Hints & Tips No.950

Foam Rubber Work Surface

From Brian Sheron

How often do we find ourselves working on a model with miniature (nay! minute) parts, such as tiny screws, nuts, springs, etc.? And how often does that small screw you just loosened up or are trying to start into a thread suddenly fall out of the engine or car onto the workbench, and then bounce somewhere such that you will never see it again (or at least until after you give up looking for it and drive to the hobby shop and buy a pack of screws even though you only needed one)?

One way to reduce the probability of this happening is to work over a piece of packaging foam rubber that has hills and valleys in it, spaced about an inch or so apart. Many products, especially those that are fragile, come packaged with this type of foam rubber packing Working over a piece of foam like this has two advantages: one is that if you are working on a fragile or delicate model, the foam provides a soft cushion to set the model on, and 2.) when you do drop that small part, there is a high likelihood it will fall into one of the depressions in the foam and stay there.

Hints & Tips No.951

Starting Small Screws

From Brian Sheron (Maryland)

How many times have you had to get that micro-sized screw started in a hole you could hardly see? Yes, they make special screwdrivers that are supposed to hold screws in the screwdriver blade so you can start the screw. However, I have found they do not always work well, especially with very small screws, and small screws with Phillips head slots.

I often use a dab into a tin of soldering paste I keep on my workbench with the tip of the screwdriver. The soldering paste is just sticky enough to hold the small screw on the end of the screwdriver while you maneuver the screw into position and get it started, Once the screw is started, the screwdriver easily pulls out of the screw slot. For you auto mechanics, axle grease will work equally as well.

Hints & Tip

Hints & Tips No.952

Gluing using Syringe Bottles

From Brian Sheron (Maryland)

Gluing plastic model kits together usually involves using a liquid plastic solvent glue, such as Plastruct or Testors. This requires brushing the glue on with the applicator brush that is attached to the jar lid. For some applications, this method of application works fine. However, when you want to either cover a large area quickly or run a bead of glue down a seam or wall joint,

I found that a syringe bottle sold in hobby stores works wonderfully. Running a thin bead of glue down a seam, where two walls join, a wall and a base, etc., puts the glue exactly where you want it. Capillary action draws the glue into the joint and results in a tight bond without excess glue.

Hints & Tips No.953

Cheap or Free Weights for Construction

From Peter Smythe

Inadvertently, I found a great source for weights to use to hold our modeling projects together while they dry. Try reject marble bases for small sports trophies. My kids were digging around one day and found someone had buried a whole bunch of these in a nearby property. The kids brought these home and I promptly washed them and kept them. Not too long afterwards, I saw that my local hobby shop had a bunch of reject marble trophy bases as well – only difference was that the hobby shop's bases were cleaner and carried a price tag.

Next time you pass your town's trophy store, pop in and see whether they will give you the rejects for free or for a nominal price. These bases are great for assembling structures in any scale. You can even feel good that you are keeping these items out of a rapidly filling up land fills.

Hints & Tips No.954

Cheap Grass Tufts

From Several Modelers

Colour some cheap thow-away paint brushes with highlighters, markers or green paint to the shade of green or yellow (or both if you model Late Summer/Early Autumn) that you require. Place glue in your location and cut some tufts from your brush. Instant Tall(er) grasses for your sidings etc.

You can also use the taller tufts as a “brake” to retard your free wheeling rollingstock from rolling out of sidings.

Hints & Tips No.955

Lining and Lettering Locos

From Karl (Bicester)

Water slide transfers work best if applied to a gloss surface, so unless the surface you are applying them to is good and glossy apply a gloss coat, Klear works perfectly, before decaling.

This will prevent 'silvering', the effect where the carrier film has air trapped beneath it, leaving it very silver and conspicuous.

You can also use decal setting and softening solutions on waterslides to further ensure that silvering does ruin your decals. These will ensure that the decals conform to any surface contours or panel lines.

If you do use solutions always practise on a scrap of painted card with a spare decal, as some decals don't respond well to certain manufacturer's solutions.

Hints & Tips No.956

A new use for Foam Paint brushes.

From Bob Montgomery (Arkansas)

If you use the really cheap disposable foam brushes like I do, do not throw them out after using them. If you let the paint or whatever dry in the brush
then peel off the foam there is a plastic core inside. This can be used as is or cut with scissors to make a custom spreader.

I have two main brushes. I cut down one so I could spread out a narrow road with smooth it. The other I trimmed down to track gauge and it's great for spreading ballast between the ties.

Hints & Tips No.957

Painting and double sided tape

From Gary Sexton (Indiana)

Some of the trim pieces in N scale are really small. Usually .010 or .015 x 1/16 x short lengths. It is always better to paint these pieces before gluing to your structure, but how do you hold them down to paint? If you are spraying they will fly away.

The answer is double sided tape. Just stick a section of tape on your normal painting surface, and then stick the trim pieces on top of the tape. An alternative is rubber cement, which will easily rub off once painting is done.

Hints & Tips No.959

A Use for the Humble Paper Clip

From Brian Macdermott (UK)


On my own layout, I have used paper clips for loco handrails as well as a device for getting a small amount of oil onto a particular part of a loco. No prizes for anyone suggesting clipping sheets of paper together!

Hints & Tips No.960

Making Coal Loads Pt 1

From Ken Harding (Indiana)

I did not want to spend a lot on the store bought ones so I made my own. First I filled the car with cardboard. I used a old Walther's tank card box, side is close to the width I needed. I used a sanding block to make the final shaping. I wanted it tight on the sides. Next I added some latex chalking. Reason I used it is three fold. I wanted to protect cardboard some what from the wet water. It is cheaper than the coal,so it acts as a filler and did not want the load to be flat. I need to work on adding details far as the humps.

I used Isotropy Alcohol 91% for wet water, reason, that is what I have. It took 3 eye droppers to get the coal load wet. Then I added 60% white Glue 40% water and a drop of dish soap. Few places it did not soak in I added more alcohol. My 40ft Gondola weight started at 3.75 onces. With the new load it comes in at 4.75 onces. I left the weights that where in the car so it would not be so top heavy. Each car took about 10 minutes and after an hour drying, I can flip the car over and no coal comes off.

Hi xdford,

 

I have found another very good source of artificial coal loads. If you go to your nearest pet shop and get a bag of ACTIVATED CHARCOAL which is used in fish tank filters this I have found is very good.

 

Puffer

Hints & Tips No.961

Making Coal Loads Pt 2

From Dean Brown (Ohio)

A few years ago, I picked up several large chunks of coal. I only have a few coal cars to do. I carved out some leftover pink styrofoam to fit the cars. Then I shaped them in the basic shape of the load and then inserted two steel finishing nails into the loads on each end. Then I painted the styrofoam flat black. I took the coal and crushed it up and used straight glue to attach it to the styrofoam. None of the coal has ever fallen off.
So why use the nails? By using a small magnet, I can grab those nails just fine and pulls the loads right out. I can run the cars either loaded or unloaded.

Hints & Tips No.962

Making Coal Loads Pt 3

From Greg Rossiter (Maryland)

I was tasked with making a few hundred coal loads using left over foam cut tight to fit with a large flat washer glued to the bottom of each piece of foam. The foam was shaped and mounded free hand with a surform tool so as to try and make the loads look not so uniform. I succeeded.

I used real anthracite coal pounded between two metal plates with a hand sledge. One of the requirements was that we only use real coal. I hit each piece of foam with straight white glue and sprinkled coal on to them. I even tried the upside down and dip method which proved to be not a good idea. I and another member made all over 300 loads in two nights.

Hints & Tips No.963

Making Paint Mixtures Pt 1

From Ken Church (Devon UK)

These are some of the mixings I use in painting pictures but they should work particularly well for backdrops and for buildings and groundwork such as fields and trees. In each case the first colour is the main one and the others are mixed INTO this.

TREES: Windsor yellow (a very strong colour; use carefully!) & windsor blue - gradually increasing blue for darker areas then add light red for added darkness. (There are many other colour combinations e.g., Windsor blue & burnt sienna = dark green. In fact try any shades of blue/yellow with added earth colours - they are all different and all good!).
ROOFS: Ultramarine/light red/crimson = dark grey. For a different base colour just alter the sequence of colours.
STONE BRIDGES: Raw sienna + a touch of crimson then add light red to darken; for cracks use burnt sienna/light red/ultramarine = very dark! (Of course stone colours vary considerably so just experiment with above colours + yellow ochre which adds a real glow to everything. A thought: Yellow Ochre + any blue makes a subdued green which melts back into the atmosphere - this could be included with the Trees above).
FIELDS, GRASS, OUTCROPS ETC: any of the above could be used – it is really just experimentation so try them out on a scrap of paper first and it is surprising what you will come up with, however, try not to use more than three colours otherwise you will have mud!

Hints & Tips No.964

Making Paint Mixtures Pt 2

From Ken Church (Devon UK)

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
Cobalt blue will cool down another colour without dominating it.
Hookers green is easily modified by a touch of yellow, blue or brown.
Paynes grey modifies blues or greens - makes them more atmospheric.
Raw sienna with any blue makes rich greens.
Indigo + ultramarine = another nice black.
Cadmium yellow pale + Windsor blue = luminious green, or with ultramarine a subtle one and with any of the earth colours = golden brown.

Hints & Tips No.965

Making Curve Easements

From Several Modelers

Draw your centre line of your straight until it stops to start the curve. Start drawing your curve centre about 6mm (1/4") to the right or left of the straight for a curve going right or left in N Scale and about 10-12mm (½") in OO/HO scales, being sure to keep the curve centerline a constant radius.

Lay your flex down the straight, then slowly ease it to the curve centre line so that about an 1/8th of a circle around the curve the track now matches the curve centre.

Once you lay it out this way once or twice, it starts becoming natural. The John Armstrong track planning book has some great drawings explaining the process even better.

When you start getting to 15" radius or higher in N scale or 26” in OO/HO, some people do not worry about the easements, nor do many modeller's worry about them in yards or sidings. However there is still a notable difference, especially with long locos and cars at "speed" and if you have curves in your yard and you will find that gentle transitions will pay off over purely bigger radius corners.

Hints & Tips No.966

Using Mirrors to extend apparent size of your layout Pt 1

From Several Modelers

Mirrors can be used in discrete areas to increase the apparent size of your layout by reflecting parts such as dead end yards up against a wall. The trick is to make sure that you cannot see other than rollingstock and track and not reflections of other modellers etc which will give the visual ruse away.

So a dead end yard could be covered by a bridge and the mirror placed under the bridge so that users cannot see themselves easily, perhaps even at a slight angle. There is suggestion of a few degrees forward tilt in some publications as avoiding the reflection of “unwanted” features.

Hints    & Tips No.967
        Using    Mirrors to extend apparent size of your layout Pt 2    
    

        From    Trevor    Gibbs    (Melbourne)
            The    late John Allen of Gorre and Daphetid fame had a small building    which was called “ The Worlds largest HO Scale Car dealer”.    There were one mirror and a one way mirror as well and the building    was very well litl from the inside. As I recall, there were only two    model cars inside but with both sides painted differently. The    reflection in the back mirror picking up the reflecting from the    front one way mirror glass presented a kaleidoscopic effect where it    looked as though there were hundreds of similarly painted cars of    four colours going back into the building which in itself was quite    shallow. Another illusion within Model Railways.

Hints & Tips No.968

Disposal of Blades

From Steve Mann (NYC)

I use a lot of X-acto No.11 blades in my various modelling doodles. Like everyone, I often face the problem of how to dispose of used (but still dangerous) blades. I use an old Tic-tac box to keep them in until they can be safely disposed of. The 'pop top' is just the right size to slip a number 11 blade through and, provided you don't break the seal on the box the top, it is quite secure in the clear part.

Hints & Tips No.969

Cutting Thick Plastikard (Styrene) Pt 1

From Peter Harvey (North Warwickshire)

I use four tools 1 a fine pencil, 2 a steel rule, 3 a scalpel, a P Cutter.

In this order:

1, Mark with pencil and rule.

2, Scribe with P Cutter and steel rule.

3, Run scalpel along groove cut with P Cutter using moderate pressure.

4, with one hand on either side of the cut line fold the plasticard away from you which will snap on the cut line which will give you a clean break joint.