Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been back in touch – he’s been busy with some HO model train 3d printing.

(His last post is here if you want to get up to speed.)

“Hi Alastair,

A few more 3D printed items in HO scale, boats for all the waterfront areas on my layout. I wanted some small boats to populate the vast water areas on my layout.

I found these files for free on thingieverse and sent them to a friend in the neighbouring town who has a 3D printer and asked him resize them to a 15 scale feet for an scale HO boat.

They do need a lot of cleaning up but most of the interior can be hidden by cargo in them. The outside is easy to sand (but when I say easy, the product is quite hard) and then the imperfections are smoothed out with Tamiya putty.

I sprayed them with a sand colour undercoat and them painted the a few different colours.

I use a Pilot paint pen to paint the boat rails after sanding them with different colours as it is so easy to use and doesn’t get anywhere but where you want it to be.

The outboard motors are cleaned up and painted to suit the different makes. Where they have not printed properly, I mount then on a boat and cut the bottom off at water level to look as if they are ready to go.

Below are a few photos of the painting and detailing process.

I have no an intention to buy a 3D printer as at this stage it would not be justified cost wise, but the HO model train 3d printing is interesting.

Brian”

A big thanks to Brian.

Dean has also been playing with a 3d print model train.

“Hi Al,

first thing I want to say excuse my spelling and grammar. I have been receiving your emails for about a year now and have been taking notes and buying a ton of stuff.

I finally started building my bench work and have a little piece of kind of in a oval just so I can run a little training blow the horn entertain myself as I slowly build my Little Empire.

One of the things I wanted to put on my layout with some bridges but a lot of them are quite expensive and I found a man on eBay that’s laser cutting them out of cardboard and also MDF.

They’re very inexpensive compared 2 most show the bridges are looked at once you glue them together and He suggests clear coating them before you paint them they’re really quite strong and they look really good to me I think they rival $150 2 a couple hundred dollars that I have seen online.

I bought 3 21 in bridges for $20 and I also just bought a fourth Bridge from him that I haven’t received yet and I just wanted to share them with everybody and a link to his eBay if that is okay.

I have a picture I painted three of them and working on making them look old

I wanted to share and just wanted to thank you and everybody for all the great information that I’ve been able to gather for the last year thank you again and here is the three that I bought.

I hope the rest of the community thinks are pretty cool also.

Mike”

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if today is the day you get started on your layout.

In fact, I read through all the comments on the Beginner’s Guide yesterday. It does feel wonderful to have helped so many of you.

Remember, it’s all about that start.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Paul’s been back in touch – he’s started on his Z scale scenery:

“Hi Al

I have attached some more pics of my progress on my Z gauge layout the last picture being where I am now ive been making a few kibri and vollmer z gauge houses which has taken a while.

Also I made a road layout from some stiff grey card for cars etc and drew the road markings on with a 0.8mm tip white gel pen

I think it looks ok but I know a lot of your other members will have criticisms and I know I will deserve them, to be honest i’ve really been struggling.

Z gauge isn’t the easiest scale to work with there is very little in the way of scale stuff you can get like houses cars trees etc

And because it’s so small its really expensive and trying to scratch build stuff isn’t an option as its just too small to work with so its a nightmare, this is where im struggling,

Ive actually been thinking of just scrapping the whole thing and selling all my Z gauge trains & track etc as I feel like I’ve just cocked it all up and made a complete mess anyhoo that’s where I’m at right now sorry for the moaning etc

Hope the pictures don’t get too many negative reviews

Paul (giddykippa)”

Now on to Cassio.

He’s never a man of many words because of the language barrier – but have a look at his layout:

“Hi Alastair,

My name is Fred Anderson and I am from Victoria in Australia.

I Have just started my first model train layout. I am 76 years of age (not old).

I first brought my train in 2014 but never had the chance to construct it until now. I purchased it through Bissett Magazines, once ever fortnight with a magazine and parts including Engine, carriages, track scenery etc for wholee village called “Little Benton”.

We have since relocated from Goldcoast in Queensland to Melbourne Victoria Australia. We have moved into a Unit from a 3 bedroom house to 2bedroom unit.

After many discussions with wife about having a 12inch around the spare bedroom and everything, we settled for an uplifting table into wall cupboard as per attached photos.

The size is 7ft 8” by 8’6” wide. This is as per plan supplied. Will send more photos and videos as I progress. I have learned quite a lot so far.

No 1 photo is cupboard closed

No 2 photo is 2doors removed and placed in front

No3 photo Table or Bench folded in place

No 4 5 6 is layout as stands now

Thank you

Fred”

A big thanks to Paul for sharing his Z scale scenery, and to Cassio and Fred too.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

If you’d like to share what you’ve been up to, just hit reply to any of my mails.

Please don’t send more than three pics per mail – but send as many mails as you need to get everything across.

Hope that makes sense!

And if today’s the day you start your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Paul’s been in touch with a great ‘how to’ on model train restaining walls.

Hi Alastair, I thought I would share how I made some stone walls.

First thing is to get some white foam board at the dollar store.

Next peel off the paper cover on both sides. This can be facilitated by wetting the paper. You can use the board as a single layer or glue two pieces together with PVA glue as I did.

Next get some cheap ½” brushes and cut off the bristles right down to the metal binding. Using a drill remove the bristles down below the metal at least 1/8”.

This leaves the metal binding exposed which will make the stone impressions in the foam board.

You can make few different brushes and bend the metal into different profiles. Mark the tools you now made with different markings so the you will get different shape stones.

After you make all your impressions in the foam to form your wall you have to paint on the colors that you want. Make notations of the steps you use and the colors so that you get uniform walls.

My walls were colored with the following procedure:

Two layers of Burnt Umber wash allowing drying between coats.

Add the different color stones as you like.

A coating of dry brushed black using a fan brush.

Lastly a single coating of a black wash to emphasize the grout lines between the stones.

“Hi Al,

I thought I would send you some photos of how to easily and quickly make tin or corrugated roofing. I used a artist’s paint tube squeezer that I got on Amazon for less that $6. You can salvage the metal stock from aluminum drink cans as I show in the photo.

Now on to another Paul

Paul”

A big thanks to paul for his ‘how to’ on model trains retaining walls, and to the other Paul too.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to stop dreaming and start doing.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.