I am having a heckuva time assembling Athearn's HO scale all-weather windows -- which is kind of ironic since it is only a 2-piece plastic assembly with not so much as a sprue to cut: it consists of the window frame and the clear windows.  The window seems like it should be a tight fit that is instead turning into a too-tight force-fit ... I've already cracked the clear windows on 2 of them (6 sets come in a package) while trying to press-fit the window piece inside of the frame.

I have a desk top magnifier that the lens really needs a wash job. I have used one of those eye glass cleaning cloths on it and that helped, but it needs something more to get years of crud off. I have a cloth bag to cover it with, but that is a new addition.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

Jack

Now that our old reliable Floquil is truly gone, I have been looking at various acrylic paints for airbrushing. More specifically, the craft acrylics from Michaels, etc.  Many of the posts I have seen recommend adding retarder to the mix of paint and airbrush thinner. Those of you who have mixed up Joe Fugate's "High Performance Thinner" will know that the retarder from Liquitex or Golden is very thick. 

I've been searching various information on logging railroads and looking at other modelers work and how they approach things because I only have a small area to represent dwindling logging on the current version of my pike. I came upon a channel called "It's My Railroad". The description in the post title are my words because the guy who does it appears to have a lot less concern for the prototype than I do and, as most know, I'm a pretty died in the wool freelancer.