Lettering test for 622

After finding that testing the lettering on the flatcars was a worthwhile exercise, I figured I’d better do the same with 622. Here, the lettering had started with careful measurement of each of the surfaces that will receive a decal, and so, I expected everything to line up okay. It did, but it’s better safe […]

Lettering Test

The thing about working on lettering is that there’s not much to show until it’s done. You spend hours squinting at photos, trying to decide if a circle is an oval, or if that’s just the angle, and even more hours deciding if it should be a hair skinnier or taller. Extra opinions help, and […]

Sky high flat cars

The trouble with building a batch is that when you make a mistake, you replicate the mistake for each member of the batch. So, despite passing Saturday morning enjoyably melting tiny pieces of plastic strip into globs that look passably like body bolsters, I now have three flat cars that all sit approximately .030″ (.75mm) […]

Colour separations

My cousin John is a year or so older than I am, and as a kid, I kind of looked up to him. Back then, kids built models the way they play video games today, and on one visit, John showed me a plane he was working on. I was astonished to see that the […]

Cricut lettering: time to admit defeat

I think I’ve taken Cricut masks beyond the tool’s limit. I can likely use the technique to make the large numbers, but the small (1.5mm/.06″) letters, “CANADA ATLANTIC” on the tank collar are simply too small for the knife-cut masks. The best I could achieve was with two masks – one for the largely vertical […]

Sneaking up on Cricut masks

As I thought about it, it seemed that the problem with the Cricut masks was that the vinyl material relaxed out of the grooves in the combine’s siding. Almost by the time I had finished thumb-nailing the mask down firmly, the other end had begun to lift out of the grooves. While the aero modellers […]

Cricut masking

As I mentioned, I’m not finished with Morrisey Fernie and Michel #61. I’ve had another technique rattling around my head, looking for an opportunity to leap out on an unsuspecting model, and this little car was the perfect victim. Masked and painted insignia are all the rage in the aero modelling world these days. When […]

A sacrifice to the weather gods

No amount of YouTube videos or re-reading of Martyn Welch’s excellent book, The Art of Weathering, could convince me I was ready to dust off my rusty weathering skills. Moreover, the world has changed and I want to try my hand at some of the techniques that have taken the other model disciplines by storm. […]

Project Garage

You’ve gotta love foam core and hot glue. This combination is so quick and forgiving that you can test almost any idea with a ruler, a sharp knife and a few minutes of spare time. And so, when I found myself burying the modelling desk once again with pieces of 622, I decided to try […]

Boiler details installed

I left most of the details off the boiler until after it was painted. This enabled me to paint the boiler blue to represent planished iron, rather than black. It’s possible that by 1905, 622 was painted black, but I confess I like the blue look. Installing the details was a delicate operation because most […]