HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Caution on Using Silicon Sealants
By David Peters
Just beware that all silicone sealants are not the same. The fumes from some silicone sealants can kill a small electric motor in a model. You can laugh and scoff if you like but I have seen it done. A friend converted an old Athearn model to a can motor drive and used some silicone sealant to hold the motor in being very careful not to get silicon sealant near drive shafts or bearings. It held the motor in alright and under test without the final drive installed, it just would not tick over at all or if it did sluggishly. He thought it might have been a dud motor because it worked perfectly before on the work bench, so he got a new one and used the same silicon on it again. The motor was test run on the work bench before hand and worked beautifully but after the silicone had set fully again the motor would not run the best at all. The only common factor was the silicone sealant used on it. No there were no shorts on it either we checked for them as well. This was also pointed out in a Model Railroader magazine a few years back.
As a guide, the vinegar smelling ones will kill any thing electronic or electrical they are near due to the fact that the fumes given off during curing are acidic.
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Material For Making a Control Panel
By Robert Farrell
I used .080" aluminium with white enamel finish from a local sign shop, cut to size. It is thick enough to remain flat over a 24" long panel and very easy to drill (and tap if needed for small screws). I made my panel artwork in a graphics program (Coreldraw) and had it printed at a local print shop from a pdf file. I am very satisfied with all my panels. I have another large one for my turntable/roundhouse yard area as well as a few smaller ones at local switching areas.
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Weighting Flat Cars and Open Vehicles
By Jeffrey Wimberley
I cut up lead flashing into appropriate size pieces and glue them into the spaces in the flat cars frame, hide them inside loads, remove the steel weight and replace it with a lead sheet, whatever it takes. In a gondola, a lead sheet can be put in and painted to look like the floor of. In empty hoppers, the bottoms of the bays can be lined with lead.
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Safety with Lead
By Dave Nelson
I purchased some sheets of lead at a swap meet and they may well be flashing. The guy who sold them had carefully wrapped them in newspaper to avoid direct contact. I use the lead to replace the steel weight on cars that would otherwise be underweight. Once I cut the lead to size I thoroughly cover it with black spray paint again to minimize direct skin contact. I am also thorough about washing my hands after wards and I do not drink or eat anything while at my workbench.
I also believe that smoking is a bad idea - perhaps I should say, an even worse idea than usual while handling lead.
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Paved Areas for Yards and Industries Pt 1
By Dave Husman
There are several ways you can model paved areas common in Yards, Industries and Street trackage.
Sheet styrene - go to a plastics distributor and for $20 or less buy a 4'x6' or so piece of .040 or .060 sheet styrene depending on your rail size and paint with the desired colour finish.
Poster/mat board - go to a hobby/craft store and buy some rigid mat board which may even be close to a concrete colour
Plaster - use balsa wood to make forms and flangeways, then pour a soupy mix of plaster in the forms and use a straight edge to screed off the surface.
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Paved Areas for Yards and Industries Pt 2
By Mike Lehman
I use thin model aircraft plywood, 1/32" usually. It is easy to cut to follow a curve. The texture is rougher than would be strictly scale appropriate, but like ballast which is sometimes a little larger than life, actually makes a better impression on the eye on the layout unless you are very close.
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Painted Brick Signs
By Greg Cashill
If you want a sign to look like it is painted onto brick, then you need to first thin the sign by sanding the back of the paper with sandpaper–I use fine grade flint sandpaper for this. Then apply the glue, place the sign on the building where you want it, and emboss it down into the brick pattern with some sort of tool.
I have a plastic "stick" that was given to me by a friend (a drink swizzle stick?) which is perfect for this as well as applying dry transfers or burnishing tape in position before painting something.
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What Colour is a tree actually?
By Several Modellers
Try giving it a coat that is a bit brown, then give it a thinned wash of black over that. The black should settle into the nooks and crannies, making them stand out more. (Steve Surridge)
Using spray cans I did a primer grey followed with a dusting of brown and a even lighter dusting of black. I think I nailed it pretty good. (Brent Treadwell)
I would go with a darkish brown, or no brighter than a medium brown, as my base coat, mostly to ensure the shadows stand out, but that they are not black. Then atop that, I would wipe the surface 'bumps' with a light grey. I would use a piece of paper towel or something that wouldn't have bits of lint entering and lightening the shadowed grooves. Just a light wipe here and there to simulate the thicker older outer bark.
There are some pines that are darker, and some that are clearly mostly brown. So mix -em up, but not amongst each other, They grow in swathes. (Crandell Overton)
Last edit: by xdford
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Cheap Loads
By Kevin Coghlan
I made up a imaginary cement factory to provide traffic on my layout just “off scene_. I made up that the company used the cheap reliability of the train to ship its giant boulders from its quarry to the factory. So I went to the park close to my house, picked some very rough pebbles and small rocks to fit my scale. I loaded my hoppers and gondolas. They look very realistic, and its absolutely free! Because of the weight, I did not have to ruin my cars by gluing in the load so I could pick up on a whole new scenario with different scavenged materials in future!
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Cardboard Base for Scenery
By Bill Siggelkow
For fast construction of cardboard web scenery base, use a clamp-style staple-gun instead of glue and clothespins to connect the cardboard strips. While an office stapler may work, the industrial-strength staple gun will be easier to work with and can use larger staplers.
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Keeping DCC Wires correctly polarised Pt 1 By Bram Bailey
I have a battery operated radio that I have modified by removing the battery back and splicing about 2 feet of 20 gauge wire to each polarity of the battery. These wires are equipped with alligator clamps. I connect one polarity to the right rail and the other to the left rail of the area in which I am working…or you can make the connection to the track bus…either way works. Turn on your favorite station…I typically listen to the local country station. Then start hooking up your wires.
As soon as you cross one, your entertainment will suddenly go quiet. As soon as you disconnect the offending wire your tunes will be playing again. This way you know before you make the solder joint. As much as I try, sooner or later I will get a wire mixed up. When I am doing this it typically happens about once an hour.
The radio has saved me countless hours of troubleshooting.
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Keeping DCC Wires correctly polarised Pt 2
By Chris Van Der Heide
One other thing to help keep things straight is to use at least two colours of wire, so that the left rail is always one colour and the right rail another. At the club we model an east-west line so the rule is the "north" rail is always white (as in the "Great White North"…easy to remember. Helps keeps things straight underneath and make it easier to make the connections, and if you have got the radio going too, then you are pretty much golden.
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Keeping DCC Wires correctly polarised Pt 3
By Several modellers
Unless you are going to tag every wire under the layout, colour coding is Essential. I use red for south rail feeders, green for north rail. 14 to 10-gauge wire serves as the DCC bus–white for south, and black for north rail. Regular house wire cable is fine for this. As I am modelling an actual railway line, north and south rails are easy to determine. (Steve Lucas)
I also use Green for wiring Frogs as (real life) Frogs (that go croak…) are a green colour… makes it easy to remember! (Pete Brown)
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Using Foam for a Base board… a few hints
By Andrew Cocker
A few lessons learned while building my foam based layout.
1: Get a cheap serrated bread knife from Wally world or similar for cutting. Box knives will just snap at the slightest twist. A flooring saw also works good but produces a hell of a lot of mess.
2: For scenery grab a Woodland Scenics hot foam cutter.
3: Keep a vacuum cleaner ready at all times for cleanup.
4: A surform or course sandpaper works well for smoothing and finishing scenery.
5: Don’t use the white crumbly foam, it sucks.
6: Avoid using the extruded foam that is designed for attic insulation or has foil backing. This stuff isn’t actually extruded but mould formed. It tends to sag after a while as it’s not as dense as the blue or pink foam.
7: If you are using Tortoise motors just mount them on a thin bit of ply then cut a hole in the foam then counter sink around the hole so the ply sits flush with the top of the roadbed. Simples
8: For laying roadbed or track use clear caulking as its not solvent based.
9: You can also use non-solvent contact adhesive.
10: Have fun.
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Using Side cutters fitting Tortoise motors
By Peter Donaghy
I have wrecked a couple of near-new Xuron rail cutters trying to snip the tortoise wires before adding a decent pair of side cutters to my modelling toolbox and also used the Dremel cutting disc in some difficult spots. Xuron cutters and other types of end cutting pliers are great with nickel silver rail but blunt quickly cutting plastic and copper wire so keep the tools for their purpose.
Last edit: by xdford
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Mounting Building Flats to a Wall
By Jeff Dombrovski
You can mount Velcro or thin magnets on both sides (the wall and the building flat). You can find both at a craft store. the magnet can come on a roll that is really thin. Mounting your flats this way will also give a small degree of three dimensional appearance.
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Using a Tile as a Work Surface
By Richard Vaughan
For a flat work surface particularly when gluing styrene pieces, I find that a square of glazed ceramic tile is best and if you get grey or tan it is easier to see. And NOTHING sticks to the glaze that you cannot just peel off. I much prefer this to a piece of (breakable) glass.
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Glass as a Work Surface Pt 1
By Peter Blake
I suggest to try and find an old A4 size photocopier that does not work otherwise as a source…..the platten glass is optically perfect or in other words, as flat as you will ever need for construction purposes and from a safety point of view, the glass itself is heat treated for strength and the edges are ground smooth so no chance of getting some unexpected surgery from it. Your local print shop may have one or two that are being skipped as useless.
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Glass as a Work Surface Pt 2
By Dave Snyder
Just look for old refrigerators set out for disposal, and grab a glass shelf or two. They are tempered glass with polished edges.
Last edit: by xdford
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Pine Tree Making
By Jeff Dombrowski
When I make Pine trees, I use hay bailing twine. soaked in 70 % rubbing alcohol and Green food coloring.
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