The more I post here and the more I write I am beginning to wonder what kind of model railroader I am? It seems that everything that I am posting is not about building kits but about building things from scratch. Is this a bad thing? I don’t know yet. Look at the picture and keep reading…

Here is one more example. On my prior layout I wanted a crane on a tower- I also had an extra diesel setting around.  Viola- I clipped the front end of the diesel off and made a crane from it (poor little engine…).  The front / working end of the crane has several other scratchbuilt items including a random gear from something or the other. Caboose Industries parts and styrene finish the boom and the clamshell bucket off.

The dredge that it sets on is a piece of scrap Azek board from 84 Lumber. Azek is a PVC exterior home trim product, and there was a sample at the counter- free for the asking. I built the container from scratch too- even though I had one in the parts box that was made commercially.  The box cab diesel also was just a shell that I added scratchbuilt details from- I will refuse to buy grab irons, the ladder steps on the engine, coupling levers and brake hoses, etc. when I can try to make them from scratch- it is way more fun!

The bridge and several of the piers are scratchbuilt (the stone pier is not- it is a commercial item). The piers I built were cut on a band saw from scrap wood and painted / weathered. The breakwater in the background is temporary and also built from Northeastern Scale Lumber products. The background picture is an add-in from Photoshop. The eventual background for this area of the layout will be a city skyline.

Come to think about it- I know exactly wht type of modeler I am!

One thing that has always interested me living in Baltimore is the number of old painted signs that used to adorn the brich walls on larger buildings. They were hand painted advertising in an era before billboards littered the landscape. There were a few signs locally that I have pictures of that I decided to place on the sides of a few buildings.

George Sellios’ technique on his Franklin & South Manchester RR of using vintage advertisements got me thinking- why wouldn’t this work for me? He sanded his paper advertisements down very thin and applied them to walls with thinned white glue.

I decided to go an easier route. The pictures were straightened out in perspective in Photoshop, printed at 300 dpi on an inkjet printer then cut out. I sand the edges a little to thin them out – put thinned white glue with alcohol on the brick wall and apply the cut out prints. I press the prints into the brick work and pad the image with a paper towel to absorb all of the excess glue. After the sign has dried I weather the sign more with chalk that is the same color as the sign- blending it into the brick.

Here is the result:

Here is a close up- as you can see, the chalk and sanded edges make the image blend very well into the building sides:

Quick- easy- and it looks great!

In a recent article in MR, Gary Leone mentioned that he hand paints his track. At first I thought that he was out of his mind until I tried it.

Using craft paints from Ceramcoat that were diluted in water, I hand paint the inside and outsides of the rail with a mixture of browns and rust. From there I dry brush a rust color across the tie plates.

After this is dry I use dilute paint to stain the ties a lighter color. After ballasting I go around in places and drop India ink and alcohol with a dropper in places to show stains and spills around the track areas.

If you have a ton of track, this will not work. If you have a smaller layout as I do, the results are worth the effort.

I have been kicking around the idea of a logo for a while to no avail. There were several things I cam up with, but no go.

Adam Peszel of Chambersburg, PA- a designer- came up with a killer logo- which I immediately tried. The only decal paper I had has a clear background- so I had to place it on something white.

Here is the logo:

and here it is applied:

You can contact his design services at:

aepeszel AT yahoo DOT com.

He uses state of the art programs and has a wealth of knowledge.

On my prior railroad I used reduced photos for good effect. This time around I have decided to use them for building interiors. Basically they are photos that I have seen online and reduced to a small enough scale to make them relevant to my application. The building here still has clear styrene covering the opening, but has a print taped directly to the back of the clear window glazing.

Same with the hanging sign- it is a photo from Baltimore that I cropped in PhotoShop, printed, then glued to both sides of the hanging sign:

Here is anther case where I used a photo from the Steel Site online to represent the area directly above the entry for the hot metal cars- It looks good in person: