What was the "big grey thing" other than a large rock outcrop? I've used a staple gun staple as an extended throw bar tor a Caboose turnout ground throw.
Hahahaha! Good point!
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
BNSF UP and others modeler I don't exactly "use" these, but the local spiders occasionally visit my layout. Might consider drafting them into my collection of engineer figures...
I don't exactly "use" these, but the local spiders occasionally visit my layout. Might consider drafting them into my collection of engineer figures...
If only we could train them to string telegraph lines on our poles...........
Coffee filters dipped in hydrocal for scenery.
Keyboard keys for concrete footings.
Terry
Back when I was part of a club, we used to stain the plaster base of the layout brown with cold coffee.
Made a smokestack with a paper towel tube spread and weighted at the bottom (with a used D cell battery).
When I needed fenceposts to "sell" at my lumberyard, I used round hors d'ouevre toothpicks (with the sharp end cut off). I also use them (with the sharp ends on) to hold model buildings in place without affixing them permanently.
I once replaced a broken crane turntable base with a cap from a Rx bottle.
This car stops at ALL railroad crossings!
dragonriversteelWhat items have you found ? Please share with the forum.
How about hidden things, like weights? Using these large steel nuts with double-sided tape keeps these underweight Con-Cor 60ft boxcars from derailing:
...the price per-ounce is a lot cheaper than the stick-on weights you buy from a hobby shop at ~$3-4 for a 2oz set.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
my brother traded me for a brass steam engine he painted using a q tip dipped in the paint bottle. That was one sorry mess with cotton pieces stuck in the paint. stripped it and air brushed and sold it since I didn't model that railroad any way.
Wow, what a response ! Thank you all for your suggestions & tips. Found a few I will try.
We all use basically the same type of stuff.
If it has structural appeal or just looks the part.
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
I've used all sorts of odd things on my n scale layout including painted coffee stiring straws for oil pipe, painted poster board for roads and streets, window screen wire for the base support of my mountain and tunnels, tooth picks, etc... Styrene plastic model sprus also come in handy for anyone wanting to model the plumbing of an industrial plant or refinery.
From the garden, a strip of divders. Upside down, they mark the edge of the layout.
don't know if its odd or not but used white toilet paper tubes for farm silos . granulated garlic for spilled corn at covered hopper loading site , mountain yarow for tree forms, plastic straws cut with a hot knife to make feed sacks, parsley and basil for leaves. just to name a few
I have used pieces of small gauge wire with green insulation for garden hoses. I have used cassette tape cases as background buildings. I have used a flat wooden box for a loading dock. I have used toys but try not to make them look like toys, like these barrels I decorated for Oktoberfest. One was blue and the other was red. And I used this medical breathe tester as storage silos for the plastics factory. The trees in the background are from a game.
I used 38 Special cases for smokestacks on the roundhouse.
I've used sanded grout, works very well! I saw it in NG&SL Gazette maybe 3-4 years ago and decided to try it.
As a guitar player, I have used old guitar strings in place of "music wire", the thinner strings work for things like connecting switch motors to switches. The high E string is .010", could be used for railings, grabs, etc.
I haven't tried them yet, but at the pet store I picked up a bag of tiny mixed foliage meant for lining the enclosures of like iguanas or something. It looked like what you'd find on the ground in a forest - small twigs about the size of fallen trees, small plant sections that look like pieces off maybe a Norway pine. I also bought some kind of crushed rock meant for I think fish tanks, that looked a lot like HO "rip rap" similar to what the New York Central had along the Hudson.
I also saw a kind of flourescent tube / fixture that was meant for reptile enclosures that was supposed to be the correct light color to represent the desert sun. I wonder if someone modelling say the Southwest might find those usefull?
Tile grout for earth tones. They come in many different colors. Sanded or unsanded. It depends on if you want texture or not. Dab some in your rock formations. Put some on to cover Barren ground. Black or charcoal for shadowing.
The results are amazing. The best thing is these products dry flatter than flat for a realistic result.
P.S. You might find like I found after I tried this......... Maybe paint ain't for everything. In my findings paint is a good undercoating to start.
Fine brass screening used for chain link fence, see through walkways, 12 G solid copper wire for commercial building downspouts, plastic drinking straws as a wire guide to fish mini bulb building lighting wiring, assorted hardware, staples, brads, hat pins and sewing sequins for small building lights. so many other odd pieces can't remember all.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Some time back, I posted a thread on how I used a record player turntable as the mechanism for a RR turntable. I rigged up a slow Motor-gearhead to turn the platter by a small rubber wheel turning the outer edge of the patter. Very smooth and solid operating TT, all record player hardware hidden under the pit floor. Dan
Pet screen from Menards works great for N scale windows. Latch hooking plastic Grid at Hobby Lobby works great for HO windows.
I'm also a musician, I use discarded used bass guitar strings (the low "B" and "E" strings) as weights for my intermodal containers. I chop them up into pieces and glue them to the floor of the container with the same adhesive caulk I use to fasten down my track and roadbed.
I used a Frosting cans for a tank farm and as I have gotten older those little silica gel inserts found in prescription bottles as oil drums. Be careful though don’t want them anywhere near the dog as with most tiny parts!
Joe Staten Island West
From the hardware store, plumbing caps and couplings make great oil tanks. Home Depot has some mini trim items that can be used for cornices or bridge rail. Hobby Lobby has stuff that can be useful. The scrapbooking section has papers that make great wallpapers/ floors. In Michaels I found one that looked a lot like tan brick. The floral section had dried stuff that makes great trees. Also used some beads as "Indian" pottery in front of a HO tourist trap. One time in the lego store with our youngest, they had some L shaped and T shaped pieces that made perfect HO diner booths. Needless to say he got a bucket of lego pieces that day.
It's the big grey thing beside the locomotive.
On my City Classics & Lunde downtown commercial buildings, 2 small finish nails (brads, I guess) through the front wall for the fire department connection to the standpipe, and a thin brass wire across the front doors for the 'panic bar'.
Some dry pasta letters for a sign on a building. And some elbow pasta for roof vents.
Some cut up plastic table coverings in different colors to make triangular pennants around a used car lot.
Jim
I used a CD album cover for 90 degrees angles. I built a modern concrete bridge using this method. It wouldn't be straight and operational without the CD cover.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Mushroom powder out of the spice rack as dirt around my newly built two stall enginehouse. A nice brown. Looked great.
Looked even better when it started to "grow"--instant ground cover.
Ed
I built my N scale turntable drive and support from the main shaft and tachometer drive from a Cummins PTG fuel pump.
.
The spider coupling was machined to match the turntable bridge that was made from a piece of 1/4" bar steel stock. The dual ball bearings made a perfect support for the turntable. I used the tachometer drive to drive the main shaft instead of vice versa.
It was a marvel of engineering.
-Kevin
Living the dream.