Large Scale Central

DIY Figure Master Class found

I’ve been using the WAYBACK MACHINE again today in search for “how-to DIY figures”, and I came across many ancient LSC posts; some of which had not been commented on for 15 years! I found a number complimentary references to fellow named Chris Walas, who does special effects for the movies. He has also done a master class on G-scale figures.

To my absolute surprise, the links introduced me to the MLS site. The links were broken and when I searched for him on the MLS main page, nothing came up. Googling Chris’s name ultimately brought me back to MLS site and to Dwight Ennis, who has provided a back-up link to these Master Classes his own site.

Here is a link to MLS. Master Classes There are 4 links to PDFs that can be downloaded.

Ironically Dwight has a lot of interesting links to his site, but no home page so nocrrr.com will not lead you to his other pages. You need to find him on the MLS site.

Ah yes the great MLS purge strikes again… Those where the days.

Was the great purge and the great schism related to the Photobucket thing?

No. The Photobucket thing refers to a point at which Photobucket refused to allow pictures on their site be displayed through links on other site. That policy broke the photos on millions of posts wold-wide, not just on the train forums.

We have our own share of broken photo links on old posts made prior to a recent software upgrade. Unlike other forums, our BD did his best to import things, but he couldn’t fix everything. It is possible for the original poster to fix broken links on old posts that refer to external photos. Bob (BD) has also archived several photo storage pages that used to be maintained for users of this site, so it is possible that lost photos from that source might be found.

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The great MLS purge was back when Shad the original owner of MLS sold his site to a 3rd party and everything was lost. A few of us saw the writing on the wall coming and slowly migrated over to LSC (there’s still a few folks that the great schism has not been crossed). Then when MLS switched hands photos and links got lost, entire threads ruined.

Then as Jon has said Bob upgraded the site here and a smaller version of the photos got lost. But unlike MLS Bob actually tried to fixed them and didn’t ignore the issue.

I’m sure given enough time we could all come up with great stories about the rift between MLS and LSC back in the day. There was some hard core folks that wouldn’t be caught posting on the opposite site.

Guess we need to include the MLS and LSC or even that name that shall not be mentioned ever again forum into the history of large scale trains…

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yes, i just tried his pages on http://4largescale.com/
site is still up, but his pics are gone. what a pity!

last time i remember, he posted a whimsy “fish-train” on MLS. that was about 11 years ago, i think.

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Did MLS have any Amtrak within their “Master Class” ?

Would that name happen to be Rooster or am I safe from being a test bench at a plunger factory ?

No not your name but the name of a forum long defunct… The OG forum for large scale. :roll_eyes:

Yikes!

So it’s not just broken links…
It’s severely crippled sites as well… Korm’s link to long forgotten memories of G-scale past is a perfect example. I wonder how much has been lost to the hobby in the LSA. (Large Scale Apocalypse)?

Archeologists in the future are going to have a difficult time figuring out why there were so many G-scale forums as well. :crazy_face: So glad I didn’t have to work through the Google list to end here. But I’m drifting off my own thread…

…some of you guys have very realistic g-scale people on your posts that I think might be of LSC members. Would you share them here and label who they are, and what they do on your railway?

As has been said, I do have many of the post photos so even if they are missing in an old thread I can sometimes dig them up and fix the posts.

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Yes actually… Amtrak Master Class

But if you back search it, there is a link to the Amtrak Master Class.

Thanks Bill. I began with MLS but hadn’t seen that article, very helpful.

I was one of the guys who jumped the MLS ship after its purchase from Chad and subsequent cratering of files. And though they seem to have been recovering and improving, I’ve not had the bandwidth to post on a second forum. And I’m fine with that. I especially appreciate all that Bob does to keep LSC not only up and running but also very up to date.

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that, plus a profound conflict of interests is the reason for the disapearence of information (specially pics)

one thing in common for all:
forum members die or disapear (sooner or later)
private websites as well.
picture storage sites die or are “updated”.
forums die or are updated.

the other common idea:
everybody wants the information guarded in “the best way”

the problem is the differing individual definition of “the best way”.

the best way for a forum is, to have all the pics stored at the forum - in case the outside sources get lost.

the best way for a forumposter is to have the pics stored on his own space* and link the pics - in case a forum gets lost. (*online or offline)

(the worst way, IMHO, are pics stored at a so-called “free” provider)

this plus “modernization” destroy our common goal of intact archives.

for different (valid) reasons forums now and then are changed or updated to newer software.
“safety” being an important cause. - so they get blessed with the “security protocol”.
(the https thingy)

while this protocol smartly adds by itself the “s” to new pics uploaded to the forum, its first action, when a forum is updated, is to block all thousands of former pics as a possible threat.

to fix that, every poster has to edit each and every of his own posts with pics.
the fix is easy enough: “the same applies for repairing the old posts. adding the “s” and delete the round brackets.”
but that means EVERY poster! including those that died, or simply left the forum.
(not to mention the still active posters, that can’t muster the eagerness and patience to edit hundreds or even thousands of old posts)

so for you, as newcomer there are just two options:
forget the pics, that were on defunct forums and spaces and open the pics, that are blocked, in a new window.

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I’m old enough the remember Chris’ figures classes. I bet there are a few figures on current member’s RR that were made from his processes.

MLS has a very active Live Steam group, so some of us stuck around and post on both. I try to put live steam stuff on MLS unless I think it is of interest here.
MLS also has a good SEO system (Search Engine Optimization) so it gets new people constantly. Luckily there are a couple of good LGB reapir/dealers to answer their questions!

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Korm
Are you saying to open a new tab and copy the page and remove the “s” from the https// to open the pictures?

no, just the other way round.
i and many others had linked pics that are just http.
these pics are not visible anymore, because the forum blocks them.

so, if i now revisit one of my own - old - posts, i can still edit them.
there i see:
(http.–kormsen.info-folder-picname)
or with some (random?) letters before the bracket:
xyz(http.–kormsen.info-folder-picname)

if i remove brackets and letters and add the infamous “s”
https.–kormsen.info-folder-picname

the old pic will show again in the post.

the bad news: you as reader can not edit my posts.
only the original poster can edit his own posts - and pics.