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The hardware store thread

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  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Spartanburg, SC
  • 1,503 posts
The hardware store thread
Posted by GP-9_Man11786 on Tuesday, August 5, 2014 2:44 PM

Pictured below is a small stone arch bridge I kitbashed to accomodate four tracks. I started with a Monroe Models single-track bridge kit. I took one half of the kit, placed it in front of the riser. For the portion of the bridge actually under the track, I bought a 2" PVC pipe coupling from Home Depot, cut it in half and painted the pieces flat black. After the pieces dried. I traced their shape on the riser and used my hot knife to cut out a tunnel under the track and the stream bed. I places the PVC arches under the tracks, and then I glued the arch and wing walls in front of the riser.I filled the gaps behind the wing walls with Woodland Scenics "Flex Paste."

Do any of you have kitbash projects that used parts purchased at Home Depot, Lowes or the local hardware store? If so, show them here.

 

Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.

www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com 

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • 178 posts
Posted by chicochip on Tuesday, August 5, 2014 8:22 PM

Sure!

Try this. I have used left-over round sprues from plastic model kits to simulate water pipes, gas pipes, sewer pipes, etc. Wherever there is an elbow, there are four flanges: two on the elbow and one each on the straight pipes leading into the elbow.

 

In the electrical departments, at Lowe's or Home Depot, you can find a huge assortment of sizes of plastic hollow wall anchors. These things are designed with a plastic ring molded to a stem that will accept a screw within the drywall or other hollow wall material. Useful for mounting pictures, planters, and the like: they also make great raw material for elbow flanges. Use the stem as a place to grip the object and sever the small ring off the top. Voila! An HO (or any other) scale donut that can be slipped onto the plastic sprue to simulate a pipe flange.

 

  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Ridgeville,South Carolina
  • 1,294 posts
Posted by willy6 on Tuesday, August 5, 2014 11:43 PM

Corregated picture frame nails make good junkyard fences, just get them wet and sit around for a bit and they will get natural rust, no paint required.

Being old is when you didn't loose it, it's that you just can't remember where you put it.
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
  • 13,757 posts
Posted by cacole on Wednesday, August 6, 2014 6:52 AM

I use PVC pipe caps to recess toggle switches in the layout fascia so they don't get accidentally bumped, especially on the club layout.  A 1-inch cap is large enough to get a finger into to throw a sub-miniature toggle switch's lever.

I drill a hole in the end of the cap and mount the toggle switch on the outside with the lever on the inside of the cap.  I then use a hole saw to drill into the facia, which is masonite over a 2x4, and mount the PVC cap flush with the fascia.

For turnout position indicators, red and green LEDs are flush mounted on one side of the cap.

 

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,207 posts
Posted by stebbycentral on Wednesday, August 6, 2014 3:03 PM

Straight out of the plumbing aisle

I have figured out what is wrong with my brain!  On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • 773 posts
Posted by ruderunner on Sunday, August 10, 2014 6:21 PM
Toilet float?

Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,207 posts
Posted by stebbycentral on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 6:36 AM

ruderunner
Toilet float?
 

Yep, and a couple of PVC fittings.

I have figured out what is wrong with my brain!  On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,370 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 1:39 PM

I use Durham's Water Putty for my roads.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Brantford, Ontario, Canada
  • 480 posts
Posted by bigpianoguy on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 4:14 PM

Radioactive toilet float. I LOVE it!

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    April 2013
  • 917 posts
Posted by Southgate on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 7:20 PM

MisterBeasley

I use Durham's Water Putty for my roads.

 

So do I. It's available at Home Depot, near the paint supplies. Nobody who works there seems to know what it is, or that they carry it, so I halfway by accident discovered it. Great stuff!

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