HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Making Windows in bulk
By John Thomas
I use among other things overhead projector transparency film for inkjet printers. I draw the window and pane panels and export the drawing to an Office program such as Word or Open Office. This gives me the exact window sizes I need.
I can then draw in cross frames and curtains or blinds and I have even pasted in pictures of people. I then print, cut and glue in place. Cheap and effective.
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Making Dirty industrial Windows
By Reg Bridge
For dirty dusty windows you can use both plastic milk cartons and old Xray Film. They look great in factories and feedmills with clear xmas tree bulbs run at low voltage to give yellow cast to light.
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Painting Flex Track to preserve the top surface Pt 1
By Dave Nelson
I paint flex track outdoors with a spray can (actually two spray cans, one of rusty red and the other a dark camoflage brown) and then immediately wipe off the tops with a piece of masonite soaked in paint thinner. The flatness of the masonite hits the entire rail head and the rough side of the masonite is lightly abrasive but less so than a bright boy.
I have built a "stand" for the flex track out of foam core board I got cheap so I can do about 6 pieces of track at once. There was only one drawback- when the track flexes you can sometimes see little shiny spots. I can live with that. Painting in a room where there is no ventilation is sometime I want to avoid if I can
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Painting Flex Track to preserve the top surface Pt 2
By Larry Murfett
Wipe a thin film of an oily substance (I use Goo Gone_ onto the top of the rail prior to painting. It leaves an oily residue to which the paint will not stick. When done painting and paint is dry, just wipe the rail with a clean dry rag.
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Making a Dry Stone Wall
By Dave Husman
To make a cut stone wall is to lay out balsa strips on wax paper as high as you want the stones (1/8 to 1/4 in) and as far apart as you want the stones to be wide. pour plaster between the balsa forms. When it hardens, use a razor saw to score the plaster strips every 3/8 to 1/2 inch or so on all four sides. Snap the plaster into individual "stones" and glue them together into a wall. Every stone will have a unique look to it. I believe Fine Scale Miniatures uses a technique similar to this to make masters for its stone walls.
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Applying Super Glue to Handrails and Grab Irons Pt 1
By Chris Markey
I generally put a little bit on a toothpick and then transfer it to the grab irons. If I get too much on, I just grab some scrap paper and use that to wick away some of the glue. It is still a little messy, so I generally apply the glue from inside whenever possible and apply the grab irons before the paint job.
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Applying Super Glue to Handrails and Grab Irons Pt 2
By Ray Breyer
I add a puddle of superglue to a plastic bottlecap (Gatorade lids work best), grab the handrails with a pair of reverse-action tweezers, and dip them into the puddle. Add them to the car and the entire hole now has a neat, thin layer of superglue in it.
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Making Wood look like Concrete
By Craig Brown
Wood makes a suitable surface in large areas for representing concrete, Use a piece of scrap from the build process, sand it smooth with a very fine grit paper. Use a weathered concrete paint (floquil) See how it looks then apply to your surface.
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Managing “Underground†Staging
By Dave Husman
I have under the layout staging and a return loop. Key design features are:
1. Keep switches close to the edge for easier maintenance.
2. KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Very simple track plans, no complicated switchwork, very straight forward operation.
3. Vertical clearance. You need enough room to reach in with your arm and lift a car over another standing car on a track. And you have to take into consideration the thickness of the track, roadbed, supports, under the table switch machines or motors and wires too.
4. Access. If you make it too inaccessible disaster will definitely strike right there. Use lift offs , pop ups and access doors in the fascia to make sure you can reach into every part of the hidden trackage.
5. Detectors and remote switches. Detectors that tell you where the trains are is a big plus. Powered switches with very simple controls ( the best are those that reliably route the switches for one track with one button or switch).
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Making Asphalt Shingle roofing Pt 1
By Greg Southern
To make HO Asphalt Roof Shingles, try a fine grit emery cloth sandpaper cut in strips.
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Making Asphalt Shingle roofing Pt 2
By Peter Golding
Making HO Asphalt Roof Shingles, you can also try using masking tape painted black or very dark grey and dry brushed with lighter grey for texturing. The cost of this approach is unbeatable.
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Making Asphalt Shingle roofing Pt 3
By Bruce Leslie
To make HO Asphalt Roof Shingles,I have been using textured Speckled spray paint from a rattle can for my asphalt roofing. I use the black for roofs, and the tan for rock work. This works pretty well right out of the can, or it is a good base for weathering powders to make it a bit less uniform. I use it for both the flat roofs and the sloped shingle roofs.
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Applying glues to track and foam
By Ray Breyer
When laying track on a foam base, I prefer using silicone caulk adhesive to glue down my track. It goes a LONG way (you only need a thin smear on the roadbed to hold down track, it dries clear and level, and it really helps deaden the drum effect of the foam. I used a tube and a half of the cheap Ace Hardware caulk to lay over 100 feet/30 metres of track!
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Applying glues to boards, frames and foam Pt 2
By Ted Jansen
When I attached my foam to my layout, first I lightly sanded the foam to give the glue something more to hold on to. When I had cleaned the foam dust off, I used carpenters glue (the yellow stuff) and weighted it down with books. About attaching the track to the foam, if you use liquid nails or the varations, be sure it is safe on foam by using on a test section.
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Weathering Dark Coloured Wagons or Freight Cars
By Dave Husman
I like using a colour for my weathering called Harbor Mist Grey, it has a brown cast and lightens dark cars, darkens light cars, almost looking whitish on black cars which seems to be what happens on real life Black freight cars.
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Painting Card Stock Buildings
By Artie Reibel
Paint your cardstock first with a light coat of automotive primer- just dust it on in a couple real light coats. Once it has dried the water based paints will not soak in.
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Spilled Cement
By Charles Fink
Never mind how I discovered it but I learned recenty that a mixture of salt, baking soda, and water is very difficult to remove from a smooth surface after it dries. This worthless bit of information came to mind when I needed to weather a covered hopper that had been hauling cement.
Voila!! A small patch of salt and baking soda beside one of the hatches looks exactly as though some workman spilled cement while loading the car and then rain turned it into concrete. I cheated a bit by using a thinned water soluble paint (Poly Scale's Concrete) instead of water to wet my cement mixture but it worked perfectly. That covered hopper now has a permanently attached patch of spilled cement/concrete.
I think the ratio of baking soda to salt is about 4:1 but that's a wild guess. I'm not even sure the salt is necessary but that's what my wife said was in the mess I was trying to clean up.
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Wire on the Cheap
By Several Modellers
If you need heavy duty wire for a power bus etc, check out your local Auto Electrical Store, You should be able to buy 14G US wire size cable much cheaper than local hobby shops et c
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Fitting Grab Irons Pt 1
By Several Modellers
Rather than drilling the holes (very time-consuming), I use the sharp end of a professional draftsman's compass - it's sharp enough to pierce the styrene and stout enough to go all the way thru without bending. I can position it exactly where the hole needs to be - which is very difficult to do with a drill bit.
With this method, I can get DetailsWest grab irons installed on an Athearn loco shell in less than 10 minutes.
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Fitting Grab Irons Pt 2
By Charles Clarke
Some people use heat to "sink" their grab irons on their locomotives and rollingstock. I believe that drilling grab iron the holes is a better way to go. For one, they will be more evenly spaced and for the #2 reason; once i used a soldering iron to heat the grab irons until they melted through the body until i slipped one day and drove the entire soldering iron through a brand new Athearn locomotive in an instant…been using the old monotonous pin vises ever since.
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