Tools, tips and tricks
Gray primer on gray plastic
I have new Atlas undec locos. They are a light-colored gray plastic. Do I need to spray them with gray primer? I'm painting acrylic yellow. I'm wondering if the primer is formulated differently to "regular" paint, allowing a better adhesion, as I have heard acrylic paint doesn't stick as well as the older enamel kind. If not an issue, is the Atlas gray light enough to accept yellow? Thanks.
Curving hardboard the easy way
Here's a way to curve hardboard for your fascia or walls - both inside & outside curves:
I recently added curved (coved) corners in the train room addition using the "brute force" method. I took flat hardboard 4' x 8' x 3/16" panels and forced them into the corner. This was an extremely difficult and frustrating method. I'm getting ready to cove a corner in the expansion area and decided to use a curving method that I had used previously on some fascia board they worked very well. Here are the steps (refer to the picture below):
Private Blog entries
MRH has implemented a feature in the blogs to enable blog writers to keep their blog entries private - only the author and the MRH admins will be able to see them.
I can hear Horace Fithers asking "Why would I want to do something like that?"
In two words: Saving and Editing
ducks and splines
In pre-computer days draftsmen working on large drawings often needed splines to draw a fair curve through a set of points. These splines were long strips of wood - later plastic - and to hold them in position weights were used. These shoe-shape lead cast weights were wide at one end for stability and narrow at the other to allow view of the work area. The narrow end had a bent wire sticking out to hold the spline. These weights were known as ducks where I worked - perhaps more colorful terms elsewhere.
The Funny side of Tools to some people We all need a laugh
I love tools and use have used hundreds over the past 58 years but sometimes you just need to smile at them and the people trying to use them.
Pacific Coast Air Line Railway HO Early Rail Articles Back
I have reposted the HO 1870's articles back on the website. They include
U-Link-n-pin coupling, lowering the Mantua 1860 boxcars and tender contacts for
the Bachmann 1870's 4-4-0 at:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/
Thank you if you visit
Harold
Weathering Clinic Using PanPastel Artists Pastels
Rob Manley gave an entertaining and riviting clinic at the Naperville RPM this afternoon regarding the use of PanPastel atrists painting pastels as a weathering medium. Appears the product is better than weathering chalks, with excellent adhesion and control qualities. Understand PanPastel will be creating weathering kits targeted to the model community soon.
Any clever double crossover/slip motor approaches?
In the layout under construction there are a couple of double crossovers and (so far) a double slip. The straightforward approach would appear to be one motor for each set of points. Thats a lot of expensive turnout motors! Thinking about the crossovers I realized that there are three positions of the four points possible -- both sides open or either cross-over thrown. Be nice if there was a three position tortoise motor! Anyhow, I am a newbie on these matters and am curious if any of the old hands have developed a better approach to automating these kinds of turnouts?
Track Signals
I imagine within this august forum, and with the depth of knowledge demonstrated by all concerned - someone can probably answer this question.
Has anyone scratch built track signals using LED's and fibre pipe?
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