QUOTE: Originally posted by dkelly Would that be PFM or PMS engines? lol (stupid - but too good to pass up). Actually that is a super idea once you stop and think about it. I'm wondering if the larger bandaids would also work?
QUOTE: Originally posted by RedLeader I once used some hair from my own head to test if it worked as tall grass. Guess what... It did just great! Trim it and paint it tan and light green, and you have very realistc tall grass. The next day I went to my hair stylist and he (or she??) gave me a bag full of hair for free!! Kinda gross, but it works.
Originally posted by mondotrains I've used wooden skewers, you know, the kind you use for barbecuing shrimp on the grill, for making great-looking guard rails. Safety matches work great too (the fireplace matches are best). They make good rough lumber stacks as well. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 9:09 AM Some super ideas here, but the pantyliners tops the list!! LOL, that is classic. A few things I have used: 1.) I have a large grain terminal on my HO layout. You know the large piles of corn that are out in fall especially, I went to the neighbors feed grinder and filled a 5 gallon pail of ground corn, it looks great scale-wise making corn piles. and smells realistic too. 2.) I use the steal shavings mentioned earlier from a shop-friend of mines shop to fill my gondolas, very nice for making ore. especially the natural rust colered shavings. To get that effect, just leave the shavings outside for about a week, giving them a mist of water 3-4 times during the week. 3.) I also have flat cars I use for hauling steel strips. What I did there was use black plastic "zip ties", cut ends off, and glue them in "stacks", and then bind them with white zip ties. The zip ties are lightweight too. 4.) For my other flat cars cars carrying coils of wire, I use ultra-thin guage (almost hair-like) copper wire. I get an endless supply from a friend who works in an electric motor manufacturing plant that they discard. I wind these tightly around those miniature spools that thread comes on and mount 4-6 on my flat cars. I paint the spools a flat gray before winding the wire on them and then a dab of glue secured the wound wire. Looks great. 5.) I also have a meat packing plant on my layout. One end of the building is open on one end for viewing. You know where they hang the sides of beef from hooks and the sides move on tracks mounted on the ceiling? I have very small eye bolts on the ceiling where I run heavy guage fishing line through. Mounted On the fishing lines I have very small fishhooks glued to the fishing line that I hang pieces of wadded up leather painted red/pink to simulate the beef. I have mounted near my control a ultra lite fishing reel that when I crank, the sides of beef rotate around the building as if they are being loaded from an assembly line into my refrigerator cars. Sounds complicated, but very realistic. 6.) For my grain elevator, I use white PVC pipe to make the silos and weather them with gray chalk with very small rust chalk lines. Its the best thing I have found. 7.) I also have a radio station located on my layout. What I used to make the four radio towers were old tv and stereo antennaes. The cable used to support these is "spider-wire" brand fishing lines secured to my base wrapped around a small screw, covered with lichen. The best part is when Im running my layout under low light, I have run up the hollow centers of the antennaes small guage wire and at four points on each antennae I have tiny red lights thatI drilled (tiny holes) on the antennaes to a relay that when I turn on, they all blink on-off and different intervals. At that same radio station I also have two satellite dishes that I made from two small, smooth coffee saucers my wife "donated", painted a slight gray. The dishes sit at a 30 degree angle or so and made the bases from old silverware, cut and ground to look like steel gridwork, very realistic in my opinion. The radio station is an exact replica of a radio station about 8 miles from my home that sits one mile from the real 1:1 BNSF line in my area. I modeled it from photos I took. Those are my favorite "home made" items Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 9:18 AM I used small, old roots from a bush in my backyard for dead trees on my layout. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 9:25 AM Rustoleum makes a spray on coating for tool handles. It is slightly rough. It is available in red, black, yellow, etc. I took some plastic drinking straws, cut them to length, then sprayed them with the black coating. Now, they look like large cast iron pipes. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 10:28 AM That straw idea is nice If you can get it, steel banding makes great sheet metal loads (use the 1" wide kind used to band heavy pallets at factories. There's always a bunch of it in scrap bins, just ask someone there if you can grab a couple pieces). It is a bit heavy, though that also makes it good for adding weight to rolling stock. Reply Edit Junctionfan Member sinceFebruary 2004 From: St.Catharines, Ontario 3,770 posts Posted by Junctionfan on Friday, September 24, 2004 10:46 AM I use saw dust for the woodchip cars, kitty-litter for aggregate cars and real coal that has been in a blender for the coal cars. Andrew Reply RedLeader Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: Barranquilla, Colombia 327 posts Posted by RedLeader on Friday, September 24, 2004 11:15 AM Yank: Once you paint the trimed hair with enamel, it will stay stiff. Don't use gel... LOL! Reply willy6 Member sinceJanuary 2003 From: Ridgeville,South Carolina 1,294 posts Posted by willy6 on Friday, September 24, 2004 11:53 AM I used "alphabet soup noodles" for raised letters on a building, they will expand a little when painted.Also used black valve stem caps from car tires for pots for potted trees.And angel hair spagetti for pvc pipe. Being old is when you didn't loose it, it's that you just can't remember where you put it. Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 11:57 AM The valve stem caps sound like an excellent idea!! With the little ridges in them they do look very much like some of the fancier ones that you see outside of down town buildings. Reply Edit brothaslide Member sinceDecember 2001 From: Southern California 743 posts Posted by brothaslide on Friday, September 24, 2004 11:58 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon Okay......don't laugh........but to dampen noise and vibration is some locomotives I have used.....the self adhesive panty liner thingys....you know..what the wife keeps under the bathroom sink......absorbs...sound ..like a champ. Just cut to fit, peel and stick! Dan, You need to submitt an article to MR about this. [(-D][(-D][(-D] Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 12:09 PM QUOTE: The valve stem caps sound like an excellent idea!! With the little ridges in them they do look very much like some of the fancier ones that you see outside of down town buildings. Wouldn't that also make them great for old metal garbage cans? Just paint em silver [;)] Reply Edit Junctionfan Member sinceFebruary 2004 From: St.Catharines, Ontario 3,770 posts Posted by Junctionfan on Friday, September 24, 2004 12:16 PM I used fire for a disaster sceen on the layout but I had to replace the layout afterwards (just kidding) Andrew Reply dharmon Member sinceAugust 2003 From: Bottom Left Corner, USA 3,420 posts Posted by dharmon on Friday, September 24, 2004 1:53 PM QUOTE: Originally posted by brothaslide QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon Okay......don't laugh........but to dampen noise and vibration is some locomotives I have used.....the self adhesive panty liner thingys....you know..what the wife keeps under the bathroom sink......absorbs...sound ..like a champ. Just cut to fit, peel and stick! Dan, You need to submitt an article to MR about this. [(-D][(-D][(-D] Well first I need to make sure I have "prior art", before MTH tries to patent it and sue me..... Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 3:14 PM Many years ago I used flashcubes painted grey as a load on a flatcar. (for you younger guys a flashcube was a small ~ 1" cube holding 4 flash bulbs that rotated on top of the camera so the bottom had a plastic turning mechanism that when painted and turned upside down looked pretty good - at least to my then 15 year old eyes) Cliff Reply Edit easyaces Member sinceFebruary 2001 From: NW Central IND. 326 posts Posted by easyaces on Friday, September 24, 2004 5:40 PM Some very thin flat wood coffee stir sticks make great lumber stacks glued together and bundled. They also work well for scratch-building clap-board sided houses. .177cal. airgun pellets(flat head and field point pellets) make neat looking rooftop vents for some buildings and factories. I also use that gray/white paperboard (you get in new packages of socks and shirts) to build HO scale buildings with. MR&L(Muncie,Rochester&Lafayette)"Serving the Hoosier Triangle" "If you lost it in the Hoosier Triangle, We probably shipped it " !! Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 24, 2004 9:03 PM I used some fancy round toothpicks for guard rails along side a road. The ones I used had two grooves at the top spaced about 1/16" apart. I used some grey thread that I coated with white glue so it wouldn't get fuzzy as cables between the guard posts. I just wrapped the thread around the grooves, went to the next one did the same and kept going until I reached the end. Ed Schultz Reply Edit ReadingBob Member sinceMarch 2002 From: Lake Mary, FL 26 posts Posted by ReadingBob on Sunday, September 26, 2004 8:58 PM I used to cut up the shafts of ice hockey sticks (once the blade broke and they were no longer useful) for risers, etc. Alas, I don't play anymore so I lost my source. 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QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon Okay......don't laugh........but to dampen noise and vibration is some locomotives I have used.....the self adhesive panty liner thingys....you know..what the wife keeps under the bathroom sink......absorbs...sound ..like a champ. Just cut to fit, peel and stick!
QUOTE: The valve stem caps sound like an excellent idea!! With the little ridges in them they do look very much like some of the fancier ones that you see outside of down town buildings.
QUOTE: Originally posted by brothaslide QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon Okay......don't laugh........but to dampen noise and vibration is some locomotives I have used.....the self adhesive panty liner thingys....you know..what the wife keeps under the bathroom sink......absorbs...sound ..like a champ. Just cut to fit, peel and stick! Dan, You need to submitt an article to MR about this. [(-D][(-D][(-D]