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 […]

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. […]

Passenger car ideas

My first passenger car was 3D printed by accident. It started with the bullnose roof, which would have been difficult to craft. When I finally had the roof drawn, I started wondering how difficult it would be to draw the rest of the car, and then I wondered how much it would cost at Shapeways, […]

Modelling at Vancouver Train Expo

With fall well and truly under way, it must be time for BC’s biggest model train show. I spent most of Sunday at the “Craftsman’s Corner,” demonstrating that some of us still make models, despite the chequebook appearance of the hobby. This year, I had the opportunity to share the table with Mike Barone and […]

A summer well-spent

It has been quite a summer. Between three weeks in England and France subjecting the kids to an intense dose of European history and culture, a long weekend in New Brunswick attending family functions, and a week recovering at a cabin on the Sunshine Coast, there hasn’t been much time for railway pursuits. What little […]

Flat car loose ends

While I was happily installing flat car decks at VTEX, it was John Green who noticed that the ends of some of the boards were lifting. Thank-you John for pointing this out while it was still relatively easy to fix. As I’m finished with casting experiments for now, I spent tonight’s modelling minutes on fixing […]

Decking demonstration

The Vancouver Train Expo filled the PNE Forum this past weekend. Unlike last year, I’d actually coordinated with Doug Hicks to have a time when I was supposed to be helping at the Craftsman’s Corner. He usually likes to have two-hour slots, but I find that is barely enough time to get my tools out […]

Flatcars painted

Despite all probability, those flatcars have slipped into the paint booth over the past couple of days and received not only a coat of primer, but also some paint. Truly, when it came to painting, the odds were not in their favour. Not only did I have to mine Mount Deluge for the airbrush and […]

Prepped to prep

The flat cars have taken a little hiatus while I figured out the best way to make paint stick to the plastic parts. My usual method is to give plastic models a good scrubbing with Vim under running warm water. But with parts made of wood and even paper, that method was going to lead […]

Bubbly bolster

The wheel plan for 622 requires perfect castings. Unfortunately, every attempt so far using my test molds has resulted in large bubbles. These bubbles are not there when I pour the resin, but seem to be forming during the curing process. According to the Smooth-on website, this could be due to humidity, and I should […]