For Newbies ..........installing or working on motors/gears, installing knuckle couplers,springs, body detail parts, etc. This sounds so simplistic, yet it never occured to me until I saw my friend, CMarchand, use this common sense step as he worked on on one of my Atlas units:
Do this type of work on top of a Terry Cloth (bath) towel on your work table
My wooden work table is smooth and for years when I've dropped Kadee coupler springs, couplers, handrails, motor bushings and detailing parts............. they'd bounce off of the table's surface down to the mysterious threads of THE CARPET JUNGLE where many a tiny item would disappear!
Now I use a folded 2' x 3' towel that catches everything that falls off.
Just shows that one is never too old to learn a little common sense
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Okay, I based this on something jeffrey-wimbley PMed me.
It's your layout, do what you want.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
jecorbett wrote:No, I did not see the PM. I'm not even sure where to look for PMs since it is not something I normally do.
John,
You can find the Private Message link on the Model Railroader Forum main page, directly above the Forums list:
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Styrene " for sale" signs from your local hardware or big box store .I use them for scratch-building,railroad crossings, bridge abutments,anything you'd by styrene for.At $1.97 for a 15"by19" large sign, it's a steal.
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
selector wrote: John, please excuse this type of intrusion, but I sent you a pm a couple of days back and have had no acknowledgement from you. Did you get it?I will delete this when I know you have my pm so that this won't continue to appear.Thanks.-Crandell
John, please excuse this type of intrusion, but I sent you a pm a couple of days back and have had no acknowledgement from you. Did you get it?
I will delete this when I know you have my pm so that this won't continue to appear.
Thanks.
-Crandell
No, I did not see the PM. I'm not even sure where to look for PMs since it is not something I normally do.
Recently, I have been constructing HO Scale "Woodland Areas" for our local Historical museum model railroad. Since the entire railroad is on a flat 2" insulation board surface, my first idea was to just drill holes in the insulation and "plant" some 200 deciduous and connifer trees. Then it occured to me that it might be far better to make rough ovals of scrap styrofoam ceiling tiles, and add some uneven contours to the surface by gluing on slivers of styrofoam and staining the surface. At present, I have completed eight of the movable "Woodland Areas",(which can be rearranged and replaced with seasonal foliaged trees), and two farm fields with plastic corn stalks and pumpkins, along side of a farmer on a tractor plowing a field, made by using a serated blade knife to carve the parallel furrows.
For my own layout, I have completed about 500 HO scale deciduous trees, made from stained half skewers with circles of furnace filter (sprayed flat black), and each circular layer spray glued and sprinkled with ground up Woodland Scenic Foliage Clumps. For hillside forests, I spray the hillside with adhesive and dab on clumps of foliage, without trunks. Bob
My favourite tip is one I got from Chuck (tomikawaTT), and that is to dress the ends of each rail length using a metal file. The top surface must be beveled slightly and also the inside face where the flanges work. This might not be absolutely critical on tangent meets, but on curves, notably tight one where engines are nearing marginal capability, those beveled faces will go a long way to preventing derailments due to slight misalignments.
David Woodard wrote:Here is a tip request. What is the best glue to use for attaching ground cover, in particular model gravel...???
For the base layer of groundcover, I paint the bare surface with acryllic paint and then sprinkle the base earth ground cover over the wet paint. When dry, I add the remaining layers dry. Then I soak it with a spray bottle containing a water with a little alchohol, being careful of course to mask the surrounding areas. Then I use a 2 to 1 water/white glue mixture with a drop of dishwashing soap. I apply the thinned glue from the original Elmer's bottle and just allow it to drip out of the bottle. It soaks right into the wet area. I takes about a day to fully dry.
I was thinking it might be useful to start a thread where modelers could post some of the best tips for the benefit of fellow modelers, whether they be newbies or veterans. These tips could be things that might be common knowledge to veterans but not so obvious to the newbies or they could be for techniques modelers have developed on their own or received from a fellow modeler that might be of interest to anyone. These tips could be anything related to model railroading. We'll see if this thread generates enough interest to sustain itself and become a repository of useful tips for all modelers.
One tip I came across was in the instructions for my first FSM kit. When trying to make straight cuts with a steel ruler and a hobby knife, I would often experience the frustration of having the ruler slip during the cut and often ruining the piece being cut. The suggestion in the FSM kit was to glue a piece of sandpaper to the back of the ruler. This greatly reduces the tendency of the ruler to slide out of position during the cut. Since doing this, I have had very few accidents of this nature.