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Duck (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

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This is a behind the scenes subpage for Duck (T&F).
 This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information[]

Duck is a fictional standard gauge tank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Duck lives and works on the North Western Railway. He carries the number 8.

Duck first appeared in the second series episode Duck Takes Charge, which first aired in 1986. His last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Thomas and the Inventor's Workshop, which was released in 2021.

Since his introduction, Duck appeared as one of the main core characters up until the seventh series. During the development of the Steam Team, Duck was originally considered to be the eighth member, but was left out to make room for Emily to give a female character a more prominent role. As a result of the stories from the eighth to sixteenth series focusing primarily on the Steam Team, Duck was widely neglected and left absent along with many other characters for several years. He appeared in the twelfth series as a supporting character, but was left absent again when the series moved from live-action model animation to Computer-Generated Imagery. It would not be until the seventeenth series that Duck would return as a major character, sharing a starring role with Thomas in the episode The Thomas Way.

For the remainder of the series since his return, Duck would appear as a major supporting character again, occasionally having a lead role to himself or a minor role in at least one episode per series. The last episode to feature Duck as a major character was the twenty-second series episode School of Duck.

Voice[]

Since his return in 2013, Duck has been voiced by Steven Kynman in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Steven Kynman gives Duck a West Country accent, reflecting his basis' origins.

Behind the Scenes[]

Gauge 1 model[]

Duck's model was custom built with a plastic body shell and used a Märklin locomotive as a donor for the chassis and various parts. It was painted using glossy car body paint and the numbers and letters were custom cut vinyl stickers.

Duck's wheels chassis was sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 55. The front bufferbeam was sourced from the BR 80 and the rear bufferbeam from the BR 55.

The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired.

In the episodes All at Sea, Thomas and Stepney, Fish, Scaredy Engines and Percy Gets it Right, Duck was seen with a lamp. This was powered by a hidden battery pack.

Reference Sheets[]

Series 2[]
Series 3[]
Series 8[]

Faces[]

Sixteen different facial expressions were worn by Duck on screen.[1] The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Some of Duck's faces were duplicated in case the crew needed a face to look dirty and clean on the same day of shooting.

Reference Sheets[]
Usage and Evolution[]
Present Day[]

All sixteen of Duck's faces have been displayed at the 'Clearwater Weekend' event at the Midland Railway Centre in 2022. Duck's duplicate smiling face is owned by Twitter user TomsProps, and his duplicate worried face and duplicate grinning face are owned by Twitter and Instagram user ThomasTankMerch.

CGI Face[]

The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The physical models' moulded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. Duck’s resin faces were only used in background shots. In addition, Duck's face decreased in size in the episodes, Excellent Emily, Gordon Takes a Shortcut and Best Friends.

Model Changes[]

Duck has had modifications throughout the model era. These include:

  • Series 2 (Half-way through):
    • His silver handrails become brass and gained additional stanchions and then became silver again.
    • He gained a visible whistle.
  • Series 6:
    • His paint was given a matte finish.
    • His coupling rod bolts became black.

Present Day[]

After production of the model series wrapped in 2008, most of the models and sets would be put into storage, with some being put on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park. All other models would be logged and referenced from 2010 till early 2011 by HiT Entertainment, from this HiT would decide on which models were to enter storage once again, which would be given to crew members and which to be disposed off. Due to only having one gauge 1 scale model made, Duck's model would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

Duck's model, along with his content face, used to be on display in Canada at Nitrogen Studios. In 2012 the model would be sent back to storage after Nitrogen had departed from the series. His model was set to be shipped over to the Hara Model Railway Museum, but suffered damage during transit and was returned to Mattel's storage unit per the request of Sam Wilkinson. Some time in August 2021, Duck's model was taken to the 'Clearwater Weekend' event at the Midland Railway Centre but only present in the "V.I.P" area along with BoCo, Caroline, Lady, City of Truro, one of the Old Tenders, Toad's scrap model, Diesel 10, the plastic model of Henry and Gordon, Annie and Clarabel's Gauge 3 models, the Sodor Suspension Bridge, the Lighthouse and the Warehouse. The model has a crack on his front pannier tank and visitors were asked to not take photos of the model due to him not currently being ready for full public display. Despite this, in August 2022, the model was fully exhibited at the second Clearwater Event with the same damage from last year, though this time with a different face recreating a scene from Fish along with Henry's plastic model. Alongside the model were all his faces, an unpainted cast, a painted face without eyebrows, and his snowplow. On day two of the event the setup would be revamped to recreate the crash scene from A Close Shave with Duck now having his shocked face. During day two of the event, Duck's model would briefly be moved again to recreate a scene from The Runaway for some photos, however during this Duck would start coming loose from his chassis, this was eventually fixed after the photos were taken.

A spare unused decal sheet for Duck's GWR lettering would also be sold by The Prop Gallery in 2022. This was sourced from a spare unused larger decal sheet from the production of Series 11, which was then cut up and sold individually. Duplicate copies of this sheet are also currently owned by Twitter user TomsProps, a set of spare unused number decals for Duck are also currently owned by TomsProps.

Present Day Ruler Reference Photos[]

Close-up model[]

A larger scale model of Duck was built in the second series. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures. It was also used for close-up whistle shots; smoke would emit from the whistle when required.

The cab was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and reassembled for use of interior shots if required. Unlike most close up models, the one for Duck was built as a complete engine, minus the wheels.

The model was also equipped with an eye mechanism. The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired.

The close-up model of Thomas' happy face was also used on the close-up Duck in the second series episode, A Close Shave.

It appeared in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth series.

In the fourth series episode, Mind that Bike, Duck's close-up model was reused for Percy as his close-up model at the time was an exterior shell and did not have cab controls.

Reference Sheets[]

CGI model[]

MainDuckCGI
DuckCGIRear

In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. In 2013, Duck was created in CGI by Arc Productions. The model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Duck has had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:

  • Series 17:
    • He increased in size and is subsequently a lot larger than his model form.
    • His face returned to its original size permanently.
    • His cheekbones returned, though somewhat less prominent.
    • His running board was painted black, like it was in the Railway Series.
    • Brake pipes and outlets were added on his front and back buffer-beams.
    • He gained a headlamp and a tail lamp. His headlamp is now on his sandbox rather than his running board.
    • He lost the black sandboxes underneath his running board.
    • He also lost the stepladder in the middle of his running board.
    • Rivets on his buffer-beam, footplate and cab were added.
    • The stepladder underneath his cab became smaller than the one on his model form and real life basis.
    • The GWR lettering on his sides has a slightly different font and shadowing.
    • He gained black lining around his cab portholes.
    • He gained a new whistle of the same design as Thomas', but his whistle sound stayed the same.
  • Tale of the Brave:
    • His handrails changed to a darker grey.
  • Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure:
    • His handrails changed back to silver.
    • The rivets on his buffer-beam and cab changed to black.
  • The Great Race:
    • His rivets on his cab changed back to green.
    • He was reduced in size.
    • He lost his buffer-beam rivets, footplate rivets and brake pipe outlets.
    • His buffers are positioned higher.
    • His right-hand front buffer is missing its base and is shorter than his left one.
    • The shadowing around his buffer-beam detail remains as it was before his resize and thus is out of place.
    • His handrails clip through the front of his tank.
    • His coupling hook base clips through his buffer-beam.
    • His tail-lamp is missing and only the shadowing of it remains.
  • School of Duck:
    • The shadow effect on his buffer beams fit correctly around the buffers, brake pipe outlets and couplings.
    • His right-hand buffer regains the missing base and both buffers are now the same length.
    • His coupling hook base no longer clips through his buffer beam.
    • He regained his tail-lamp.
    • He regained his brake pipe outlets.
    • His headlamp increased in size.

Texture variants[]

In addition to his standard livery, at least one additional texture variant exist of Duck's CGI model, that being:

Fonts[]

The following fonts are used on Duck's CGI model:

  • Rosewood Fill ("GWR" lettering)

Note[]

A photograph seen in the seventeenth series episode, The Thomas Way depicts Duck at Paddington station on the Great Western Railway. The image features Duck's television series model from the sixth series episode, Twin Trouble. This is, therefore, the first full CGI episode to feature models from the model era.

Voice Actors[]

References[]

  1. ↑ SeansModels on Twitter
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