I was building a small office structure for my N scale fuel depot challenge (yeah, months later but I'm still at it), and I was wondering why I was having so many problems with the  sheet plastic I was using. I had some leftover Plas-Tex that I thought would be ideal, it was textured on one side, smooth on the other, cut easilly and was .060" thick. I had rolled up what I had left so to didn't take up as much room, and it sat that way in the garage for the best part of a year.

First of all, the parts I cut out had curves in most of the walls and roof that would not flatten out, even though the building dimensions were only 2" x 4" x 2". The second thing that was problematic was gluing the pieces. I tried several different solvent-based glues and none of them seemed to stick. Some wouldn't adhere to the plastic, others seemed to bond, then the parts would come apart easily after the glue dried. Even "Crazy Glue", didn't work well.

Well, I went out to the garage and luckily the label was still on the back of what was left of the sheet. I think it is self-explanatory why I was having these problems. You can also see what happens when you don't follow directions. :oops:  :oops:

Amazing what information the manufacturer gives you when you take the time to read it....

Yes, I did scrap the structure, yes I will redo it, no, I won't make the same mistakes this time.   
I just thought I'd post this and possibly save someone else the frustration and embarrassment that I went through.  


  Sheet.jpg (Size: 117.16 KB / Downloads: 1374)

  Label.jpg (Size: 109.45 KB / Downloads: 1377)

I just saw an ad for a show called Railroad Alaska on the Destination America network. Anyone seen an episode?

Had some snow today so no work on the layout ,so i did some work on my gondola fleet . Here is a pic I took ( not great but you get the idea ) of what I'm going for , there hauling old roofing shingles from a C&D recycler & some of mine.

Attached Files

  IMG_0990.JPG (Size: 139.18 KB / Downloads: 1901)
  IMG_0989.JPG (Size: 116.74 KB / Downloads: 1887)
  IMG_0988.JPG (Size: 124.71 KB / Downloads: 1861)
  IMG_0275.JPG (Size: 90.36 KB / Downloads: 1926)
  IMG_0274.JPG (Size: 111.42 KB / Downloads: 1944)

Hi,

I've been experimenting since a while with weathering brick walls to make them look realistic. Too often, they look smeared by the mortar mix just as if they were wiped with white (which is often the case). Also, too much contrast between mortar and brick colors looks toying too.

I elaborated my technic in such a way it is replicable and give constant results. Changing few colors to suit your taste or prototype may achieve totally different results. Also, all the steps are easy and don't require an high level of artistic skill.

1) I start by priming the wall with Krylon brown primer. It's a good base color and it insures us a consistent ground to which apply our weathering.



2) Make an acrylic brick color mix of your choice and color the entire wall. At this point, you can use different color variation to bring some life to the wall. However, don't overdo it.



3) Make your mortar mix using oil paint and mineral spirit. No need to make it too thin, you want it strong enough to "grip" in the mortar lines. Completely cover your wall section with the mix, let it set for a minute then white the excess with a clean clothe, making sure you leave enough mortar in the cracks. I like to wipe diagonaly, that way, I'm not stripping paint from horizontal or vertical cracks. A good mortar mix should follow real life recipe: Titanium white for lime, some Lamp black to get a greyish cement look and finally Raw Sienna for the sand. Raw Sienna is the key ingredient has it makes the mortar looks more realistic.



4) At this point, dullcoat your model to seal the oil paint. It gives a nice porous finish that will help color to stick to the wall in the next step.

5) Using color pencil, the same you used as a kid, color your brick to bring back some life to the wall and correct places where too much mortar is visible. Use again a diagonal motion to ensure you aren't putting color into crack. Use flat or rounded point, it works better and don't leave color in crack. I suggest you use at least three different color of brown and red. It gives realistic variation in the brick. Except modern brick, most older building were that uniform because of variation while drying in kiln.



At left, the brick was colored with color pencils. At right, a wash of Raw Umber have been applied (see next step).



6) At this point, you only need to bring everything together with a wash. It will tone down the mortar, blend it with the brick and merge pencil colors together. I recommend using an oil paint wash to have time to work the color around and adjust things. Depending on which color you will use, a similar wall will look very different. Burnt Umber or Burn Sienna give a well weathered look. Using Raw Umber makes mortar line more contrasting while giving a more clean look. Also, if you wipe out the wash, you can obtain different results.





7) When you brick wall is completed, you can weather it as needed with pastel chalk or additional India ink-alcohol mix. You can then seal your work with Dullcote is some shining areas are still visible. If not, just leave it as it is.

Matt

** trade or sale- catalogs books, publications. **

A open place to list trade or sale of railroad, traction, trolley related books, catalogs, and publications.
* On prototypical and Modeling information of anything that rode the rails.
* List those things of rail interest you may have lost interest in or just seem to have no place to keep anymore.
* It could be just what someone else is looking for.
* Can wait to see what gets put here.
toptrain

Lets see you 4X8, give us your story. What, When, Where & How.

To make a perfect 45 degree angle on wall edges, I made these blocks from solid oak. They are cut with a 45 degree angle on each, and put together with screws and wing nuts. To use, just clamp your wall between them, with edge sticking up the thickness of wall material, and then use a sanding block resting on one of the block edges. Sand just enough until you have a sharp edge on the wall. It gives a perfect 45 degree angle on the wall edge for very smooth wall joints. Solid oak construction means that wearing down of jig surfaces is negligible. I thought about making these for sale on ebay, but anyone can make them easily.

** ERIE Pusher Locomotives. " THE SPECIAL BREED "
* The ERIE as with other eastern railroads had to build their roadbeds where they could, and not often where they wanted. The ERIE's problem up to the 1890's, among others, was " Susquehanna Hill ". This hill had curves of 5 degrees combined with grades of 60 feet per mile. A freight train before this period was pulled by one consolidation locomotive to the foot of Susquehanna Hill. The 2-8-0 of the time pulled a load of 1,250 to 1,300 net tons and lading. Making a average train, pulling this weight, of around 45 to 50 cars in its train. Two more of these 2-8-0s were added to the train to push this average freight train up this hill. They were added to the rear as pushers. The need for locomotive of more power was evident. The New York, Lake Erie and Western, as the ERIE was known as then, had their engineers work with those of Baldwin to design a locomotive capable of replacing 2 of the 2-8-0s used at the time . They did better. They built the world's largest non articulated locomotive at the time. It remained the largest at a time of rapid locomotive development for over a year. It was unique in that it was the world's first Wooten type firebox, Decapod ,Camelback locomotive. No other Decapod camelback types were ever made. NYLE&W received 5. A sixth was built by Baldwin and sent to the Chicago World's Fair. After the fair ended is became the ERIE's sixth locomotive of the J1 class. They were numbered 800 to 805. Number 805 was the one at the fair. Millions of visitors to fair stood amazed, gazing at this huge beast of Iron, and Steel. Close up, in operation, it would have frightened half of them.
* This was ERIE's first specially designed Pusher.

*** Some links to free E-Book info on the Locomotive type.
From : Google E-Book, Railroad Gazette, Volume-24, 1892.

Subject: Erie 2-10-0c. Page-61

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Z5wxAQAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AeYT7aYfBROQC&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=Z5wxAQ ... &q&f=false</a><!-- m -->

Baldwin Compound for the World's fair. Page-844

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Z5wxAQAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AeYT7aYfBROQC&pg=RA1-PA844#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=Z5wxAQ ... &q&f=false</a><!-- m -->

Mikado 636 takes a spin on the Lowbanks turntable. Like her three sisters, she's sporting a new outside-bearing lead truck:




Wayne