Hints & Tips No.1151

Another Idea for Hiding Joints in Modular Layouts  By Dave Nelson (Milwaukee)


Foam rubber glued on the edges of the tops of the benchwork would compress and meet when the pieces are fastened. Not too much - you would not want it sticking up over the top when it is squeezed together. The foam rubber could be painted an earth or grass color and while it may not look fully scenicked, it would at least completely close the gap.


It works like weather stripping does on windows with compression to form a tight seal like a gasket – actually I got the idea thinking about how full width diaphragms work on the ends of streamlined passenger cars to create a seamless look when the cars are coupled.

 Hints & Tips No.1152
Weathering Plaster Castings
By Aaron Savoian (Delaware)




I have found that women's eye shadow works well when wanting to blend colors on plaster castings. The eye shadow doesn't need to be sprayed to adhere to the plaster and is easy to work with(no messy dust). I usually apply a slate colored eye shadow (black) to the castings first then follow with the colors of my choice. Eye shadow comes in an assortment of colors and range in price between $1.99 up to $20.00. The cheaper eye shadow holds well, but if you have the money to spend, I recommend the more expensive eye shadow because it has a very natural look when you are done. Just experiment with the colors, and remember…HAVE FUN!!

Hints & Tips No.1153
 Weathering Freight Cars By Stephen Rees (Idaho)
  Polly S Railroad Tie Brown actually has a lot of merit for weathering freight cars. It looks like old dirt fresh from a rainstorm if applied heavily in big patches, then streaked down with a rag. Experiment to find the right effect.

Hints & Tips No.1154
Highlighting your models
By John Hanks (North Carolina)




It's easy to forget to highlight a car with white paint (other colors work too). Scratch brushed white paint has a dramatic effect when upper surfaces of trucks, roofs, grab irons, and even human figures are highlighted. It is like adding perspective to a drawing. Take a stiff brush, put a small amount of white paint on it, then brush most of it off on some scrap cardboard. Brush upper surfaces with the little that's left. Ideally the effect is subtle enough to be imperceptible to the visitor. Cheap water-based craft paint is fine.

Hints & Tips No.1155
Artists Pastels and Weathering By Zack Willmott


Trying to get the perfect "old" look? Use artists pastels! You can pick them up in most cheap or Reject type shops for a pack of twenty. After that go to the cosmetics area, and get some cheap hair spray. I use Finesse: Firm Hold non aerosol hair spray. Go back if you need to get some brushes… I recommend getting something that is a "medium" price becaue you do not want to spend a lot but you do not want a cheap brush that will fall apart. When you are home, slowly scrape the pastel so you get some color dust then apply hair spray to the object. Use the brush to then apply the pastel dust and voila! You can do this as many times as you wish and you can use water or hair spray to remove and unwanted color. Happy weathering!

Hints & Tips No.1156

Using Eye Shadow for Weathering
By Rob Duke (California)




I find that using eye shadow that you can purchase at a dollar store makes a great weathering aid. Use just like chalks but with the bonus that eye shadow clings to the buildings or rolling stock much better. If you need to try again just wipe it off with a damp cloth and start over.

Hints & Tips No.1157

Fed up of ruining your good files on white metal ?

Just rub some ordinary white chalk onto the faces of the file so that it fills up all the grooves before you use it on white metal. When you've finished filing the white metal clean the file with a stiff dry nail brush and the white metal will come out of the grooves along with the chalk leaving the file as good as new.

 Hints & Tips No.1158
Makeshift Plastic Washers
By David Burford (Western Australia)

Washers and Spacers can be made from a number of sources from paper to thin plastic and  brass shims right through to thicker card and  styrene sheet. Make sure that your holes and washer edges are as burr free as possible. They can be used for many functions such as gear spacers, washers for nuts, single signal colour light targets or lampshades - if they are turned round correctly.  
 

Hints & Tips No.1159
Cutting Out Windows
By John Ahern

Cutting out apertures for windows and doors, etc, in card, is made easier and more accurate by 'pricking' the corners with a pin or scriber point. This helps stop the blade overrunning the length of the cut and makes the waste part come out more cleanly.

 
Hints & Tips No.1160




When your glue will not flow (and you have a spare cat or two…!!!)




By Vicki Makin (Queensland)




Yes, we have all been there before. We are careful to put the lid back on the glue after every use but months later we go to use it and IT WILL NOT FLOW. How many half full bottles of glue have we thrown out over the years because of it?

Squeezing the life out of the bottle does not work, blowing down the tube does not either, pulling the tube out and running under water does not. I have even tried to push down my thinnest sewing needle but it was too thick.

I have come up with a solution for the bottles with the thin metal nozzles. But you will need a cat. A dog's whisker is thin enough but probably not long enough. My dog's whisker was not.

Here is how you resurrect that bottle of glue. Tip the bottle up so that the nozzle is pointing down. Keep suspended for about 10 mins and then shove a cats whisker, follicle end first, down the tube and it has enough strength to dislodge the dried glue in the tube.

:shock::shock::shock::shock:

Is it April 1st ? ….

 Hints & Tips No.1161
Cutting Track Pt 1
By Dean Carstensen (British Columbia)




Xuron cutters are very good on nickel silver track so long as they are not used to cut anything else! I have found very little need to remove burrs after using this brand of cutter, and I am busy laying flexible track at present.

Whatever happens, DO NOT use them for cutting the point throw wire from the point motors - it just ruins them! I now have a separate pair for this!

 Hints & Tips No.1162
Cutting Track Pt 2
By Bob Boudreau (New Brunswick)

Get yourself one of the larger (1" or so) fibreglass reinforced cutting discs for Dremels, they last a really long time and are not prone to flying apart. Another choice would be the thicker Dremel cutting discs. I discovered these after going through many of the more fragile thinner ones. Still prefer the fibreglass ones.

 Hints & Tips No.1163
Adhering Shingles to Roofing Pt 1
By Bob Boudreau (New Brunswick)




For placing shingles on roofing, I use white glue, never have relied on the adhesive on the back of the shingles. Many moons ago, I found a hobby syringe made just for this purpose, its all plastic and has a fairly generous tip. I fill it partially with undiluted white glue, and use it to apply a very fine bead of the glue on the shingle backs. I can slide the shingles around a bit at first, as they tend to curve upward. All of my structures have been done using this method.

I do not recall where I got the syringe, but have seen it in hobby shops and catalogs. One of my favorite tools, I use it when making a wood structures too. The glue will skim over the tip when not in use, but is easily picked off to start over again.

Hints & Tips No.1164

Adhering Shingles to Roofing Pt 2
By Robert Robertson (Manitoba)




I have had good results in using UHU stick glue found in stationery stores. UHU besides making stick glue for paper, also make a contact cement in a stick form that works great. White glue or any water based glue plays hob with paper shingle.

 Hints & Tips No.1165
Removing Lettering from Some locomotives – specifically Atlas
By Craig Aguier-Winter (Brampton Ontario)
For white lettering, try masking around the white and then rubbing it off with a white artist's eraser. It takes some elbow grease but does remove it. It also polishes the paint under it to a glossy shine so you can re decal it without having to shoot dull coat.

Hints & Tips No.1166
Removing Lettering from Some locomotives – specifically Atlas Pt 2
By Will Vale (New Zealand)




This is only a tiny idea, but it helped me out last night at time of writing and I have not seen it before. If you do loose ballasting, it is usually a bad idea to tamp it after you have wet it, since it's too easy to disturb the surface, pick up grains, and generally make a mess. I have been using Klear for my ballast and because I had a few spots where quite a large droplet built up on the surface before it wicked away, I had little divots and imperfections in the wet ballast. I tried to tamp gingerly with a finger, and with vinyl gloves, but both tended to pick up grains.

However using baking (greaseproof) paper as a barrier seems to work - I placed it over the spot to tamp, rubbed gently with my finger on the back, and removed it. No grains lifted, and it did not displace the ballast sideways either. I do not have the pics to show the contrast but the greaseproof-tamped surface is a fair bit smoother than the finger-tamped one, and required less care to achieve. The one caveat is that I have not tried it with dilute PVA, but it might well work - Klear feels similarly sticky to the touch.

 Hints & Tips No.1167
Removing Warping from Layouts
By Jim Read (Midlands UK)
I see so many layouts and pictures of layouts showing baseboards that have not been diagonally braced. If you are making a baseboard frame at the moment, try twisting it with one end on the floor and you will be surprised at how much it does move. Some changes in temperature and humidity could soon make it look like a banana.

Now put some diagonal braces on the underframe and try it again, it will not move more than a couple of millimetres!

 Hints & Tips No.1168
Cheap Washers and Spacers
By Ian Baldrick (UK)




Ever needed a small plastic washer or small plastic spacer when modelling , something for the gear train to stop sideplay, or adjust the bogie height or coupling height etc, try the poundshops for a bag of assorted sequins.


Ranging in thickness from 0.7mm to 3mm ,diameters from 2mm to 10mm or thereabouts, all with a 0.95mm hole in the centre, mainly round , but a few square and other obscure shapes, like stars, mini-gears, and what must be a 100,000 in a plastic bag. Not all are 'flat', some are cone shaped etc.

They can be assorted colours including clear in assorted packets ( or just one colour per pack ), and according to the kitchen scales there is 100gms in a packet and internal holes are easily drilled to suit if needed.

 Hints & Tips No.1169
Recycling Electronic Bits
By Pete Robinson (South Australia)
Old broken electronic items with circuit boards, snip of the capacitors and resisters etc and once painted and detailed make ideal factory components, drums, gas tanks etc.

Also in some items you can get cogs, springs, switches etc.