Stained Glass windows

Mon, 07 May 2012 16:32:00 -0700

This all started with a discussion about windows for Gary60s Church Scratchbuild. http://www.nscale.net/forums/downloa...?do=file&id=68

During this, PW&NJ (Thanks Matt) gave me a site for pictures of stained glass windows and other pics that did not have copyright or any of the other legal stuff we do not want. http://www.rgbstock.com/images/stained%20glass

I save one of the stained glass windows

A crazy hermits scratch built house.

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:42:00 -0700

So tonight I decided to build the crazy hermits house for my layout.
What makes him crazy is that it was built only using crazy glue... lol..

Its a cute little house my wife likes. I just made it on a whim, and I took pics the entire way through.

First you need to build a jig like this, you need four of them.
This will keep your walls from sticking to your table ect while glueing them.

The Old Hippy House (Scratchbuild for 3.00)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:11:00 -0700

I was bored today, layout was still wet from previous work, so I stopped by the LHS, and picked up some balsa. Made an old hippy house today. Here are the pictures of the build. Hope you enjoy. If you subtract the material unused to build this, I probably have about 3.00 in this house.

I cut out the panels.

Added some windows and doors..

Scrubbing Pad Conifer

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:45:00 -0700

Here is a picture of the first and right now only conifer. I did it last night and finished it today. They are easy to make. The method is based on a video by Joe Fugate and on the book N Scale Railroad That Grows. It was the book that I got the idea from. I tried spun conifers but failed miserably - even after repeatedly watching the Fugate video and MC's great tutorial on centrifugal trees.
So here it is:

Great tool from Gary60s - SERB holder

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:52:00 -0700

I wanted to post this and say THANKS to Gary60s for a great tool. I don't know if you already read his discussion of blades and how they work. If you read it you will see that in a lot of cases a SERB (Single Edge Razor Blade) is a really good choice for scratch building. Problem is holding them without getting hand cramps.

Gary60 comes to the rescue with a very simple device to solve this. He made an aluminum handle with two holes strategically placed to hold SERBs. This allows you to easily mound the blade and use both ends by swapping the the blade around. A box of 100 SERBs at my hardware store is about $9 for 100 blades or in this case 200 usable edges. Great deal when compared to dozen or so Xacto blades for the same price.

Corrugated sheet metal

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:21:00 -0700

I'm working on a freight transfer shed and wanted to do the roof with corrugated sheet metal. Back in my HO structure building days I used commercial material (left over from craftsman kits) but I've never seen it in N-scale. (although I haven't looked very hard). I decided to make my own, using ordinary aluminum foil embossed on a bastard-cut mill file. There's really nothing to it (I'm not even sure this technique warrants a tutorial thread) - just use a rounded tool for the embossing (I used the end of a cheap ball-point pen) and don't press too hard or you'll get a lot of tiny strips of aluminum foil.

Make your own ballast spreader

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:11:00 -0700

Here is a thread showing how you can make your own unique ballast spreader that works very well. I made these primarily from clear acrylic plastic. I bought full sheets from a hardware store, but all that is needed is some scraps, which you might get free if you ask nice. Directions and materials are shown in the sketches. Dimensions and thicknesses are critical for proper operation.

Don't be tempted to put a coupler on it, because it won't work. Best results are with hand operation.

To use, just put some ballast between the tracks, and then push the car to spread the ballast. Some brushing may be necessary to remove ballast from the top of ties and near rails, but it is SO MUCH EASIER than trying to spread ballast by

Spray Booth "on the cheap"

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:34:00 -0700

I am trying to get set up to spray paint and quite frankly I am not going to spend a penny more on this than I have to. Painting could be a whole other hobby all by itself for all the equipment you need to do it. Anyway ...

My spray booth started as a cardboard box. I tried for a long time and was unable to get a box the same size as an air filter - which would have been ideal - but it is close enough.

I cut the flaps off the box and sealed the bottom - which will become the back.

Building up the MRL ballast train

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 05:54:00 -0700

I pretty much stopped doing a lot of custom work but a long time buddie of mine ( Yes I do have a few friends)asked if I could paint up a MRL ballast train,sure no problem,oh sorry for the crapy pictures can't win them all
The motive power is a RS-3 seen here,

"Shoo-Fly" Free-moN Module (2'x6')

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:12:00 -0800
Well, the Free-moN bug has bitten.

Credit (blame?) goes to Steve Williams and the Silicon Valley Free-moN group for doing such excellent work on their own modules and putting on some great shows. Seems like every time I go to a local train gig, like a LDSIG meet or the x2011 NMRA convention, I end up hanging around these great dudes & their modules and wishing I had one to contribute. So time to get busy!

Even though the group is an hour away from my part of the Bay, I just had to start building something Free-moN, not just because

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