green. I then planted the straw into my pink foam landscape; not a perfect depiction of sugar cane but good enough. 

My backdrop painted by Katherine S. Kalis is made of ten-foot-long sheet styrene. Notice some trees on the horizon.

Revised November 26 2020

Revised February 22 2025