Micro Layout

     I came across an interesting item in my toy shop inventory and just had to share it with everyone. For all you micro-layout enthusiasts, I give you the ultimate in micro model railroads.

     It's a 6" x 9" modular layout with scenery encompassing an urban center, rural farmland, lakefront, and mountains. The track plan is a double-twisted single track mainline, with lots of tight curves. Minimum turn radius is approximately 3/4", but the little 0-4-0T navigates them handily. 

     No DCC to worry about here, as the engine is powered by a clockwork that pushes the little engine around at breakneck speeds. Track detail is a little understated, having no rails, ties, nor ballast, but the little barnyard details are quite realistic. The water effect on the lake is nice also, shining like the clearest of plastic.

     The engine boasts working side rods, excellent rivet detail, working rear coupler, and room to add an engineer and fireman. Available colors are red, yellow, and blue, but the only roadname is "Western Express" and all engines are numbered 108, so forget your dreams of building a basement empire with these little critters. 

     Slow speed operation is a little jumpy, going from a standstill to about 60mph instantaneously, yet still the little engine holds fast in the turns and derailments are rare! And with a retail price under $9.00(US) model railroading has never been more affordable =)

N Scale Roots

     Since they have been recently discussed on Model Rail Radio, I thought it was time to re-post the pictures of my little block of N scale shops. I found the IHC kits in the bargain box at my local hobby store, and knocked them together in a little over a week of evenings.

     The kits are molded in multicolored plastic, with brick walls, dark gray roofs and details, and a colored trim. The left-hand building had white trim, which I colored blue. The center had yellow trim, which I embellished red and green. The right-hand had gray trim, which I made a dilapidated white. Some of the measurements are a little wonky, particularly the windows on the right- hand building, which are too close between stories, and the mail box, which is almost HO scale. Since they are intended to be mid-ground models in a crowded district, the little flaws should disappear into overall setting. If the colors seem unrealistically bright, then you've never been to my neck of the woods. Chinatown, the Mission, North Beach, the Richmond, San Francisco has no shortage of colorful districts! I do hope to someday model a Chinatown on an N scale trolley layout, and these will fit right in.

     I'm particularly proud of my mortar work on these buildings. The IHC kits have great brick detail, and thinned Floquil wicks its way through the traces like wildfire. The rooftop details are mostly finished on the nearest building, but the others still need work. One of the included detail pieces is a little clothesline with laundry hanging on it. I've already placed a washtub by the door, so I'm halfway there!

     IHC has a few different series of kits in this style, covering residential and commercial blocks, with five kits in each series. Each has its own sidewalk section, so they go together wonderfully. Unfortunately, they're hard to find, so for now my little district is under a building moratorium.

Pass The Jug!

     I gave the spirit wagon a coat of Testors "rust," which looks good to me, but has a bit of a shine that I'll have to deal with later. I also decided that it looks better with arch bar trucks. Thinking ahead to furnishing the car with its eclectic load, I broke out the Walther's "wish book" and turned to the section on super-detailing parts. Barrels galore, and I'll be buying a few of them, but no jugs to be found. No problem, I can always turn my own!

     I scrounged up a bamboo chopstick from the kitchen, which seemed a good size and density for carving. I cut a rough cone shape on the end, then laid it flat on the table and rolled it back and forth to get the turning action while holding the blade to it. I cut down to the bottle neck, then switched to a small flat file to smooth it out. Bamboo has a great texture for carving, and the work went fast. Turning the file at an angle, I smoothed out the slope of the jug top until I had the basic jug profile. (I have several prototype examples for reference.) At this point, all that's left is to cut it off the end of the chopstick, which is easy to do by the turning method.

     Painting worked out very well. I simply stuck them on the end of the knives and dunked them in the paint. Floquil "aged concrete" for the body, and Testors "rubber" for the top are a dead-on match for salt-glazed stoneware jugs. I'm stymied as to how to make the little finger loop that goes beside the neck, and this bothered me at first. Loop of wire? Tiny bead? Nothing I can think of works out. But the more I look at it, the less it bothers me. The overall look screams out "moonshine jug!" just fine as is.

     I'm very pleased with the result, and made both jugs in under an hour. I'll finish out that chopstick and have a nice less-carload of jugs. Barrels are trickier, so I'll buy them. Now as for the still, well, I'm really looking forward to making that!

Bundle Of Sticks

     Much has been said for and against "box of sticks" kits. I have avoided this controversy by embracing the "bundle of sticks" method of car building. I select strip basswood of appropriate size (1/16" square) and Shaun (one of my hobby shop dudes) bundles them for me at checkout. But before that, I stop off to see John (the Owner) and ask to rummage through the bin of old trucks and wheel sets. Some really great treasures in there, as you can see on the rip track behind the car. Anyway, I pick my rollers, grab some #158 couplers, and my bundle of sticks kit is complete!

     The base is actually a sheet of 1/16" basswood, and the rest is built up log cabin style. I sand the stripwood enough to knock the corners down so that you can see the individual boards. Since this is the "Spirit Wagon," and not a revenue car, I wanted to keep the construction simple. After all, the original was built from recycled mine timbers by inebriated moonshiners. It had no couplers, since it was just rolled down the grade into Drywater, and eventually pushed back up to the Delirium Terminus by any available engine. I think I'll include couplers, so that it can be more conveniently handled.

     I'm completely up in the air about how to paint it. Festive and colorful? Railroad red with white lettering? I do want to letter "DE LI RI UM" on the side in R.R. Roman, but maybe by hand rather than the press-on letters. Inside will be barrels and jugs, a still, a little shack or tent, and a few riders. I'll fashion a banner of some sort, advertising whiskey and rye. All of this in a 24' gondola! As I said before, I love short cars. On my agenda: 26' tank car, 28' boxcars (1860's era,)  and a little ore car or two to fill with my delirium ore specimens.

     The bobber caboose is still in the works, but I felt like a diversion from the cardstock cutting.  I like to indulge my modeling whims, and a bundle of sticks was just the thing to break up the monotony.