Hints & Tips No.989

Recycled Micro Applicators

From Henry McGrath (New South Wales)

The other day my wife was about to throw out an expired Visine bottle. Unscrewing the cap and looking at the applicator itself, I realised that I could place my thumb nail just beneath the rim of the plastic applicator and remove the tip. I washed the bottle completely. This bottle can be filled either with a glue or a coloring agent and utilised to apply whatever in the most hardest of places to reach, just be creative. and I now have a new applicator for miniature parts. For those of you not in this boat, ask your relatives or a friend if they utilise this material and have them save the bottles for you, rather than throw them out.

Hints & Tips No.990

Colour of Steel for Modelling

From Paul Dunn (South Australia)

Steel is usually always `Blued' by heating it and quenching in oil, this gives it that bluish or black coating that resists rusting. As far as I can tell it's always been the way steel and Black pipe have been treated to resist the dreaded rust attack. However years ago, I worked on a construction site where the structural steel came on flat beds and was painted in primer red. There was yellow chalk (keel) numbering written on the lengths to indicate location on the building.

It may be the newer method of quenching the hot steel in oil is cheap or more effective than paint these days. This will be important depending on the era or area you are modelling for steel framing.

Hints & Tips No.991

Replicating Peeling Paint in Styrene instead of Wood

From Tom Yorke (USA)

I spray the styrene windows with a gray primer. When completely dry I score on wood grain keeping in mind how actual mill work is done. I then give several coats of a brown stain. It will tone the "wood" and sink in to the grain. When dry you can use the rubber cement technique of splotches of this material and let it dry. Then paint over with your color. Let dry and remove the excess paint over the rubber cement with a pick up sold in art stores. OR you can go the easier route which is usually what I do now.

You may want to use this method especially if you are building in HO. I apply the color by stippling with a small pointed brush. Just stipple the paint on in a random manner. Leave as much bare window frame as you like. I will apply another coat right over what I have done when dry. This coat is of a slightly different shade. It acts to add depth and I am talking about a subtle difference here. On my models people swear the plastic windows and doors are real wood!

Hints & Tips No.992

Using “Foam Peanuts” for Scenery

From Rod Jamieson (USA)

Much of the hill areas on my layout were done with the foam packing peanuts (sometimes called foam popcorn) covered with paper towels coated with joint compound. However any plaster will work. After a couple layers of plaster coated paper towels have dried I just trowel on more joint compound to make it thick enough to drill holes for planting trees.

Trowel thin layers at a time and allow to dry before adding more because putting on too much at a time will result in cracks when it
dries and shrinks. I usually allow 24 hrs between layers. Built up thin layers will not crack very readily.

Hints & Tips No.993

Making Tarpaulins

From Several Modelers

I have used alcohol-impregnanted eyeglass lens wipes. Let them dry out, then shape them, glue them in place with white glue and paint them when dry. ( Ken Hamilton)

Cut piece of one ply tissue to size, place where I want it, Drip on a mix of white glue and alcohol, Shape and move around with a soft brush, When dry, paint with a color wash (Karl Osilinski)

I use 2 ply toilet paper and peel the plys apart. Then I set the precut "tarp" into position and touch the paper with a loaded brush full of wh. glue/water. You can then manipulate the edges a bit creating folds and creases with the tip of the brush. Allow to dry before painting. The same techniques can be used for rags and towels in various scales, particularly in garage scenes ( Brian Chester)

I made a tarpaulin by slightly crumpling a piece of tin foil. Start larger than you need. Apply a single ply piece of two ply tissue to the foil using acrylic paint of the colour tarp you want as the glue. Let it dry and the paint will hold quite well. Measure the size of your tarp on a piece of paper and cut it out. Use this as a template by holding it on the prepared foil and cutting it out with scissors. This way you do not mess up your tarp with nasty pencil lines. Tough up the edges with your colour paint. Some experimentation is good to find just the amount of crinkles you want in the foil for the look you want. The foil lets you model the weight in the way it hangs so you can get it just as you like it for sagging spots. (Christopher James)

Hints & Tips No.994

Stumps

From Kurt Larson (Wisconsin)

To make a large quantity of good looking stumps, cut wild grape vines in the size you prefer. On the vine will be "bumps". Cut in the middle of the bump with a pruning shears, then cut how long you want the stump. The bump will be the part toward the ground. If preferred, a notch can be made after the stump is cut by again taking the pruning shears and cutting partially into the stump and by twisting the shears upward, breaking this part out. Mass production, no cost and realistic.

Hints & Tips No.995

Urban Junk

From Glenn A. Atherton (Des Moines)

When modeling an urban scene, never forget the garbage that you see every day . It can range from an old news paper here and a rundown shack there , to piles of junk and scrape outside of major industry or railyard. One of my personal favorites is the broken-down car halfway in a body of water. But look around you and come up with your own ideas.

Hints & Tips No.996

Corrugated Sheet Metal

From Dick Watson (California)

If you wish to make plenty of scrap, rusted corrugated sheet metal cheaply, find a plastic bottle cap that has corrugated finger grips of the approximate size. I have even used the cap off a Bordons glue bottle. Randomly spread white or yellow glue over the corrugations and let dry. Remove dried glue with an exacto knife and you will have a clear casting with holes and a eaten away look. Cut to size and paint with rust colored paint. Litter the countryside all you want!

Hints & Tips No.997

Tyre Tracks

From Chris Taylor (Florida)

You can make it look like a car has driven through the dirt or grass. After you have put down the grass, take an eraser and rub off some grass to look like tire tracks.

Hints & Tips No.998

Cracking Paved Streets

From Pat Ward (Virginia)

A simple way to age your paved streets: use a fine point pen to create cracks. Simply drive around your neighborhood or areas similar to where your modeling and see how they're aging. Word of caution though, don't go crack crazy.

Hints & Tips No.999

Vehicle Weights

From Michael Eschner (Germany)

If possible I usually omit the steel weights because they are affected by uncoupling magnets. Instead I glue discarded balancing lead weights into the freight car which I get for free from a tyre dealer. I use very thick glue like liquid nails. So far I have only had good experiences with this method.

Hints & Tips No.1000

Cutting Wood Siding for Buildings

From Rich Boudreaux (Canada)

Always use sharp blades.
Use masking tape on the smooth side of the wall.
Always make the cross grain cuts first. This is very important it will dramatically reduce the chances of a split along the grain.
Always cut with a metal guide
Never try to cut through the entire thickness in one go. It should take at minimum 4 passes; 6 would be better.
Always cut with the guide covering the good part of the siding. If your blade should wander it will do so into the waste piece.
I always cut the opening slightly smaller and then file it to the final size using emery boards. These are nifty because you can customize them. I always have a box of them around

Hints & Tips No.1001

Making Barnacles on Piers and Wharves

From Al Carter (Kirkland WA)

For making Barnacles on my wharfside, I used a mixture of very light gray and dark gray (almost black) ballast, with a sprinkling of very fine green ground foam mixed in. I put this mixture in a small container, figuring how far up the pilings I wanted the barnacles to "grow" (about an inch, I believe), then dipped my pilings into a similar container filled with full strength white glue, then dipped them into the container with the ballast/foam mix. So, both containers were filled to the same mark (about one inch)…make sense? The slight touch of green added a "slimey" look to the pilings.

Hints & Tips No.1002

Restoring an X0-4 or similar loco to good running… Here's how I do it. Pt 1

From Jeff Gwent (Cornwall)

Don't be tempted to disassemble the magnet from the frames - you'll lose some magnet strength if the steel frames are parted from the magnet
Method.

1) Strip out the brushes and give them a good soak in solvent to leach out the oil residue that�s inevitably got into them over the years. (I use a 50% sugar soap solution)
Next wash them off with soapy water, dip in meths for a while (1/2 hour) to get the last of the moisture out and air-dry overnight.

2) Take the now brush less motor and cover it with detergent and give it a good cleaning with a stiff-ish paintbrush to get rid of the grime of ages.

3) At the same time I do the same to the rest of the chassis parts, making them perfectly clean.

4) Next use a tightly rolled bit of VERY fine wet and dry in each axle slot to polish it a bit (roll to a tight thin tube the size of the axle slot - the idea is to clean and polish not change the slot size, so by fine I mean finer than 600 grit. (Used wet)

Hints & Tips No.1003

Restoring an X0-4 or similar loco to good running… Here's how I do it. Pt 2

From Jeff Gwent (Cornwall)

Next go back to the motor.

5) Reassemble the motor and with 12v of power on it (you want high revs), gently and carefully polish the commutator with a thin finger of 1000+ grit wet and dry paper glued to a thin strip of wood.

1. When it is perfectly shiny and polished, clean the commutator with a sharpened toothpick and lubricate sparingly both ends.
2. Reassemble and lubricate worm with a very small bit of Vaseline.

8 ) Lubricate axles with a tiny drop of Teflon based oil from the fishing tackle shop (Fishing reel oil is always excellent stuff, super stable, plastic safe and stays where its put, not like light machine oils which eventually get everywhere!)

Result
99.9% of the time the loco will then run better than it ever did - the polishing of chassis / axle slots and on commutator which removes any irregularities was never done during original manufacture so axle guides will be smoother/pickup via axles better too… and the commutator will now be better balanced and sparking will be almost nil.

Slow running should be better than ever before

Hints & Tips No.1004

Staining Hand Laid Track Sleepers Pt 1

From Mark Scapia (California)


With my hand laid sleepers, I just stained them in place. I used two brushes, and two colors of stain. I read extensively before I began, and for the folks who stained first, the best results seemed to be from folks who did what you said - dropped ties into stain and fished them out later. What made that really work was to again use multiple colors, and mix them in another container before laying, making the coloration truly random.

I chose not to follow that method, and instead stain after sanding, as it almost seemed twice the effort. I'm not displeased with the results.

Hints & Tips No.1005

Staining Hand Laid Track Sleepers Pt 2

From Mike Scalzo (Illinois)

I've always soaked the wooden ties (sleepers) in stain. Varying the ratio of black to brown, the stain concentration, and time spent in the stain creates variety. If your roadbed begins smooth/level and the sleepers are uniform, only a minimum of sanding should be needed to remove any height variations once laid. The sanding usually leaves a nice "weathering" effect since the stain color lessens the farther into the wood. One can do touch-up staining if desired, but I rarely found that necessary.

Or you can apply the stain after the ties are fastened to the roadbed and sanded, but I do no't do it that way. I have usually used commercial stains obtained from the paint/hardware store. I thin it somewhat for the stain-soaked-going for an "aged" look.,

Hints & Tips No.1006

Staining Hand Laid Track Sleepers Pt 3

From Bob Cowman (Vermont)

Years ago I used brown shoe dye. Soaked a bunch at a time. Though they are in storage, like the rest of my O scale, they still look good. The one thing I would do differently is to vary the color a bit between batches. I would suggest a small batch of very dark (probably black dye), for new sleepers, use them in groups where repairs have been made and for loads or stacks ready for the gang to come along and put them in place. Gradually lighten your solution. Make a bunch of light ones, driftwood stain color comes to mind,for your low use sidings and used tie piles.

Hints & Tips No.1007

Staining Hand Laid Track Sleepers Pt 4

From Dave Husman (Nebraska)


Don't be afraid to thin out the stain a lot. "Modern" treated ties range from nearly black to brown to a silvery grey. Most tracks will have a variety of colors but not a wild variety of colors. Most will be in one range of color with a few worse and few new ones scattered in there.

I like to soak them in stain, glue, sand and restain. I use black leather dye in alcohol. I have a peanut butter jar with stain and put the wod in, let it sit for a couple hours (although some went overnight). I use large tweezers to pull them out onto paper towels and newspaper on an old cookie pan. When I glue them down I sand them lightly with fine sandpaper on a wood block. I then take coarse sandpaer and draw it down the length of the ties (across the tracks) to increase the grain, then I restain with half strength (from what's in the peanut butter jar).

All of my ties tend to a the light wood/silver grey color because I model the 1900's and my railroad uses untreated ties, so they rapidly weather grey. I have also used Minwax stains and paint thinner on previous layouts, mostly walnut color.

( A note from Trevor – While this series has been aging sleepers, many wooden constructions would benefit by being aged using the methods outlined – old wooden buildings and huts, wharf piers, logging company cabins as common in the US and Australia, wooden sidewalks and footpaths and fences, pedestrian and vehicle level crossing timbers… and these methods would have a place on your layout too! The method you use is what works best for you!)

Hints & Tips No.1008

Tender Power Connector

From John Rumming (Western Australia)


Steam loco's get one side of the power usually from the tender. The connection between the two can sometimes be a bit erratic. If you find this, try this idea: Solder a small piece of rail to a wire that is connected in the tender. Solder a half piece of rail connector to another wire in the loco. Connect the two and the power will run smoothly.

Hints & Tips No.1009

Making Ditch Lights

From John Rumming (Western Australia)


From the LED or headlight globe of your locomotive, glue two pieces of optic fibre to it. Bring them down to the bottom of the locos area where the ditch lights are going to be and secure them in place. When the headlights come on, so will the ditch lights.