Hints and Tips - The first 499
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Bridge Trusses
By Ian Barry
If you are in N scale, you can make very satisfactory looking bridge trusses by using either old model HO scale flatcars such as those made by Athearn, Model Power or Bachmann. The condition does not really matter if you find broken one (minus wheels and couplers as I did) at a market. The stake holders can be used to mount a safety fence.
And in the true spirit of recycling, you could also use the 5.25” blank covers that used to be on old computers for bridge trusses as well… just put some sides onto them and you are there!
Hints & Tips No.276
Quick highway guardrails.
By John Warren
For HO highway guard rails I used N scale flex track sleepers, corrugated styrene siding cut in a strip for the steel guard rail. Leave first post (tie or sleeper) full length and approx every fifth or so.
Set the ties (sleepers) in place on layout, using a Dremel Tool, drill the first hole and set post, then the next long one. glue guardrail to ties. Use a drill that ties can be forced into the plywood but also easy to remove.
( A Note from Trevor – this is known as an “Interference Fit” and many of the components on our trains are kept there by Interference Fits)
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Old Corduroy as Crop areas
By Trevor Gibbs
Corduroy as a material has a natural ribbing which we modellers can exploit. Painted or Dyed and laid over our terrain and it could look like cultivated fields… simply paint the type of crop such as green carrot tops, strawberries, lettuces etc that you want. Corduroy strands come in different widths and sizes so different crops and different scales could be represented by discreet painting or placement of vegetation coloured ground foam.
Enjoy experimenting with this one…
Hints & Tips No.278
Protecting Your Trackwork When Putting in Scenery
By John De Luca
If you have laid your track and made sure that everything is OK, protect your track work from some future problems by covering it with masking tape. You will have some cleaning up to do afterwards with white spirit or isopropyl alcohol ( rubbing alcohol) but it is a lot easier than try to clean out plaster particles.
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Colouring Water
By Tom Welsh
Model lakes and rivers have always been made using a High Gloss Varnish with a painted river bed. If you want deeper water, paint the base black with a Tan colour on the edges. If you want a small stream, paint the base a brown colour with an over paint of darkish green with the tan colour on the edges again.
Hints & Tips No.280
Alternative to Kadee Magnets
By Trevor Gibbs
Some electronic stores sell “Rare Earth Magnets” which are extremely strong but extremely small, diameters of 1/8” or 1/4”, possibly for N and OO/HO respectively.
You would use these as you would for a Kadee except that you need to be right over the magnet for the coupler to uncouple. I remember seeing many years ago a modeller at an exhibition with a smallish piece of wood shaped similarly to a tuning fork with magnets on either arm. Placed in between wagons or freight cars to be separated, the magnets draw on the uncoupling “hose” on the coupler. Later I found a product by Rix of the USA which was exactly that. My only problem was that trying to uncouple cabooses, the magnets would pull towards the exterior handrails.
Good luck with your experimentation!
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Simulating Dirt Road
by Jess Matthews
If you are making a dirt road, many sand-papers are probably close to the colour you will need. Otherwise, you may want to paint the sandpaper with a couple of coats craft store acrylic paint closer in tone to your local soils.
Hints & Tips No.282 - Simulating an Accident
by Douglas Webster
You can use that less than perfect model road vehicle to model an accident scene, such as a car that has hit a tree, or have one vehicle that has hit or backed into another. With a collection of appropriately placed figurines discussing or arguing the case, you have created a mini scene.
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Do you have to model a large town?
By Trevor Gibbs
Here in Australia at least, railway stations seemed to be placed in areas well away from the towns they were supposed to serve, across the other side of creeks or some distance from the town centre. One town in New South Wales at the end of a branch had no creek suitable for the purpose so while the town was at the base of a hill, the station was up the top. I would be very surprised if that scenario has not been repeated many times around the world.
The point is that for your model towns, you may not have to do much more than suggest the nearby presence of a town or have a newer sub division or estate. These could be suggested by “evidence” such as buildings under construction or a few outposts of commerce and residence rather than the highly detailed urban scene… just a thought!
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Painting Scenery… Black???!!!
By Mark Frizell
The long standing tradition is to paint your scenery base an earth tone color. When I applied textures, I kept finding light colored areas where the cover did not actually cover well. I would go back time after time, adding until the lightest spots disappeared. I saw a layout under construction and noticed that the scenery base was painted black. I asked and had it explained to me how it hides those annoying light or white coloured spots with a very logical reason.
Black is not a color but rather the absence of all color. It is also the least noticed 'color' to the human eye. If there is something you do not want people to see, you would paint it black which is why theatre props are painted black. Props that are supposed to 'stand out' or seem larger are usually painted a brighter color so they stand out against objects around them.
Bringing this philosophy to model railways, we highlight rock outcroppings with light colors to make them standout, so painting things black could hide them. I tried it on my own layout and was surprised at how well the ground cover worked. If I looked closely, I could see bare spots, but they were not anywhere near as noticeable as areas painted with earth colours.
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LED's in PASSENGER CARRIAGES
By Paul James
LED's can be readily fitted to passenger carriages just as globes can, but with the advantage that they are generally much brighter and do not consume as much electrical current. This would be important for DC systems and is ideally suited to DCC systems where there is a constant voltage therefore constant lighting.
In both cases, couple up a bridge rectifier, the AC connections to the track and the LED to a dumping resistor ( about 1K for 12v and 1.5K for DCC systems).
You could also use directional Red LEDs in DC systems to represent the End of Train marker lamp on brakevans, minus the bridge rectifier.
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Preparing a Backdrop
By Murray Johnson
If you are installing a backdrop on a existing wall, smooth any large bumps or crack, and remove any existing wall coverings. Thoroughly clean the wall surface as well.
If you are installing one of the pre printed backdrop, put the backdrop in the layout area for a few days to “acclimatise”. This should reduce the risk of the paper shrinking or expanding after it is attached to the wall.
Hints & Tips No.287
Lighting a layout
By Tom Welsh
To avoid shadows on your layout, use “spot” lighting to evenly light the scene and backdrop as much as possible. Try to place your lights on angles so that any large structures or mountains on the layout are avoided and you are not casting shadows.
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Layout Design
By Charlie Ramsay
Avoid putting any of your track out of easy reach. In this case "Easy" means you can rerail all the wagons of a train without straining yourself. If you must have wider bench work, make it at a lower height to compensate.
Hints & Tips No.289
Modelling Rail Joints
By Mark Frizell
You can model actual rail joints fairly easily if your depth of detail warrants it. Cut a thin slither of thin styrene about 5mm long, to fit in the web which is the thinnest section of your rail. Hold a small brad with a pair of pliers and push four small divots onto the slither. These will represent the bolt heads of the rail joiners. Glue in place and appropriately colour with a rusty coloured paint. You could even put a “notch” in the rail; head to represent a joint.
Who said you cannot super-detail rail?
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Using Bullrushes on Your Layout
By Brian Franklin
Those people who live in areas that have bullrush type plants can use the tops for telephone poles or tree trunks. In late autumn/early winter, collect the tops when they are "fuzzy" which is when they have matured fully. Using a knife blade, scrape off (do not cut off) the fuzzy section. What you have left is a naturally coloured tree trunk or telegraph pole with the correct taper. Because they come in various sizes, they can be used from N scale to OO and possibly bigger.
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Designing a layout
By Murray Johnson
Avoid the temptation to make a complex shunting situation in every yard on your layout unless you and those most likely to operate with you really like shunting problems. Prototype railways do not set out to create shunting problems unless they absolutely have to… and that is usually dictated to them by geography
Hints & Tips No.292
Using Cigarette Ash
By John Lapworth
1. For dirty country gravel roads I have used ground up cigar ashes. I am an obstinate cigar smoker so I collect ash, grind it up and apply it as I would any other scenic scatter, with the standard PVA glue mix. The results are quite realistic.
2. We used cigarette ash made into a watery paste as a stain to age and weather wood. We have now given up smoking, but it was one of the best methods we used.
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Using Beach Balls
By Jim Whelan
Keep your old kickballs and beach balls when they are worn out or punctured. Cut them in half and use them as a plaster mixing vessel. The half round shape is perfect for mixing since there are no corners and when you are finished, allow excess plaster to dry, flex the ball inside out to dump leftover plaster into the trash.
NEVER put old plaster down the sink lest it clog your plumbing.
Hints & Tips No.294
Workbench Lighting
By Bill Hollier
The lighting at your workbench needs to match as closely as possible your layout lighting. Otherwise, the carefully painted/weathered object may look very different when moved from your work area to the layout.
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A Source of Piers
By Trevor Gibbs (Melbourne, Australia)
A strip of 1/2” or ¾ MDF could make quite a number of piers for elevated railway with slightly tapered long sides – which you could plane or cut yourself – that would be reminiscent of the Triang Inclined or High Level pier sets of years ago. The MDF could come as a left over from a cabinet makers and you would be most likely given it.
A coat of Grey Paint to simulate Concrete or a light orange to simulate the Triang colour and you have an elevated section for a little effort and not very much cost!
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Scrap… from Pasta???
By Jim Whelan
Pasta comes in various shapes, tubes, elbows, straps as well as flat sheets. By taking small quantities of these shapes, breaking them discreetly and gluing them in a pile randomly together with super glue (ACC) ( remember that you cannot use PVA as the pasta would soften) then paint them with an overspray that resembles something rusting and you have a junk load.
Small sheets of pasta could represent slab steel… elbows and penne could represent pipes if newly painted.
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Extending the life of Super Glue
By Trevor Gibbs
I have an old refrigerator in my shed where the railway is. Apart from storing a few refreshments, I also keep my superglue tubes in the fridge either opened or unused to extend the life of the glue.
Hints & Tips No.298
Working Under a Layout
By Tom Richards
When I have worked on or under the layout, I found there was no place to set my Dremel tool or no place to hang a portable light under the layout.
A while ago, I decided that every time this happened, I would install a hook to hang the required tool. I now have over a dozen hooks scattered around the layout, mostly under, but a few on the lighting valence. All, of course, where they cannot snag clothing, poke eyes etc.
Now, whenever I have to work on something under the layout, there is a hook in near to the right place.
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Larger Pipes and Culverts
By Jim Whelan
For sewerage or drainage pipes, get some small sprinkler system tubes and cut them into short pipes (1" to 1 1/4" or even 2") and then paint them a concrete or steel colour.
For culverts, I use drinking straws that bend and flex- they have a corrugated parts that look right for many culverts. Use the rest as other piping on your layout.
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Wharf Details
By Dale Brooks
Some plastic coloured thumbtacks are suitable for mooring masts on the edge of wharves. Bamboo skewer sticks can make good wharf pilings. Tea Bag strings are suitable for rope details and about the right size in OO or HO or thick rope in N scale. For some cheap barrel drums commonly found on the waterside, use the metal band that holds the eraser on a lead pencil. You can paint them up in any colours you want.
A Note from Trevor - The Tea bag will not get totally wasted as the paper bag can be used to represent lace curtains and the label can make a small billboard of sorts. And you can still make a cup of tea!
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Victorian Housing Details
By John Gibson
Fancy carved toothpicks make good porch posts for Victorian or 1900's homes and are usually available from Warehouse or Reject type shops here in Australasia. Using serated scissors could cut a lot of shingles for roofing very quickly from masking tape or your preferred roofing material.
You could make a watch into a working clock tower. Find a cheap Victorian faced clock that ladies hang around their necks on a chain. The face and its size should be OK for that watch to face the street of your clock tower as a prominent model. You could even use the chain as another model.
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Frayed Thread as Barbed Wire and Other Fencing Matters
By Norman Murfett
The title is self explanatory and some people think it looks OK. Actually if you think about it, in OO or HO you would be hard pressed to see the barbs. Perhaps painting the tips of the poles to look like it is an insulator could give the illusion of an electrified fence.
Take a spring from a ball point pen and stretch it and you have a coil of razor ribbon for on top of the chain link fence. Does anyone model a Prison?
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Weathering with White Out
By David Harris
Liquid paper or whiteout makes great chalky , peeling white paint on fences, building trim & the like. It is very effective if wood is stained to look old & weathered first.
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