HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Making Industrial Glass
By Phil Sutters
Plasterers' mesh tape can be used for industrial or small domestic window glazing bars. If you want to keep them fairly crisp, stretch the tape across behind the window frame and then install the glazing sheet behind that. If you want a more utilitarian look or perhaps need to glaze a larger expanse, like a north-light window, where the mesh might sag, it can be attached to the 'glass' with Johnson's Kleer or some other non-yellowing varnish.
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Sky - Matte or Satin?
By Several Modellers
Make sure your paint is Flat. You see no shine in the sky and being a vertical surface, dust is not common on most layout backdrops. (Robert Bell)
Keep the blue paint absolutely flat, I do not think anything else would look right and reflection would destroy the illusion of distance. (Kevin Payne)
By all means use the same blue where sky meets water on a coastal scene but use a satin finish on the water part to simulate the reflective nature of water and suggest a horizon (Noel Edmonds)
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Too Much Detail ?
By Kevin Beasley
When I started putting interiors in buildings, I didn't know much of what I was doing. I got some very nice interiors, but I never show them here because all I can see is window frames. Even in HO, typical windows are very tiny. Some illuminated interiors look OK, but photographing just doesn't work. So, I limit my interiors to a few larger windows and use curtains and shades to mask the interiors.
I have one or two structures with almost dollhouse-like interiors with carpets, wallpaper, staircases and Fezziwig furniture, but they can't be seen. Part of doing interiors is learning what can't be seen and not wasting time and money on it.
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Painting Tail Lamps Pt 1
By John Crossley
Paint your markers with a very dark red; if a tail lamp is not lit, the red lens can almost look black in daylight. If you want to get really technical, then mix a much lighter red and paint an arc over the upper part of the lens, as the upper part will reflect the sky, and the lower part the ground. Once you have done that, then varnish, as on small models varnish will give a glint, but it will no't do environmental reflections, which is why they need painting.
For the front/clear lens, do the same as with the red, except use a very dark grey with with a light grey arc, then varnish.
Do not forget to paint any apertures (for checking the flame) black; lots of people forget to paint these and just do them white. BR Tail lamps have them either side.
Once you a're done painting, apply a dark brown wash or some dark brown weathering powders to knock the white back a little bit.
If you are modelling O or larger and you have a really, really steady hand, you can paint a hint of the rings of the fresnel lens (assuming the lamp type has one.)
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Painting Tail Lamps Pt 2
By Several Modellers
For the red lens I always use very dark red or even black, which looks acceptable to me in 4mm scale. (Max Christoff)
For 7mm scale lamps I drill a shallow hole in the lens then paint it dark red. Once dry I then add a blob of Krystal Klear on top to form a lens. Finally gloss varnish over the top. For 4mm you could possibly miss out the Krystal Klear.(Jeremy Alderton)
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Ideas for control knobs for point wires
By Several Modellers
I use toothpaste tube lids with pull rods for controlling points (Max Christoff)
I use Valve caps as used for car tyres. Fill with epoxy and when dry, drill small hole and push on (Ryan Willison)
I use motorcycle spoke nipples with the spoke attached for the push rod to go under the layout. (Andrew Hollis)
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Perspex Fencing
By Several Modellers
Fencing off areas where the next stop is the floor is a prime concern for modellers. I use strips of perspex which I get for free from a picture framers. They are really glad to get rid of less than perfect strips or even sheets of useful sizes that they do not have to pay to remove. My local one even cut the strips into the desired size and all I needed to do was to draw file the edges.
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Painting Rocks and Rock faces Pt 1
By Alan York
I have not been in model building very long, but I got valuable advice that worked from someone on this forum.
They told me to paint everything black first. Then start working up lighter colors from there, but leaving the cracks and crevices black. The lightest colors came last.
It took a lot of work and a lot of blending colors before I got the look I wanted. I actually used about eight different colors blended in different amounts and irregularly brushed on to get the effect I wanted.
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Painting Rocks and Rock faces Pt 2
By Richard Cowman
A little experimentation is probably in order. There are a number of ways and some work better for some, where another works better for someone else. Also different types of rock can take different methods.
A student I mentored was shown this method by his previous teacher and it seemed to look pretty good. He just took a screwdriver, stabbed and gouged the edges of the foam. Then he used a medium gray paint over the whole thing, adding washes later to highlight
I have a foam based layout and I used Sculptamold and plaster in moulds for my rocks. I used commercial molds, ones I made with WS Latex Rubber (picked up local rocks to look like local rocks) and heavy duty aluminum foil, crumpled then smoothed out, made nice looking rocks. Mine are mostly gray based rock, so I used india ink and alcohol washes. Let each application dry before you decide if it is dark enough. For brown rocks I'd get the sepia colored ink. Some rocks around here are nearly black, I will have to experiment to see if I need to paint or if a strong india ink will do it. The one negative I have heard about a painted basecoat (sealing the plaster) is that if it chips, the white plaster shows more than stained plaster.
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Painting Rocks and Rock faces Pt 3
By Delmar Walker
I made two mistakes on my first layout with the rock work (other than having too much rockwork in the first place).
- I should have colored the plaster when I was preparing it. This would allow any future chips to not show up as specks of bright white.
- Even though I had read that you should start out with lighter colors when painting rockwork, I knew better. Ha! It turns out that the paint ended up being much darker as it dried. It is much easier to amend the colors and go darker, than to go lighter…
I had that layout for several years (1994-2008) and regretted those dark colours every day.
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A warning about lighting
By Melvin Perry
I installed fluorescent lighting in our garage for my layout back in 1988. Over the years it really ate up the color on my layout, I had to replace the flocking three times in 25 years.
I cutover to LED lighting a few years ago and hopefully that put an end to the fading.
The sealing material that I overpainted the rocks with really looked nice for a couple of years but over time the fluorescent lighting took its toll on the color of everything.
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Paving with Points/Turnouts
By Jim Owens
If you are using standard turnouts it is relatively easy to use card or styrene to represent the concrete. One of the issues, though, is cutting the plastic inserts to fit around all of the molded in plastic guardrails. It is a lot of trial and error. You will also end up leaving some pretty wide openings to allow the points to move. But if you take your time to cut and fit the pieces as neatly as possible, it will be worth all the effort in the end.
Of course, if you are doing more than one of the same turnout, you can trace the parts for the other turnouts once you have the first ones cut to size.
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Cutting Paving over Rails to shape
By Wayne Toth
To make a pattern, I simply placed a sheet of paper over the track area I want to “pave, then used a soft pencil to make a rubbing of the track layout. All of the areas abutting the outside of the rail was cut along the line using scissors, while the line representing the inside of the rail was duplicated with a parallel line (to allow for the flangeways), then cut along the new lines.
These patterns were then traced onto the styrene and cut out. Since the track is Atlas Code 83, I used lacquer thinner to cement .020" thick styrene strips to the tie tops, abutting the moulded-on spike heads, then cemented the sheet material atop the strips. This leaves the road surface .003" below the top of the code 83 rail. One day I will get around to weathering the pavement. Avoid Card stock because of any warping issues.
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Paving with Points/Turnouts Pt 2
By Steven Spencer
I wanted to get the appearance of “close fitting pavement†in the point blade area so I used black craft foam with some gray paint sponged on. The foam is flexible enough to move with the points. It is easy to make patches and large cracks in the foam. Just tear the foam. However I have never been able to come up with a way to model small cracks in it.
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Reinforcing Plastic /Styrene Building Walls
By John Penna
I use 1/4" styrene square tubes to reenforce the joint at the corners. If the front windows extend all the way to the side walls I might use 1/8" or only use the reenforcing tubes above and below the window.
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Saving Plastic Bottles and Paint Bottles from Tipping Pt 1
By Several Modellers
I was particularly concerned about Plasti-weld in the orange labeled bottle. So, I stole a small circular Tupperware bowl from the pantry, placed the Plasti-weld bottle in it, and wrapped a rag around the bottle. No way that it will tip over or spill. (Richard Alton)
I rummaged around the wood bin and found a piece that was 4" x 4" x 2 1/4" thick. I drilled a hole a bit bigger than the bottle most of the ways through, from the large face.
I find it impossible (not that I have really tried) to spill the bottle. (Ed Carstensen)
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Saving Plastic Glue and Paint Bottles from Tipping Pt 2
By Paul Ffrost
I used a small Yoghurt tub lid and glued the glue bottle as well as my MEK and Decal Solvent bottles to other tub lists. A little bit of plasticine helps keep the centre of gravity low. When the bottle runs out, peel off the plasticine for the next one and the bottle and the lid could be recycled. If the bottle comes cleanly off the lid, you can reuse the lid!
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Saving Plastic Glue and Paint Bottles from Tipping Pt 3
By Several Modellers
I use a foam swimming noodle, cut to about 1/2 the height of the liquid cement bottle and if the hole in the noodle is too small I just cut it lengthwise to allow it to open to fit around the bottle, this works for all of my paint and cement bottles. The noodle is about 6 ft. long and provides a lot of donuts to keep you from spilling paint and liquid cements, plus if you are like me I use a lot of toothpicks and I poke them in the foam so they are handy and easy to grab one when you need one. (Gus Hemmings)
I use some foam board packaging about 12mm/ 1/2†thick which I cut into 2 or 3 inch squares and put a hole in the middle just slightly undersized for the bottle. If the bottle is loose, I tape the bottom with duct tape - the bottle is going to sit in it for a while anyway and the whole thing is easily replaced! (Graham Rosser)
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A Quicker Means of Drying Laid Ballast and Ground Foam Pt 1
By Marlon Medina
I had read in a forum thread about making diluted white glue using rubbing alcohol instead of water. When I tried to mix it with the same ratio, 4:1, it turned into a thick goo. I found that mixing it with a 6 or 7:1 ratio it had almost the same consistency as the water mixture. I also found that prewetting the scenery was not as important. This mixture flows right into the ground foam, and it dries much quicker.
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A Quicker Means of Drying Laid Ballast and Ground Foam Pt 2
By Vernon Smith
I used a roughly 50% glue-25% water-25% alcohol mixture on my layouts, yes the alcohol really helps capilliary action a great deal and it evaporates off quickly leaving just the glue/water mix, drying time is still the same but the glue goes right thru to the base which without the alcohol would take a lot longer. Some recommend adding a drop or two of dishwashing liquid as well but to my experience its not really necessary.
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