By John O’Connell

When Ted Becker opened the Clinic, we had 33 in attendance including two guests, Chuck Tracey and Ron Gutzmer and first timer, Steve Pickens. Welcome all!

Upcoming Events and Clinics

February 9: Bob Stafford, Retired BNSF Trainmaster will speak on Operations in Bellingham

February 25, 26:   United North West Club’s Train Show, Monroe – http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html

March 9: Hands on Working Session

April 13:  Mini-Clinics

May 11:  TBD

Kit Build

Mike O’Brien was pleased to note that we have 13 kits in progress as evidenced by their builders bringing their projects and putting them on display. A great start!

A sample of DPM kits in progress

 

More kits in progress

 

Thank you Ted B, John B, Bonnie H, Rick T, Roger J, Ray V, Tom B, Al C and Marvin H for sharing. Let’s see you and the rest of the clinic next month. Ted proposed we shoot for a final Kit Build session in April!

Inside look at Ray Vaughn’s kit under construction using a Micro-Mark Magnetic Gluing Jig

 

Ray is building this kit and ran into an interesting problem. He found he had some warped parts in his kit. He followed “normal” techniques by placing the parts in a warm oven for a few minutes. The walls flattened out fine, but the three castings that make up the entry way were badly distorted. So Ray is scratch building a new entryway out of styrene.

Al Carter shared a couple of techniques he has adopted. Both could be applied to the DPM Kit Build.

First, Al applied a white primer and then used several shades of Pan Pastels for the brick color. The overall effect is an building about ready for demolition. Beautiful!

 

For the signage, Al used Dry Transfers and overpainted with Vallejo Polyurethane Matt Varnish.

For additional information on Al’s model, click Prescott Lumber Builder’s Notes.

Show and Tell

Tom Buckingham has been working on this NP station for a while. Wow! For more details, click on Northern Pacific Class A Combination Depot.

Note the roof of Tom’s NP station: Pan Pastels applied to roofing strips

Bonnie Hollingsworth brought the fruits of her labor to the Clinic. In addition to the orange trees below she has vines with ripe grape clusters ready to pick.

Bonnie’s Orange Grove. Each orange was placed by hand!

Mike O’Brien, the Clinic’s Resident Arborist, brought his latest fabrication.

Mike’s deciduous tree farm

Tool Time

Al shared a useful looking plier rack. Simple to make but very handy.

Al’s plier rack is a 2×3, with a piece of 2mm plywood placed into a groove cut on a table saw.

Tom Buckingham brought a bag of clothes pins and challenged the Clinic to pass one of NASA’s tests for astronaut candidates requiring manual dexterity and spatial relationships.

Need a third hand when you’re soldering? The advantage here is the longer throat over a conventional clothes pin.

From the sounds of it, we had a Clinic full of astronauts.

My Work Space

The very same Tom Buckingham (do I hear an echo?) brought his mobile work bench. Everything was built using scrape lumber except the 2×2 legs and the casters. The tool holder on the back is really handy as he can keep his most frequently used tools and adhesives in an easy to reach place without cluttering the bench top.

Tom’s lightweight and very mobile work bench

The Program

Dr. Nick Muff, MD and Master Model Railroader moved on to the main line after the break and presented a tremendously informative clinic on “details.” He began by comparing the artistic process of painting and that of modeling. To say you had to be at the Clinic to get the full value is an understatement. Nick is very generous and has shared not only the handout but his slide presentation. As rich and specific as these are, you had to be there to get the full effect. (Click on the highlighted links below to view the PDF files.)

Making it Real, It’s All in the Details              NMRA It’s All in the Details

 

See you next month!