Page 18 - March April 2017

Laser cut doors and windows for model of Western Maryland Railway’s Blue Ridge Summit, PA passenger station
I haven’t discussed ‘board by board construction’ for the simple reason I’ve not really had the patience to try it out yet. But I will shortly be having a go and will report back in due course.
Adhesives are a tricky subject, especially instant adhesives. Always carefully read and follow all health and safety information. Good ventilation is imperative. For styrene I use a solvent called Plastic Weld. But be careful: it is very fluid and flows very rapidly. If uncontrolled it can readily ‘etch’ otherwise pristine styrene surfaces. A very helpful glue that I have been introduced to in recent years is canopy glue. It is extremely helpful for bonding dissimilar materials together.
Over the years I’ve used a variety of paints. The biggest problem always seems to be keeping them from drying up. Personally I welcome the advent of Vallejo acrylic based paints – they’re much easier to use and it’s much easier to clean up brushes in water than cleaning up solvent based paints in their respective cleaning agents. Always carefully read and follow all health
and safety information. Good ventilation is imperative.
After painting I ‘glaze’ the window by ‘painting’ Microscale Kristal Klear on clear acetate and offering the clear acetate and Kristal Klear up to the inside of the window. I try to do only one wall at a time and stand the model on its side or end to let the Kristal Klear dry to form lens-like patterns in each pane. I find this slight distortion looks like old glass and gives a slightly obscured view of model interiors which I like.
I always find weathering tricky. I’ve used powdered chalks
(not very successfully); commercially available powdered weathering materials (fairly successful but easy to over do
it or under do it and use cheap unscented hairspray as a
fixative to hold them in place with further results ranging
form relief that it sort of is ok to dismay that I’ve wrecked
the project and I want to strip all the paint of and start again - which I did once and that was pretty disastrous too but I managed to make something out of it - just); and, something occasionally mentioned in the American model railroad press - Indian ink and
alcohol. So, while I would be the first to say that I like my buildings to look weathered, it was tricky for me.
Actually they were TOO weathered. I invited my good friend and fellow NMRA BR member Chris Hopper to come over and give an unfettered critique of my small layout and its buildings. The simple but robust response was that everything was too dark. That was: the track, the ballast, the trees, the roads, the buildings and the weathering! What followed was a major campaign on my part of gently retrieving the situation by preparing a new approach based on scale colour. Several experiments on different backs of structures over time led to a careful programme of revitalising the layout and, while it’s not yet complete, it is already looking significantly better. Study the photographs of the model railroads that you enjoy and especially study their colour palettes and weathering.
A further aspect of weathering and careful detailing is that it ties all the buildings together visually. This is really important, just as having a strong railroad presence by a consistent approach to railroad company paint schemes for all railroad company owned property. The other really important thing about painting structures is to have a narrow ‘palette’ (or range) of colours. Look at layouts and modules by Fred Lagno, Paul Dolkos, Lance Mindheim or Pelle Søeborg in the American model railroad press and you’ll see exactly what I mean - the colours hang together
well. There is no place for discordant colours.
Achievement Program
I encourage anyone and everyone to get involved in the Achievement Program. I did and I have the privilege of having earned my Master Builder – Structures certificate. By taking part in the program(me) I was not competing with others but raising my own awareness (and standards!) of structure building techniques and enjoying extending my model building skills. I hope by sharing this with you that you will want to try it, too. Good luck and happy scratchbuilding!
N scale Redutex sheet on the cylindrical tower on the emerging model of Western Maryland Railway’s Blue Ridge Summit, PA passenger station