Hi!
I've used cotton swabs for modeling for many years, and keep a box on the hobby desk. They also are a major help in cleaning firearms and hard to reach small areas.
One point I'd like to make.......... buying "cheap" swabs for hobby work is fine, but I urge you not to use them to clean your ears (or other sensitive parts). I had the cotton end come off twice, and removing one was not easy.
For "personal use", get the Q-Tip brand - and think of it as the "KaDee of swabs".
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Thanks, Stix. I figured there were various colors and shades available, but I already had the swabs on the shelf and opened, so I tried it. They aren't as controllable as markers, so I'll be shopping around--and letting my fingers do the walking--to see if I can find the right shade of grey to use on the bottoms of side and end sills.
I like your idea about brick, too, although I'm mostly building rolling stock and steam locos these days for display. Back in the '70s, I built and detailed structures for the town of Farley, Colorado, a division point on my HO Colorado Western, circa 1895, and used a method of creating realistic brick and mortar detailed by Noel Holley, in an article in RMC. He painted the brick color, let it set up, then mixed up some plaster and dry color to the right shade, wet the siding flat on the table or workbench, and dusted on the plaster, making sure all the mortar lines were filled. Whe the plaster had dried, it's removed with a dry cloth, rubbing diagonally. It leaves very nice-looking mortar lines and gives a nice texture to the bricks.
A friend of mine built the same AHM hotel or rooming house (used for a lot of other kits as well) and achieved good results by first painting the brick color---then flooding on white shoe polish, which he also rubbed off the bricks with diagonal strokes! Model Railroading is Fun--and modelers are inventive!
Deano
Re the felt tip pen - you can pick up 'art markers' at an art supply store in a variety of colors that work very well. I particularly like to use them on plastic brick walls - spray the wall primer gray or tan, and use a brick red art marker to color the raised bricks. It sounds hard, but the art marker is stiff enough it doesn't go down between the bricks, so you can color things pretty easily. Plus you can leave trim areas (like around windows) in the original gray or tan.
I use a lot of cotton swabs for weathering, ballasting, getting dust off freight car roofs, a d so on. There are applications where the loose cotton fibers (if it actually still is cotton) are not helpful - I found a product at an art supply house that looks like a large cotton swab but the swab part itself seems to be tightly wound fabric. A bit more pricey but yet another handy tool to have in your arsenal.
While I prefer cotton swabs with the traditional "Qtip" tightly compressed paper shafts, I did get a deal on some with a blue-ish plastic shaft. The shaft is hollow and not as sturdy as the compressed paper. But if you snip off the swab parts after use the hollow flexible tube has a number of modeling uses (as pipe, but also as a sleeve that protects music wire coming through scenery) so you can be ever yet more thrifty and frugal.
I am somehow reminded of the old joke aabout a guy from -- well to avoid insulting anyone let's just say, from a certain part of the country -- whose doctor asked him accusingly "You don't put Qtips in your ears do you?" The guy looked offended to even be asked such a question. "Heck no, that's what car keys is for."
Dave Nelson
Swabs have a lot of uses in modeling. When I apply details to a model and they have to be brush painted, I dip a swab in Scalecoat II thinner and go over them. Quick drying and paint stays on much better.
I agree with Mike in that I use cotton swabs (brought in big packs, although still from CVS cheap enouhg) for cleaning (especially when airbrushing) and blotting water when decalling or weathering (twist the end swabs a few times in your fingers to tighten them up and prevent loose cotton strands from ruining your work). I guess the tip of the swab would work for blotting-weathering (e.g. rust spots), but I think torn bits of makeup sponges provide better control in this regard.For hyper-detail painting I use microbrushes, 5/0 liner brushes, and Sharpie (markers) - dullcoating the sharpie lines removes the shininess pretty well IMO.For cleaning ny ears I use...Debrox drops...
I use them for weathering and such, like Frank mentions, along with the wedge shaped make-up sponges. I use the micro brushes more for painting than I do the swabs. They come in different sizes, and yes, they are more expensive than the swabs.
Mike.
My You Tube
They are great for powdered pigments for weathering, Artist oil paints and Artist chalks. Have been using them since they had wood handles and only one end had a swab. Many use's also for the wood on the old one's...long gone now. Just have to be aware of loose cotton fibers, that will come off.
Never used them in My ears.
Take Care!
Frank
Whenever I'm holding some Q-tips and they fall down to the floor before I get to use it, I put them in a separate container by my layout for modeling use. They ain't going in my ears, but they're perfectly suited to use for stirring paint, applying glue, etc.
I went into my usual store of the Dollar Tree franchise (we have two; this one's closest) for cleaning supplies and looked around to see if anything else caught my eye. I spotted long blister pack of 350 double-ended cotton swabs, for a buck plus SST. As I've used them in the past for cleaning things, I added them to my shopping basket.
When I went back to the tedious job of painting the complicated underbody of one of my 34' OT boxcars today, I looked at the mess I'd made trying to save trouble masking for the body color and decided a felt-tip pen might be the answer. It isn't; too shiny, too starkly bluish black. As I'd just finished cleaning the remote control for my DVD player with alcohol and swabs, I suddenly wondered... Snatching one out of the wastebacket under the workbench (relatively clean, after the alcohol evaporated), I dipped one end into the Floquil Poly-Scale grimy black and viola! I hid the ugliness of felt tip ink without getting any on the siding! This will make the reswt of the job easier, as I can now mask the bottoms of the side and end sills, airbrush the grimy black after I airbrush the body color.
Question is, why didn't I think of this before? (Probably because I hadn't found 350 swabs on the cheap, that's why!) I don't guarantee you'll find such a bargain at your local dollar store (ours doesn't always have the same stuff in stock), but I thought maybe others would like to keep them in mind. I've used them in the past for cleaning wheel treads, applying gun bluing to the treads of brass rims on HO steam loco drivers and tender wheels, and a lot of other uses. Maybe some of you guys hadn't thought of using them to swab on paint...
Model Railroading is FUN!