I have searched the internet with little luck finding an S scale 4-4-0 or 4-6-0, standard gauge engine, circa 1880. So I need some help figuring out what might be a suitable starting point to begin kitbashing what I need. Naturally there are a couple of requirements so some background is needed.

My other (and primary) hobby is miniature wargaming. I'm currently working on what we would refer to as a display game featuring an old west town populated with 28mm miniatures. 28mm is hard to describe as a scale (and one manufacturer's 28mm miniatures are likely to be a different size than another's) and the arguments about what scale it represents are legendary on some of the miniature forums. Suffice it to say that it falls somewhere between S and O scale. It is larger than S Scale but smaller than 0 Scale and there is a lot of back and forth on whether it should be defined as 1/50th or 1/56th.

I do not need it to operate although free-rolling drivers would be nice, so something that is "broken" will probably work fine for my purposes. I would like to only rebuild the cab to match the miniatures that I have but I can do additional work as needed. I would like to avoid having to re-gauge something which is why I would like to go with an S scale mechanism if possible, but in a pinch I can re-gauge something if that needs to be the starting point.

Detail wise, it doesn't need to be an exact prototype of any particular engine, most miniature gamers will be impressed by anything that is well constructed, sturdy enough to be handled and looks the part. Sturdy enough to be handled is key since it will do quite a bit of traveling to various conventions as well as being handled during games.

So suggestions on something that will work?

Have you concidered some of the "toyish" Christmas train sets as a starting point?
I have one that sounds to be about the size your talking about.
Mine is a 2-6-0 but there are others out there that are different wheel arangements or one like I have could be kit-bashed into a 4-4-0 without to much trouble.

Interesting thought. That might work if I can make it a little less toy like looking.

porthos Wrote:Suffice it to say that it falls somewhere between S and O scale. It is larger than S Scale but smaller than 0 Scale and there is a lot of back and forth on whether it should be defined as 1/50th or 1/56th.

Well, if you are looking for information that fits model railroading at ~1:56 you'd do well to take a look at 55n3.

It has a lot of information on blending S and O scale for 5.5 mm scale.

O gauge at 32mm would work out to broad 6-foot gauge which was common in the late 1800's before most railways converted to standard gauge.

But for standard gauge you would have to custom make your track and rolling stock at ~25.5mm which is a little broader than S-gauge ~22.5mm.

S-gauge is close enough if you're not a stickler....

The Dickens ville set loco would be a good start to the project, as for the toyish look that can be dealt with by repainting the loco after disassembling, these battery op set are usally easy to reassemble. Use flat based paint as it will look more real than the shine of plastic.

check out the blatent toy box cars I kitbashed into On30 box cars with a new coat of paint and swaping out the trucks and adding scale couplers. I am currently stuck on converting a loco similar to the dickens ville into a working On30 loco(need to find a junk 2-6-0 or even a 0-6-0 ho loco as On30 runs on ho gauge which track scales out to be 2 1/2 foot gauge track also called On30 for 30 inches.)