With Tongue Firmly In Cheek

Some forethought and planning about your modeling toolkit can save money and time in your next modeling venture.

This tongue-in-cheek modeling tool crib may serve as a gadget scrounging catalyst. We’re serving it with pictures to aide and abet your scavenger hunt.

Here are some things I have been able to get away with when my wife isn’t around.

My Braun foam and leaf grinder does a good job of grinding coffee. It does a spectacular job of grinding up leaves and clippings used for ground cover.
My Victorinox 125th Anniversary Limited Edition Serrated rock carver does a decent job of cutting tomatoes and bagels.
I have occasionally found my wife using my Bio Ionic paint dryer to dry her hair. But, if you really want to dry paint in a hurry...
More than once I have smelled the odor of a chocolate cake or beef stew emanating from my Kenmore Paint Baker.
You will find a Coleman Propane Airbrush Propellant useful for lighting lanterns, camp stoves or candles.
My Tupperware rock and sand screener can also be used to sift flour.
That slick Samsung Microwave weed drier does a real good job of cooking foods quickly.

We're now getting into very specialized modeling tools. Don't be afraid to improvise. Don't let the wife force you to go to the H2A(House Husbands Anonymous) meetings. Know where she is (and when she will be home) at all times.

What's A Kluge?

Thus, the fourth button down on the left will take you to a compilation of ideas that may at first seem nonsensical (Who in their right mind would stick double-faced tape to their workbench or glue you intend to use on a flag?)

Scale Modelers everywhere are always looking for good ideas that make jobs simpler and quicker.

We’ve all got them, let’s share them.

I’ll be glad to add yours to the Jotter's Corner just send it to me by email Reg Hardy .

Mess Unmaker Tips

Glue smudged canopy glass (clear styrene) there is the hard way and the easy way. If the smudge isn’t too big, you can try sanding and polishing. Break out your finest grades of sandpaper. Use them in decreasing levels of grit to the plastic in the canopy, windshield, or window. Then pick the finest you have that will smooth it out. Then “take the feeling of cleanliness to the extreme”. That’s right use tooth paste or fine rubbing compound to start to bring the clear back to the plastic. Once it's as clear and smooth as you can get it dip it in Future floor wax and that will finish it.

That’s the hard way. You can make your task a lot easier by using the smudged area (your lemon) to make lemonade, your scratch rebuild. If your gluey fingerprint is on the periphery of the canopy/windshield; consider a simple paint job to make that portion match the color of the bordering material to represent a “quick fix” or field repair of battle damage. You can also do this by simulating duct tape over the damage.

If you want to get real tricky, drill a few “bullet holes” in the middle of the glue smudge, add some radiating cracks to simulate battle damage.

Mending cracked plastic without stitches most usually involves the right adhesive. They range from 3M’s Scotch-Weld Two Part Urethane Adhesive ($34.00 a cartridge) to Aleene’s Fabric Fushion Glue pen weighing in at $2.99. The point is, there are several urethane adhesives on the market that work extremely well for patching cracked plastic. Alternately, you can use an epoxy cement to bond the plastic together. You can also fill the crack with plastic filler or putty. After applying, you can sand it down to blend in with the surrounding plastic. Look for a variety that you can tint or that already is colored to match your plastic object.

Over-spent Hobby Budget, Get it back on track That new Mallett looks real neat making its way around your layout, but it also drained your hobby budget for the next six months, you really needed some new tools. You’ve heard it before, in fact you probably spoke it yourself “Don’t skimp on tools” if you want a quality job. But we’re not talking about sculpt

It takes a sharp blade to make accurate, quality cuts when working with paper stock. The best blade for the job is the Snap Blade knife. You won't find one easier to keep razor sharp (just clip off the tip). You can open it with one hand, they are light and you won't find a cheaper knife. They normally sell for about a dollar, I found a three-pack in a Dollar Store for a buck. The cheaper the better. You don't want rugged metal ones, like those offered by the big box stores; they are bigger, heavier, costlier and no better. What you want is a cheap all-plastic made-in-China throw-away that should cost no more than a buck.

Make Your Household Chores Pay Dividends to your hobby One of my household chores is taking out the trash every other day and I have found these bags to be an inexhaustible supply of modeling pieces parts.

It seems we are locked into a pattern of throwing away plastic food containers two or three times a week. I am getting in the habit of snagging those that will serve a higher purpose.. I like the hard plastic (black bottom, clear top) and use them for several modeling purposes:

• Corralling parts for a kit bashing project I am working on so they are in one place.
• They serve as a palette for glues and blobs of paint.
• For RC racers they are handy in your pit kit to store tires, small hand tools, replacement parts, wires, batteries Xacto knives, extra screws and zip ties.
• Such plastic boxes, often stackable, lend themselves well to storing and cataloging model railroad rolling stock.
• They are handy for storing the myriad of detail parts in an organized fashion in place of the all-to-common junk drawer.
• They are durable (just ask your average dump manager) and are easy to replace.

Only the modeler needs to know where the glitch is located. The modeler is the only one who will benefit from these mistakes and he or she is under no obligation to spill the beans. This information should only be used in increase the builder’s skill set. You can learn from your mistakes by discussing them with understanding fellow ship modelers who have made their own, perhaps the same one.

For instance, ship model kits will often include sail material intended to let you display the model under sail. You can avoid a mistake with close examination. Is the fabric too thick? Do the reef bands even exist? Do the sails have hems? Are the sail corners stabilized? Is the sale material the right color dirty white or off white? Before just slapping these sails on the yard-arms you need to know they are a reasonable facsimile of the real thing.

Mistakes will always be made in the process of learning. You truly advance by not repeating the same mistake or even better heading it off before it happens.

Don’t like your model railroad ballasting job, here's the fix? The typical method of securing ballast to track involves careful placement of ballast pieces and then “wetting” the ballast using water mixed with two or three drops of dishwashing detergent. I like to use a hairspray bottle I obtained from my wife. Use it to mist the mixture to moisten the ballast and they apply more directly. Once ballast is wet, dribble on diluted white glue to lock it into place.

Now, to get it up after you've changed your mind

If the diluted glue has been down more than 24 hours you will need to soften it up with a spray mister of water and a little liquid soap. It may take more than one soaking. It will finally get to the point where enough soaking will allow the track to be lifted. You pretty much have to pull the track up, scrape the roadbed with a steel edge (I like a 2-inch paint scraper) and soak the track in water until the glue lets go and the ballast drops. A wallpaper soak tray works really well. Don't try this prolonged underwater soak with switches or solenoids, pick it off with tweezers. Relay the track on the raw roadbed and start over.

The good thing about a hobby bench is it is flat,
The problem with a hobby bench is it is flat I found the ideal work surface for building models, painting models and finishing models. Trouble is, it is not always available when I need it. No, my wife didn’t snag it for a sewing table… It is often covered with projects that are “in-the-works.”

I can’t resist a flat spot when it comes to finding a home for an object whether it is a tool or model parts, or my favorite “I-think-this-will-work” junk recycling.

Take One CD Case+Empty Makeup Pallet=Modeler’s Paint Pallet For painting and weathering projects modelers do everything from dabbing into bottles to mixing paints on a PostIt Note resulting in color contaminated paints or dried up blobs of paint on a little yellow piece of paper.

Keeping poly adhesives fresh Back in the teaching days, we used to buy glue by the Gallon. so we needed a bottle that we could sub divide into handy size. Liquid Dish washing detergent bottles works well. As for cleaning the lid of the Titebond bottle, simply soaking in water will soften to a picking consistency, (similar to a nose nugget) if you want a fluid dissolve, use Vinegar, or Vinegar/water solution, also helps to soak "Ruined" clothes in the solution before laundry. Years of drooling glue in the school shops has taught me that trick.

Nailing It is neat but...

Obviously, you can do what you want but remember that 'nail holes' exist only when the nails have fallen out.

it's not a HOLE that you are making, but rather a rusty head. That happens a lot soon, and does apply on some kinds of surfaces.

Judges in modeling contests will often add points if you have nail holes in the siding. But it may be a judgment call that needs to be re-thought.

Publisher's Corner

Where Did The Weekend Go

Now, instead, it is business as usual. Stores are open, factories continue to churn away and even model railroad clubs have gotten into the act with Model Railroad Shows.

Seeking a local Model Railroad Show is a difficult enough process in rural America and finding one within a day’s drive further compounds the search. I recently found not one, but two within a 150-mile circle.

Both are Sunday ONLY shows.

Sorry, I have a more serious commitment and won’t be attending either show.

No loss, no foul would be the likely response from most show organizers, but knowing it or not, they may find themselves treading on thin ice. The market for show attendees is beginning to dwindle and it may be time to pay attention to the attendee and not the vendors.

There are a number of factors chipping away at this block of hobbyists who travel to shows and more importantly, spend money.