HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Simulating Cracked Glass Pt 2
By Rick Squirrel
I have achieved good results simulating cracked glass by taking the clear plastic glazing film out of windows and striking it a sharp blow on the workbench with a nail punch. It cracks, splinters and crazes in much the same way as does glass when hit by a stray piece of ballast or other hard object.
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Simulating Cracked Glass Pt 3
By Steve Parker
I have simulated cracked glass by Xray film from old and otherwise useless X Rays I have kept, darkening sections with paint to look like cracked areas. Also on some panels I “carefully†cut jagged shapes to open up some windows where there is a detail or two to be seen behind.
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Speeding Glue Drying
By Andy Vines (UK)
If you need a PVA joint to dry quicker if you coat one surface with PVA and the other with Liquid CA (Superglue) it causes the joint to set up very quickly.
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Tippex as a Body Filler
By Andy Vines (UK)
Tippex or Liquid Paper can be used as a gap filler on plastic models, and will sand back nicely.
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How much interior detail do you really need?
By Steve Parker
Many modellers make pictures of entire interior details of buildings to put into their windows BUT do you really need too much detail. Have a look at a group of shops on the High Street and you can usually see about 3 maybe 4 feet into the window at most and the rest is … dark!!! Even if the light is on!
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Throwaway Paint Trays
By Several Modeller's
If you are working with acrylic paints, keep a supply of Chinet or paper plates left over from your last bar-b-que handy. You can use them as palettes for mixing small amounts of paint and dispose of them when you are finished.
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Getting effective looking Brick Walls
By John Maynard
After seeing some one else try this I tested a section where I painted brick walls with a flat black first and then used thin washes of reds and browns. The effect was time consuming to perform but the results were very much worth the effort.
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Base painting Metal Casting
By Bernie James
I have painted all sorts of castings including figurines and details as well as white plastic figurines in black first before painting faces, skin, clothes or the base colour of the object. If I miss a bit, it shows up as a shadow or in the case of metal trolleys for example it wouldt show up as a plausibly weathered area.
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Ballasting with Cork Track Bed
By Ray Anderson
I have found sanding the sides of Cork Roadbed helps the ballast to adhere when it is glued to the bevelled sides.
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Different Ballasting at Crossovers and Interchanges
By Phil Lapworth
If you have an interchange in a North American sense or have place where two railways cross, particularly when one is a secondary line, consider using a different color or color toned ballast for each line to make them look different.
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Just to let you know also that I have managed to extend the H&T's by about 50 - 60 in front of what you see here so your contributions have helped me keep going. We are off to New Zealand next week for nearly a month so it will be a little less regular depending on where we are at the time.
If you can aid with the Hints and Tips, please feel free to PM me with anything you can offer, with your own crediting details etc…
All the best for Xmas as well as 2013
Thanks in Anticipation
Trevor
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Using Woodland Scenics Water
By Murray Johnson (Ballarat)
I made an On30 water tower about 170 mm high and open topped. It took me three attempts to get it close to where i was happy with it but the trick was the water which is only about 3mm deep. Tthe pool has a ply bottom painted dark green which could be black, dirty brown or whatever and I used a bit of silastic (silicon sealant) around the edges to stop the REALISTIC water by Woodland Scenics from flowing out, which it did the first time.
The second time , I added a thin layer every couple of days to try and get depth but it all curled up and started lifting away at the edges. I ripped that out and went with one layer about 3mm or 1/8th deep then one tiny pour for the ripple just before it finally set. The Woodland Scenics water is good stuff.
Last edit: by xdford
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Measuring Radii on a Walkaround Layout Pt 1
By Chris Van De Heide (Ontario)
If you have a walkaround layout, draw the size of the arc or arcs on a piece of cardboard and cut out a template to draw your curves.
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Measuring Radii on a Walkaround Layout Pt 2
By Mike Lehmann (Illinois)
If you have bench work up on both sides of an aisle, you can temporarily screw a piece of lumber from side to side that spans across the spot where the center point will be. Then mark it on the stick, scribe your arc, and remove the stick.
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Cleaning Files
By Rick Fowler
To clean your files after shaping your metal or plastic get yourself a file card. it is a special stiff wire brush type of gadget made just for cleaning files. Also try the tip of a hobby knife blade for stubborn stuff that gets stuck in the grooves. As pointed out in Hint 1157, chalking the file first helps prevent material from sticking so tightly so just use any old stick chalk you have handy.
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iHolding Small Parts under construction
By Rob Davies
I needed to build a small bridge. I enjoy scratch building, but little parts can be a real pain to cut and handle.
I made a top view drawing of what I wanted to build to the exact scale size, then I put regular scotch tape down on the drawing sticky side up. I then taped the ends down flat. Then I could put the beams down on the the tape and secured them so I could glue the cross boards on. I did the same thing with the hand rails. After the glue dried, I simply cut the tape away from the plan and peeled it off. For me this idea worked very well.
Ps I am currently in New Zealand getting used to my wife's iPad. Sorry about the formatting but everyone have a great New Year and I will try to keep the updates regular if not daily! regards. Trevor
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Peco Rail Joints – another technique
By Peter MacIvor (SW France)
It can be both difficult and awkward (and even dangerous !!) to cut off the the end chairs on a length of Peco Flexitrack to allow the joiners to slide in between the rail and sleeper.
The last couple of sleepers on each end of the length have "solid" webs but the next one has the web gap (to allow bending). I cut off those two or 3 first sleepers (but don't discard them) leaving me with plain rail ends. Make the joint with the metal or insulated joiners as required then fix the track down. You will have a fairly large gap with no sleepers at each track join.
When you are happy with everything, it is a simple job, having separated and removed the chairs of the saved sleepers, to slide them under the track and glue them to the trackbed thus "filling" the gap.
Once ballasted and weathered, it is virtually impossible to see that there are no chairs on these sleepers and neither are there any unsightly gaps or "odd" spacings in the sleepering.
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Getting rid of Matte Medium stains
By Mike Lehmann
If you need to remove it, denatured alcohol will remove matte medium. You may be able to mist it on to cleanse it off the rocks and ballast areas. However, denatured alcohol could also affect your other scenery so test a small spot first if that might be an issue for you.
Then there is always just covered the offending spots with some ground cover as an alternative.
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Simulating Sheep in vans
By Trevor Gibbs
There was an Australian Model Railway Mag article about a guy who rasped up foam blocks and painted them in a sheep's wool colour and planted them inside his sheep vans which incidentally are a relatively unique vehicle here in Australia… there were a lot of them on all system.
Think about what you are seeing in these vehicles and it is usually a mass of wool and not much else as they do not stand all that tall. The rasped up foam is a reasonable representation of what you would see and it certainly it would save on the expensive models of sheep…
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Setting Realistic Goals with Model Railways/Railroads Pt 1
By Mark Brunton (USA)
Trouble-free trackwork is fairly easy to achieve - just take the time to install the subroadbed, roadbed and track properly the first time.
I know because in my deep dark past my trackwork was terrible. At some point I made the decision to do a new layout right, and found that doing a careful job took maybe 20% more time than doing it sloppily. Now my trackwork is pretty much bulletproof.
It takes surprisingly little more time to do a careful job than to do a sloppy one, so do it carefully the first time and save a lot of time and aggravation later by meeting meet all the standards you can.
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