Roger Johnson

Photos by Nick Muff, Al Carter, Tom Buckingham, Paul Koren

The October Mount Vernon clinic of the local Fourth Division, PNR, NMRA was attended by sixteen men, one of whom is from the Dallas, Texas area. As a Peterbilt employee, he frequently visits the local Paccar Technical Center and decided to give us a look. Please come back again, Don Winn.

The Show & Tell segment featured:

  • a model of the Kansas City Southern Restaurant by Nick Muff
  • a completed and very nicely painted & lettered resin kit box car from Paul Koren
  • some German miniature cars/trucks from Tom Buckingham
  • an abandoned gas station that time passed long ago by Al Carter
  • Folks are encouraged to share their modeling projects and techniques with others
Nick's KCS Restaurant model

Nick’s KCS Restaurant model

Nick's KCS Restaurant photo

Nick’s KCS Restaurant photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Al's abandoned gas station

Al’s abandoned gas station

Al's gas station close up

Al’s gas station close up

 

 

 

 

Paul's resin box car

Paul’s resin box car

 

Tom's VW van from Germany

Tom’s VW van from Germany

 

 

 

 

 

Modeling Tips & Tools suggestions included:

  • a selection of nice, quality tweezers made in Pakistan available through Grizzly Industrial in Bellingham
  • the use of Mylar-type sheets for window glazing in industrial type buildings to represent very dirty and/or frosted windows
  • styrene brick (and other materials) sheets from The N Scale Architect which feature several different brick arrangements, arches, etc.
  • Vector Cut for very intricate laser cut details

Tom Buckingham, Clinician for the evening, showed us pictures from his September visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany. For those who do not already know, Miniatur Wunderland is the world’s largest model railroad, presently occupying over 14,000 square feet but still growing. This reporter will stop here with the barely believable statistics. For more information see the layout’s website. Tom’s photos showed most of the main features of the layout including many pictures of the seemingly infinite number of details, such as a penguin with his (her?) pet polar bear cub on a leash waiting at a station for the nest train and a couple making out in a convertible.

Coming attactions: the November 25th clinic (fourth Tuesday) will feature Nick Muff showing us how to use Joel Bragdon’s Geodesic Foam scenery process.

Other items of discussion included:

  • Rich Blake, spokesperson for the Skagit Valley & Whidbey clinic advising that they have a Yahoo Group page established for sharing ideas and asking questions.  More information about this will be included in our next newsletter.
  • NMRA membership was again encouraged with benefits including the NMRA Magazine which has developed into a very nice model railroading magazine.
  • Entry for future meetings will be through the rear door on the west side of the building which is kept open in the evening. This passes through a kitchen, then into the hallway. A sign will be posted at the correct door (as I understand there is a second back door).

Continuing the tradition established by the Skagit Valley & Whidbey group, anyone who wishes can meet at the Round Table Pizza restaurant at 5:00 PM for a no host pre-clinic dinner.  The restaurant is located on the North side of College Way just east of the freeway. See this link for a map and directions: http://tinyurl.com/lpcfa7x

Finally it was decided there would be no December clinic as the fourth Tuesday falls on the 23rd, only two days before the Christmas Holiday, when many folks have full schedules already.