http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com Examples and stories of building model trains. Sat, 24 May 2008 04:00:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of my favorite techniques for background trees is the tried and true bottle brush technique. They are cheap and easy to make. Even with my short attention span, I can knock out a dozen pretty quick. Material List: Sisal Twine Wire - Lately I have been using 18 Gauge aluminum ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/bottlebrush-trees/ I have obviously fell off the blog wagon as the weather here in Denver has gotten nicer.  Here are some updated photographs of the section I have been working on. My goal has to been to build a nice green forested look with multiple layers of foliage.  I have used mostly ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/scenery-moves-forward/ Coloring the plaster castings is one of those things that actual evokes a certain amount of fear and loathing. I can never seem to attain what I consider to be authentic colors or at least colors that look reasonable to my eye. After some initial missteps and a ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/coloring-plaster-castings/ Almost had a disaster this morning as I tried to order some more Sculptamold from Amazon. The product was handled through one of their marketplace merchants. Good thing I did a double take right before I pushed the final confirmation button! Things have been a little quiet on the ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/120897-shipping-for-6-bags-of-sculptamold/ Now that the apparent shortage of Micro Engineering Switches is over, I have been able to mostly complete the track laying in the town area of the layout. I haven't shown much of this side lately as I have been focused on scenery on the other side of the ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/laying-more-on30-track/ Since there has apparently been a nationwide shortage of Micro-Engineering On30 switches since Christmas according to Micro-Mark and Caboose Hobbies and every place I have tried to buy them from, I picked up a LITco code 83 #5 switch and decided to give a try. For my last layout, ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/light-iron-turnout-company-litco-on30-switch/ I have been focused on completing some of the basic scenery lately. Minus coloring rock castings, it has been coming along nicely. The rock coloring has been a struggle. At last week's Great Train Expo show in Denver I picked up Darryl Huffman's DVD titled "Easy Rock ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/basic-scenery-progress/ A week or so ago I designed a cart in an article called "Clearing the Clutter" to provide a home for all of the model building supplies that always seem to end up on top of my layout. This weekend I finished the project and I am happy to report ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/cart-for-layout-finished/ There are often times where one is left with gaps or odd elevation changes where trying to use cardboard strip and plaster cloth scenery would not work and it is too large of a gap to cover with Sculptamold. Here is an example: A solution that I have found is ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/spray-foam-scenery-when-scuptamold-cant-save-you/ For many this is going to be a no-brainer but since I struggled with it, I thought I would share and hopefully prevent someone else from wasting money on rail joiners. Use Micro Engineering Code 83 Joiners! They fit perfectly and are very small in size which will ... http://www.buildingmodeltrains.com/rail-joiners-for-model-engineering-on30-code-83-track/