HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
Posted
Full Member
Applying Scenery materials to Foam bases Pt 2
By Several Modellers
If I am doing a small area, I might skim-coat it first with a thin mix of Gypsolite. It is a gritty plaster and gives me a rough surface that breaks up the flatness of the foam. ( Ron Perkins)
I do not like flat surfaces in general. They only look right for towns or lawns. For everything else, I want some small elevation changes to make the surface look more natural. (Kevin Bannister)
I prefer to use a skim coat of plaster or drywall compound to smooth out the surfaces particularly to eliminate any joint lines between blocks or layers of foam. If you can see the horizontal layers of the foam, that really destroys the effect for me. (Chris Van Der Heide)
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Repairing a stripped thread
By Johann Weiser
If you strip a thread from a bogie bolster or similar plastic hole, when you are ready to put the screw in, put some of Testor's putty (or other brand) upside down till it dries to a tacky consistency. Then put a screw in place. When your putty is dry, you should then be able to withdraw the screw gently and let it dry fully.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Using Masonite as Fascia
By Roger Johnson
In my experience, sealing or priming on Masonite is not necessary and I live in a humid area. My un-sealed un-primed fascia has been up over a year with no problems at all. Just two coats of good interior latex egg shell finish wall paint.
I used a dark green paint. The only time priming might be in order would be if you were going to have a light final coat, in which case a light grey flat finish paint would be a good primer.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Using Foam offcuts as a painting aid
By John Jamieson

If you are cutting foam for a base board or scenic bases, I actually use scraps of the blue foam to hold my models while painting with solvent based rattle can paints. To my surprise the paints do not"eat" the foam. I have used several different brands of paint and the foam stands up very well, to my disbelief!
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
If you are cutting foam for a base board or scenic bases
By Several Modellers
Foam is making a case for dimensional stability and light weight for both baseboards and scenery bases. You should cut the boards with the sharpest knives to keep the beads to a minimum. Collect the beads and foam offcuts and colour them in rock colours and use the pieces as talus at the bottom of cuttings and rock outfalls.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Foam for Coal Loads
By Mike Lehmann
Real coal does look great over a nicely shaped base. It can be a bit messy, because even if glued well, you will always loosen some when handling it to load and MT the car. One way around that is to go with cast resin or plaster that's painted black if it isn't already. I have a bunch of those I use in my standard gauge drop-bottom GS gondolas. Plus a few cars come with a load.
What I usually do now is use Black Sponge or filter Foam. One advantage it has is it doesn't tend to show dust much. You can get a big sheet for $7 or $8, enough to cut maybe 20 Narrow Gauge cars, or about 10 standard gauge loads. With British 4 wheelers, you should be able to get 30 wagons worth or so! Where you can see through it around the edges, it's obviously foam. Once it is in the car, you don't see that fringe effect for the most part. In fact, it just looks like coal from 2' to 3' away. It is also very light, a real consideration in NG, less so in SG. Being foam and light, I can usually pluck it out of a car to "unload" it with the tip of an uncoupling pick. This saves a lot of irritating rerailing, particularly on my NG s. section. Being a woodworker, I understand the attraction of the wood loads. Just offering an alternative that is super fast to make, cheap, and operates well.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Using MEK for Styrene Kits
By Wayne Toth
I use MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone) because it is a very effective cement for styrene, but but it is highly volatile, that is, it evaporates much faster than the old-style lacquer thinner. This makes it a little more difficult when working on long joints or over large areas, as its volatile components may be gone before the two surfaces can be brought together. When possible, position the parts to be joined as desired (use clamps or other aids to keep things aligned) then use a suitably-sized brush to apply the solvent to the inside (unseen) side of the joint. The same applies when adding small detail parts to larger surfaces, but they can often be held by hand or using tweezers or pliers - the bonding occurs quickly, so you do not have to wait too long. Such joints will continue to off vapours for a short time, with the joint becoming stronger - once cured, the two pieces of plastic become virtually one. Good ventilation when using MEK is a must.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Using a ceramic tile as a Flat Surface
By Greg Wilton
I was at a hardware store just browsing to see what I could re purpose for model railroad use. I found a white gloss finish flooring tile 12"x18" and I said to myself… Self, that would make a good surface to build models on to ensure the bottoms are flat and even. So for $5 I bought it. I am working on a structure kit and it just saved me a ton of frustration.
I used to have a large piece of tempered glass but lost it in a move. This seems to work just as well.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Applying small amounts of ground foam
By Robert Weiner
Many times I want to apply a very small amount of ground foam in a small area. I have found that using plastic squeeze bottles works well and the bottles do not cost much money.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Safety when using grout for scenery
By Ewan Butler and Don Hanley
I treat grout and other powders the same way, mix them outside standing on the windward side. Although the small amounts we use in modeling are not likely to hurt us there's no reason to breathe them in either (Ewan Butler)
If you are concerned, get some of the dust masks when you usethe product. They do not stop all of the very fine particles, but they keep most of them out of your lungs. Minor exposure is not a problem. (Don Hanley)
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Removing Glue and Ballast from recycled points
By Rob Spangler
Assuming the ballast is adhered with nothing more than white glue, soaking in plain water (or water with a small amount of detergent added) should help. Spray water on the track and wait at least a few minutes for it to seep in. An old toothbrush and wet/dry vacuum can be used to remove ballast as it comes loose. If you aren't planning to pull the track up, this process may need to be repeated a few times. If you removethe track, immersing the pieces in water can eventually remove nearly every trace of ballast.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
When you are constantly losing small tools and gauges
By Peter Herron
I do not know about you guys, but I am forever setting stuff down on the layout under construction and then not being able to find it. The item I kept not finding was my NMRA gauge and a razor saw. Solution: A strip of Dayglo Orange duct tape on the handles or face of the gauge make things easy to see in dimly situations.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Keeping Dust down on Rolling stock
By Graeme Nitz
A friend in Australia had a gadget over the entrance to all his staging yards to blow the dust off his freight cars. It was a piece of 1/2" brass tubing bent in 2 right angles to form a "U" shape mounted upside down over the entrance to each yard. Along the inside he drilled a series of 1/16" holes and connected tube to a compressor blowing at about 10PSI. no more dust sitting on the cars. As a refinement he later added a valve and track detection so that the air was only blowing when a train was present. I might add the compressor was in a separate location so that the noise was absent.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
A Cheap Rocky Outcrop
By Robert Houghton
I have a spot on my layout where the slope is too steep. I decided that I wanted a rock wall there. I also decided that I did not want the rock wall to cost too much so I decided to try some thing new to make a stratified rock outcrop.
At the point where the rock outcrop was to appear I added a coat of lightweight spackle/polyfilla. Once the filler had dried (or so I thought), I used a wire brush to add 'strata' to the filler. A big gap appeared in the strata because I did not wait long enough for the filler to dry. After painting the area around the gray 'strata' with my standard 'ground' color, I added ground foam (some of which filled in the gouged area nicely, I think) and static grass mat material.The same kind of rock 'strata' can be done directly onto (into?) expanded foam insulating board. My trusty strata carving tool was the wire brush. Just a few passes can give decent results, but it is a task that is best done outside or with the vacuum cleaner handy.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Fixing Point motors to Foam Baseboards Pt 1
By Milt Panton
I use Woodland Scenics glue (A PVA based glue) and long t-pins to mount the tortoise directly to the foam. The t-pins hold the tortoise until the glue dries, after which they can be removed. I put a heavier wire on it than comes with the package because of the flex associated with depth of the foam. I previously tried double-stick foam tape, but it failed on a few of the tortoises, so I resorted to only the glue.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Fixing Point motors to Foam Baseboards Pt 2
By Will Hobbs
When I used to use under layout turnout machines, I would cut small squares of Luan,soundboard,orother 1/8" boardand glue them to the foam under the layout with PL300.The bigger square you can use, the better as it gives more surface for glue to help resist torsional stress. I put a couple screws in to hold it until the glue dries. You can cut the slots before you glue to make it easier and then justscrew the machine up to it. PL300 is the best stuff ever for working with foam.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Making Labels for Fascia Panels
By Dave Husman
I use Excel for making labels rather than using word. It has all the same fonts and colours but is is really easy to put borders around the labels. I laminated them and attached them to the fascia with double sided tape. I use Excel or Open Office Calc to generate all sorts of forms including switch lists, train orders, clearances, train registers etc.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Making Track Diagrams for Fascia Panels using Word.
By Rob Spangler
I use Word for track diagrams. The Drawing Tools come in very useful for these I cut them out on a paper cutter and laminate to the fascia with rubber cement, which makes them simple to remove if need be. For smaller tags on car card boxes I use Word to create boxes then fill them in.
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
Cutting Plastic when Kit Bashing
By Several Modellers
I heartily endorse using Zona or other fine razorsaws (where possible) for kitbashing cuts. My preference is to lay masking tape over the area where the cut will be made, then draw with a #3 pencil (or similar well-sharpened hard lead point) on the tape to locate my cut line first, as a visual aid. (Ron Lake)I also use a razor saw (Zona is one manufacturer, there are others) and scribe/mark lines, then use the razor saw to cut close to those lines and then file down to the lines. I bought a granite floor tile at a home improvement store and use that as a flat surface to sand on. Its rigid, very flat and you can put wet wet-dry sandpaper on it without hurting anything. I do a lot of wet sanding to the final marks. (Des Hockley)
If I have to make very rough cuts to hack away large chunks of something I will also use a cutoff wheel in a Dremel or a band saw with a fine blade. (Dave Husman)
Last edit: by xdford
Posted
Full Member
LED's in Signals
By Randy McKenzie
I took the cut off disk on a dremel tool and sanded the face of T3 LEDs flat for signals. I carefully sanded them. The result for the signals was removing the round end and the light looks more like a signal light with the bright centre and dim around the edge.This should also work on the larger sized LEDs. Be careful sanding tho, do it outside or consider a mask. Its plastic and not good to breathe the dust.
Last edit: by xdford
1 guest and 0 members have just viewed this.