Click on the date to watch the Youtube Video.

Saturday May 21, 2022

  • Discussion on applying signs to structures and in the diorama, materials, tips and techniques.
  • Greg Cassidy presents a short live demo on blending and weathering mounted signs using dry pigments and pastels. More info and PDFs of signs HERE.

Saturday May 14, 2022

  • Discussion on weathering signs, materials, tips and techniques.
  • Live how-to showing the techniques and tools of weathering signs. Greg Cassidy was our guest

Saturday May 7, 2022

  • Signage Considerations including different mediums.
  • Application of two different signage types.

Saturday April 30, 2022

  • Brush Painting Door and Window Castings
  • Installing windows and doors

Saturday April 23, 2022

  • Brush Painting Door and Window Castings
  • Glazing Windows

Saturday April 16, 2022

A little different this week, we have 3 presenters all talking about lighting your structures. 

  • John Campbell, The Art of Lighting.
  • Jim Cannon, Understanding Structure Lighting Wiring (Link to PDF presentation)
  • Pat Rivard, How-to Light structures.

Saturday April 9, 2022

Saturday April 2, 2022

  • Demo of coloring and construction of warehouse doors.
  • Painting of door and window castings.
  • Install of warehouse doors.
  • Here is a link to a post on railroad line forum by our own Rich, showing his method of constructing doors.  https://railroad-line.com/node/37296
  • Rich also provided us a few pictures of another sliding door build. Click image for a larger version.

Saturday March 26, 2022

  • Application and demo of trim materials.
  • Painting primary coloring of styrene castings for door and windows.
  • Preliminary discussion on scratch building warehouse doors.

Saturday March 19, 2022

  • Discussion on different wall color shades to produce a model which looks like it has been built at different times, giving a subtle ‘added-on’ look.
  • Discussion recap of coloring of interior and bracing.
  • A review of prep of styrene door and window castings for painting.
  • A discussion/review of rattle can painting of styrene castings.
  • A discussion of corner trim materials and application in build sequence.
  • A brief discussion of nail-holes and tools to create the nail-holes.
  • Discussion and short demo on creating board end joints in siding.
  • A review of using pictures for ice block coloring and mini-scene detail ideas.

Saturday March 12, 2022

  • Discussion of wall bracing application.
  • Discussion of primary wall coloring using soft pastels and diluted weathering mix.
  • Demo for using fan brush technique for early stages of weathering’
  • Discussion of considerations in color selection for sealing of interior walls. 
  • Discussion and application of masking to openings and hazards.
  • Demo and discussion of brush technique to prevent paint overflow around openings and edges.
  • Using Sucrets/Altoid tins as a paint palette.
  • Paint Properties:  Touch dry vs. cure dry.
  • Discussion of brush cleaning techniques and brush cleaning aids.

Saturday March 5, 2022

  • Discussion and application of wall bracing and trim.
  • Discussion and application of wall and trim coloring.

Saturday February 26, 2022

  • Discussion and demo of enhancing wall texturing in wood.
  • Discussion and demo of cutting wall openings.

“Tips and Tricks of the Trade” that are revealed in this episode:

Working with wood clapboard siding sheets

0:17:38 – Greg Cassidy’s hint to remember to mark backside of sheet wood when working on back to note what edge is top on clapboard siding sheet

0:18:19 – Discussions about cutting wood and styrene sheets

0:25:14 – How to prevent cuts from following wood grain by starting cuts using #16 blade

0:39:21 – Richard Wolfanger discusses what to do with cutting error

0:41:11 – Richard Wolfanger tells us what glue (Fix-All) he uses for (wood and hydrocal) gluing shingles, clapboard, and walls aligned perpendicularly.

0:44:33 – To cut, then stain; or stain, then cut? Discussion

0:59:23 – William Zadnik talks about an alternative glue to Aleen’s tacky glue for those unable to acquire it.

1:01:31 – Link to military modelers site that Richard Wolfanger mentioned:

https://railroadmodeling.net/

“Rich Wolfanger: The above site is the Kitmaker website for railroad modeling” (Via Zoom Chat)

1:05:54 – Discussion regarding window height

1:09:23 – Zoom Chat entry from Darryl Jacobs of Inter-Action Hobbies

@01:56:25 “Darryl Jacobs: Greg, a good tip on those pencil leads are to sharpen opposite sides to a V on sandpaper so that you have a chisel edge. That way your point will last longer since you have a long “knife edge”.”

Context from episode: 1:09:23

1:15:04 – Wood jig for setting up walls and floors or two flat surfaces at right angles to each other.

      • Tip to make the jig so glue for styrene doesn’t run up on back side.

1:17:03 – Begin discussion of techniques of cutting out window openings

1:21:05Bernd Fanghanel mentions thread saw to make window openings

1:23:40 – Darryl Jacobs of Inter-Action Hobbies shows a veneer saw he suggested for straight, smooth edge cuts

Saturday February 19, 2022:

  • Kris takes us on a deep dive in the world of artists pastels. Different types, brands hardnesses and how they can be used in model railroading.
  • See the tools section for a 10% discount from Dakota Pastels.

Saturday February 12, 2022:

  • The walls are cut out and we tape them toghether to see ow it all fits.
  • A discussion of various tools that can be used for prepping the wood.
  • Nail holes? or not.
  • A look at the progress made by some of the participating modelers.

Saturday February 5, 2022:

  • Work bench, work surface, and templates.
  • Transferring dimensions and cutting templates
  • Assembling mock-ups from pre-printed templates & cutting templates.

Saturday January 29, 2022:

  • Availability of concept, dimensional and paper model file downloads.
  • Determining structure dimensions from a drawing or photo. (Discussion by Rich Wolfanger, Heath Trollope)
  • Roof details as eye candy. (Short Discussion)
  • Basic template creation and mock-up discussion and review.
  • Discussion of basic construction techniques. (Introduction discussion.)

Saturday January 22, 2022: