A RAILWAYMODELLERS.

COM PUBLICATION

MEMBERS #TOPTIPS
VOLUME 2
TOP TIPS FOR RAILWAY & SCALE MODELLERS

ARTICLES FOR FIRST CLASS

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MEMBERS
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LET'S BUILD AMAZING MODELS
INTRO BY JUSTING NOBLE.
PHOTOS & TEXT BY RAILWAY MODELLERS
CLUB MEMBERS.

Sharing knowledge and skills with other modellers is

one of the most rewarding parts of this hobby. Being
able to help each other achieve things they never
thought possible, save money & materials or
repurposing scrap materials into something that can
be used on their layout is a great feeling.

And after the success of last week's #TOPTIPS Tuesday

we thought we'd do another one to keep the
momentum going... Here's this week's tips.

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I've hand-painted my backboards
(hardboard) as I really only wanted a sky
back scene to cut out the loft clutter that
kept intruding when I took photos and
the Cheshire Plain does not really lend
itself to vistas of majestic rolling hills! I
used some white matt emulsion and
painted it with a 3-inch radiator roller. As
I moved up the boards I started with neat
paint then did progressive bands adding
a few drops of Vahello blues acrylic so
the sky darkened as it reached towards
the zenith. You have to work quite fast so As a variation to a theme I bought 100
you can blend a little. After it had started plastic shot glasses on Amazon for about
to dry I went back in and added a few £3.99 to mix things up in - an idea I stole
cloud impressions and in one area a few from a model friend (and he is). @David
reds and amber tinges which show upon N
as a sunset when I retune the LED's to a I save the screw tops from wine bottles.
late evening hue. I think it does the job, I They are useful for mixing small
even have a cut out of a Dan-Air quantities of paint, weathering powders,
Elizabethan Ambassador Climbing out of adhesives, etc. Cheap, disposable and
Ringway Airport (as it was then called!) really enjoyable to collect @Wek2do
@Knutsford Ian
Following on from Wek2do's earlier post,
When buying paint, the main model I use the plastic bubble type pill
firms only do the tiny 14 ml tins. But containers, the ones were you have to
Phoenix Paints do the most popular push the pill through the foil, as small
colours in larger sizes. Far more paint pallets. Consuming the contents
economical. They also do other ranges isn't as nice as drinking the wine though.
besides rail colours, including Military, Air @Ged
Force and Navy for Britain and the US -
When needing to use a small amount of
under the Paints and Solvents tag.
glue, such as superglue, squeeze a small
@Snowy.
amount onto a piece of scrap plasticard
A cheap and easy storage idea that I’ve and use a cocktail stick to apply tiny
found really useful is cheap takeaway amounts where needed. @Mudmagnet
boxes (the sort you can microwave). I
have various ones for scatter with the
odd spare that I use for blending ballast
or grass mixes. The others are scribbled
on for whatever they’re holding at that
time! Saves having loads of loose bits
floating about. @Ian Hewitt

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Ever wanted to pass fine wires through a
high-level section to underneath
baseboard? I was struggling to find a way
to do this for a colour light signal. I
particularly wanted the ability to remove
the signal if a fault develops. I settled
upon using heat shrink tubing to channel
the wires. It’s great because it is flexible
and can simply be glued and trimmed to
size. @andyandlynn.keast
I only use acrylics and have nicked a
a good idea I saw in military modelling -
the wet palette. It’s a Tupperware box
with a thin foam washing up cloth and
grease proof paper on top. Keep the
foam damp and the acrylics don’t dry out
before you’ve had a chance to use them.
With the lid sealed, the paints stay
workable for days (even weeks! @Big
Rob

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when soldering dropper wires to rail. I solder to the underside of the rail before glueing
down. If using Peco or similar, cut the webbing between two sleepers on one rail and
staggered on the other. Tin the rail, firstly clean the rail with a fibre stick and apply a
small amount of solder. Strip the insulation off the feed wire, use two different colours
for each rail, by about 10mm. Tin the end and then snip off to leave a 5mm. Fold end at
90deg. Then with the track upside down, hold the bent wire onto the rail and apply
heat. Solder will melt, remove iron and allow to cool. Check joint with simple pull test.
Position track, mark position of rail, drill a small hole and feed the wire through. Might
need a gentle pull underneath to flat. The result... hidden feeds @Mudmagnet

As I discovered at the weekend, with installing LED’s in a small petrol pump canopy, a
pencil with the lead removed made ideal stanchions for the canopy as one required a
hole down the centre to hide the wire from the LED’s. This was the answer to my
problem. @ken
I always model on a glass sheet, you get far cleaner cuts, you can rotate your workpiece
easily and can use one corner as a pallet for paints and glue. You can clean down with
a razor scraper and window cleaner. @Timo
If you are struggling to understand more complex track layouts such as motors for
three waypoints and double slips, build the track area on a scrap piece of cardboard,
this allows you to understand all routes and effects and you can even write on it to jog
your memory. @Timo

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So I thought I'd put the post in here for easier access on roads. So using easy betol
concrete effect paint, painting a couple of layers down onto your base. If you want a
darker finish add some burnt umber or black to the paint as it's very light grey. Once
it's dry sand it down to your desired texture using a fine sandpaper, any touchups
needed then this is the time to do it. The surface dries into a hard concrete layer. Once
it's all dry, apply your road markings, painters tape is great for markings, get a washing
up sponge and apply liberally boot polish to the sponge and vigorously rub it into the
road surface, again you can adjust the darkness and colours to suit your needs. Such a
cheap method and one pot of paint covers a huge area, I think my roads have cost me
about 20 quid in materials. @Dave Allen

Don't stick textured paper onto the printed side of cereal packets then spray with
fixative. My beautiful road with markings had 'Krave' printed all over it . Luckily it dried
fine but it did give me palpitations at the time!!! @JMcG
You can curve points slightly by snipping the webbing between them beyond the end
of the point blade (someone else told me that one but it’s dead handy) @Dom
Don't do the same thing twice expecting it to be correct the second time. Einstein
defined insanity as doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.
@Snowy
Always have a bottle of 100% pure acetone to hand when using Superglue. It's far
cheaper than an embarrassing taxi ride up to A & E. to get your digits unstuck or one of
your precious kit parts removed. @andrew.t.finney

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