Tools, tips and tricks
Some uses for Water Putty
Here In Australia we have Agnew's Water Putty which is identical to the American product Durham's Water Putty.
The manufacturer recommends you mix it mix it three parts putty to one part water. I never measure exactly. Near enough seems to be good enough. It dries rock-hard and it can be sanded and sawn.
You can add acrylic paint to it as well, but in my experience doing so actually hastens the drying. The normal working time of 30 minutes is reduced significantly. This is contrary to what it says on the label, but I swear it's true.
More Uses for 3D Printing Around the Layout
So you have heard all kinds of things about what modelers are doing with 3D printing to assist in their rolling stock, locomotive and structure builds. How about some some more basic items to spruce up your layout?
Spray painting in the cold?
I don't have an operating airbrush, and do all of my rolling stock painting using (gasp!) rattle cans. My spray booth for this work looks remarkably similar to my garage. All of my prep work, even the rattle can shaking, takes place in my basement, and the painted models are immediately brought inside after paint application, but the actual painting takes place in the garage. Yes, the basement does get a little hint of spray paint aroma sometimes while the paint dries, but nothing obnoxious.
Modelers Tip - Brushy, brushy, brushy! Use an electric toothbrush to speed up your work.
Want to save some time and effort on building your railroad? As I was using an old "manual" toothbrush with 70% alcohol to clean off the flux from a solder joint I was thinking "There must be a better way". Later that night as I was brushing my teeth with my new electric toothbrush and looking at my old retired electric toothbrush a light bulb went on! My old toothbrush still worked, but didn't have the omph that it used to have but I thought "I bet I could use it to clean flux".
Mike Confalone video coming to TrainMasters - status update
We had hoped to have the Mike Confalone interview video come to TrainMasters on or about the 20th of Jan, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen as planned. It will be delayed by at least a week.
Mike's layout room has areas of darker and lighter lighting, and the video used room lighting rather than special lights. That meant we had to do a number of special tricks to get the shadow area details to show reasonably well without blowing out the whites like the melting snow piles.
Single use double bubble Epoxy
Ok guys,
This ones a little off topic. Anyone know of an epoxy that comes in anything smaller then 3.5 Gram packets?
I have need to attach a lot of very small ( about 7/8"x 7/8" ) item to a grave stone. Way off topic but then again with miniature models others may find the results useful. I have found "double bubble Epoxy" packets but even those are overkill for what I need.
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