By Jeff Moorman

Please come join us on Thursday (December 6) for our next clinic.

In November we talked a bit about stripwood. Jeff’s still looking for a foolproof and inexpensive (i.e. cheap) way to weather stripwood that doesn’t involve strong dyes or smelly fumes. Yes, there are about a billion ways to weather wood for modeling purposes, but this is what he does.

He has had some success with diluting acrylic craft paint to about 1 part water and 3 or 4 parts paint. Running the stripwood through a folded cloth soaked in the paint works fairly well for simulating painted wood. But it provides too even a coat for weathered wood. For that it is better to dab the diluted paint on the wood with a large fluffy paintbrush. Then after it is dry, go over it with a thin wash of diluted India ink in isopropyl alcohol.

It doesn’t seem to make a big difference if you physically distress the wood before or after “staining.”  However, if you use the India ink wash, roughing up the wood before that step seems to work best.

If there are a billion ways to weather scale wood, there are two billion uses for it on the layout. But what sort of simple modeling projects could you do with just a single piece or two of stripwood? Some suggestions were as follows:

  • Use a “plank” of stripwood to bridge a ditch between yard tracks, so your switchmen can get around easier.
  • Model a fence in the making. Cut fence posts from a suitable size of stripwood. Drill holes where the posts will go and install a few. Leave the remaining posts beside their holes, awaiting installation.
  • On a tarpaper roof install an inverse “V” of small-sized stripwood over a doorway to prevent rain/snow from sliding down.
  • Use a piece of stripwood to prop up a leaning building, fence, retaining wall, or orchard tree.
  • Take a few scraps of stripwood and scatter them on loading docks, flat cars, or gondola floors to represent old shipping crates, braces, and chocks.
  • Affix a “timber” along the edges of loading docks on masonry buildings, so trucks will not be so badly damaged when backing up to the dock.
  • Build a low retaining wall or just use a single board like a landscape timber to outline parking or lawn areas.

Show and Tell had three participants. Bobj showed a very nice large European train station originally build from a plastic kit. This was part of the building collection he brought, which we’ll talk more about later. Stu R had a MoW car and transfer caboose built from the same N scale wood kit and, also in N scale. Rob J  brought a circus truck, a time machine, and a caboose.

There was no traditional Mart, but Bobj had brought 6 or 7 large cardboard boxes filled with European-style buildings. There was everything from houses to industrial buildings and factories to schools to train stations and bridges. These had all once been part of a holiday display at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard. All were HO scale, although a few appeared to be selectively compressed to TT.

Seattle-North was the first group to get a look at these buildings. There was definitely an air of anticipation as Bobj unpacked the large boxes and brought out the contents one structure at a time. It was interesting seeing some the models after looking at them in the Walthers catalog for so many years.

We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location). The parking lot is at the rear of the church. For regular meetings enter the lower, left side of the church from the rear lot.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, except July and August. In June we usually do a tour. Doors open around 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.

Remember the next meeting is December 6 and the one after that is January 3. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Stu's MoW and Caboose

 

HO Train Station

 

European Buildings - HO