2026 Mik’s Build Challenge, Post your Glamor Shot Photos HERE for Voting

[Dave_Taylor]

Dave_Taylor

Feb '26

PLEASE DO NOT POST COMMENTS ABOUT BUILDS IN THIS THREAD.

Post them in the individual build threads.

This thread is for pictures of the builds for voting.

Each participant needs to post his Glamor photos and comments of his finished or unfinished challenge build.

Please identify who you are, and what you built, and any other comment you would want to tell about your build.

Please keep this thread clean of comments about the builds.

And limit posting to the participants of Mik’s build Challenge 2026.

[Cliff_Jennings]

I’m Cliff, and here’s my Very Large Nugget Transport Car.

This is a 1:20.3 scale car (due to the figures), and the nugget was carefully made to 20.3:1.

The nugget is authentic.

After some linguistic negotiation with Korm, the long name was determined to be:
Großgoldklumpenoderklieneeisbergeisenbahnschwertransportwagen
(big ass gold nugget or itsy bitsy iceberg heavy railroad transport car).

I’d bought a contour-measuring tool for nugget supports, but ended up not using it. So, cost = $0. However, I’m making $0.15 whenever someone kisses the beak.

https://youtube.com/shorts/O2MtFMpOcm0

[VicSmith]

Vic Smith’s Darjeeling Streamliner. Based on a real (zany) locomotive. Built on a Lil Big Hauler loco, The passenger cars i had previously made from old toy train car. Total costs approx $15.

- YouTube

Link to building log:
https://largescalecentral.com/t/vics-2026-mik-challenge-darjeeling-streamliner/85761/81

[Turbo4whl (Wayne Powell)]

Here is my Flux Capacitor build:

Practice makes better, still learning.

Link to build

[Chriswalas]

Here’s my Jabberwock loco and cars. I had a blast doing this one. I could have brought this in for $O, but I wanted a different color for the caboose; so out of pocket expense… $8.99 for a can of spray paint. Every car has at least one LED, the loco has 12.

[Todd_Brody]

EMBARK DOG PARK

With the recent weather, the lighting has not been conducive to taking pics with any depth of field…,

Still…, in the past few years, we had taken in a couple rescue dogs and these now take most of my time and attention. In addition to the garden railroad, one of my other passions is vintage Corvettes. So why not “merge” dogs and cars and see what that would “yield?”

One takes their dog to the “dog park” expecting a park-like setting with trees and grass to play on. But when one takes their car to the “auto park” they expect something quite different, such as parking spaces and even a parking structure. So…, what if:

- YouTube

- YouTube

And if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a poop-load.

- YouTube

Total cost was $21.32 including sales tax.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

I hope yall get a kick out of this build. It surely is a shoe in for the funkiest, wackiest conveyance this or any other RR has ever seen!

I put my best foot forward and actually finished the Boot early but still wanted to build something so I built a facade of the original LL Bean factory. The Boot and Building go together nicely I think. I did have to finish the building after the end of the challenge so don’t count that as part of my build. In total, a pair of boots $17 (used one) a pack of air dry clay $4 (didn’t use much) and the rest I had on foot… I mean hand, on hand.

- YouTube

[Eric_Mueller]

Team Mueller proudly presents Nekobasu (Cat Bus) from the Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro.” We documented the build here Mueller MIK 2026 – Totoro’s Cat Bus. To review, the body is scrap foam, the carriage is from scrap wood and spare trucks, the whiskers are twist ties, the rat-lamps are clay, and the legs from spent rocket motor casings. We had to buy the head, also of foam, and some of the felt, so the cost was probably about $15.

Today, Y.D. and Kid-zilla put a tropical railroad spin on the sequence in the movie where the girls Sachi and Mei (played by our 1:24 citizens) give Totoro (a Y.D. crocheted creation of several months back) an umbrella, and Totoro calls Nekobasu out of a dark and rainy woods in rural Japan.

Sachi is offering her umbrella to Totoro, who had been using a leaf to shed the rain.

Nekobusa glides to a stop in front of the station.

A pair of magical rats, one shown in the close-up below, serve as marker lights.

Finally, Nekobasu swishes his tail as he waits for Totoro to board…

This was a fun project that the 1:1 crew passed amongst themselves as fit their fancy, their interests, and their skills. It will be fun staging Nekobasu around the Triple O in the years to come!

Mahalo (Thanks) as always to @Dave_Taylor for hosting the contest and for the many modelers who shared their creativity and their craftsmanship over the last several weeks! Good luck to all!

On Behalf of Team Mueller,
Eric

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

Here is my build, “LAST LEVIATHAN”

It is a Mad Max inspired locomotive based on a LGB F7. I had a LGB “Toy Train” crane and a pair of VW kombi vans that went into the build. I used brass and ABS out of the scrap box for parts. I bought a few bits and bobs here and there including a can of chrome paint, the total for the engine was about $22. Including the War Boys figures, that brings the total to a little over $26.

Here is the cover art from the 80s movie that should have been made…I’m still working on the movie trailer, hope to post it later this week. The rain this weekend put a damper on filming.

and the future feature - “Last Leviathan v. Snowpiercer”

[Sawburner (Mark Lockburner)]

M&M RR build challenge for 2026. Based on a New Bright engine and tender, I took most of the bodies off and started from scratch. I used wood, PVC, brass,and some aluminum can. They speared a cow for meat, BBQ tonight. Thanks to @Dave_Taylor for doing this, it’s fun and gets me to do some thing I would probably not do other wise, my second time participating. No $$ spent.

[Rooster]

First and foremost a big thank you as always to Dave Taylor for continuing to take the time and keep the “Mik Challenge” all together for us here at LSC.

I personally remember Mik and when he joined LSC. I also remember how the whole challenge started and sorta understood his thoughts. So maybe I’m ahead of the game on that. I now have a stack on washer and dryer now so I cannot add any of those type of pictures in his memory.

With that said I will add my 2026 Build Challenge “Limpid”.
It is an interior insert that will fit into any Aristo Smoothside or (untested but should work Streamliner).

No money spent

No 3D printing

No laser cutting

Just making junk outta junk.

Most of this was done with no power tools at all (but they do make it easier at times).

The build can be reviewed below.

Rooster's 2026 Mik Build > "Limpid"

SO with that said this is what I got for 2026 Mik. I feel pictures say a 1,000 words and besides they are nice for guys like me that cannot read very well. As you know it’s just an interior but a “goofy one” that will slide into any Aristo Smoothside car. Haven’t tried the Streamliiner yet but it probably will as well. Staying in the spirit of Mik I spent “zero” money as I had all the raw materials on hand. I will also note that all this work could be easily done with out fancy tools and can …