Scratchbuilt detail parts

knudsen

New Member
I am mostly in agreement. The devil is in the detyails for sure! I paint almost everything flat black, then dry brush color on top, leaving shadows, as in Jim Marksberry's howto: http://2guyzandsumtrains.com/Content/pa=showpage/pid=3.html

I sometimes modify this process by drybrushing white, instead of the final color, then painting on a color diluted to the point of translucency. This is easier to control in small areas, as described at the end of my own howto: http://2guyzandsumtrains.com/Content/pa=showpage/pid=34.html

Just remember, if you can dream it, you can make it. It's just a matter of finding the right technique.
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
knudsen said:
I paint almost everything flat black, then dry brush color on top, leaving shadows

Painting black first, then dry-brushing the color is intriguing and it seems intuitively correct. I've actually stumbled on this before by accident and knew it looked good. But I wasn't perceptive enough to try it on more stuff.

I'll check out your links tomorrow when I have a faster connection. Thanks for the thoughts!
 

knudsen

New Member
I almost always paint that way, with the exception of wood. Wood gets a dark wash for wethered unpainted wood, like the truck sides (bad example actually, the wash got frozen and when I used it it had little chunks in it resulting in black spots and specks). The other method I use for weathered (worn) painted wood is to apply the paint as if it were a wood stain and wipe it off. The less paint on the rag, the more the result is weathered.

pict4658.jpg
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
Those are some great links... interesting ideas for scratchbuilt detail parts and painting, plus a how-to on scenery with foam and drywall finishing compound.

I've had good luck with weathered wood by using off-white/gray first, then going back over with a dark wash. Got this technique offthe net somewhere.
 
Nice work! If you want to make open or battered barrels, you might try thin metal. I used brass shim stock. Fred did a howto using the jig I made him for "O" scale. This can be done easily in any scale from N on up. The jig can also be made from a softer material than the aluminum block I used, so you don't need machining skills.

2 Guyz and Sum Trains Dot Com (2G) ~ 2 Guyz Dot Info > > Content > > HOW TOs > > Embossing O Scale Barrels

I took a look at your barrel building instructions, very nice.
While I was at 2guyz, I popped in to the post about building log cars of wood. I had built 24 log cars in HO of wood a few years back,in a similar fashion, using wood & some small amount of brass,(chocks-bolt plates -Etc) . The cars turned looking great. The problem came when you tried to run them without a load of weighted logs, if there was any grade at all & a curve came up they pulled themself into a straight line right off the track, from the last car straight to the engine.
Next time I'll use all Brass to get the weight I need .
 
I've used sprue and other kit remnants as detail parts...have to get some pics of my Ocali Outfitters diorama posted here...anyway, it's almost a subcategory of kitbashing IMO. But scratchbuilding details has to be the ultimate in originality, even when making something as plain as a crate or barrel.

You get the pride of workmanship and being able to say "I made it". What impresses me perhaps even more are the real freaks, uh, afficionados, who can scratchbuild a loco in brass right down to the wheels and every last bolt, even making their own screws! (except for the motor, wire and light bulbs or LEDs, of course).

To me what seems more practical is to spend a bit more time really refining a master part which can be casted and reproduced. Micro-Mark makes a casting kit which I purchased some time ago and used to make a few molds. Nothing major since then, but there's still time before the shelf-life on the resin expires...I hope.

Also, I've heard Fimo clay is great for making detail part masters and figures. Like any skill I'm sure there's a learning curve. I am inspired by folks like Sellios who make thousands of details to go in their kits. Perhaps there's room for an online trading forum to swap homemade detail parts? I know there's something like this for graffiti decals.
 
Oh, and a while back before the move to WA I had begun masters for a small stucco shed/building. CC Crow has some tutorials on how to make plaster structures on his website and I was inspired after reading these. As part of this structure I built an add-on shed by gluing planks over a wood form to make the walls and roof. I used brass and styrene to make 'hinges' and was in the process of making a latch/lock detail for the doors when I had to pack it away. It's the kind of little add-on that can be added on to a number of buildings to give it that something extra. Mebbe sometime soon I'll pull that kit out and finish it. Hmm.
 
Freak, guilty as charged

I've used sprue and other kit remnants as detail parts...have to get some pics of my Ocali Outfitters diorama posted here...anyway, it's almost a subcategory of kitbashing IMO. But scratchbuilding details has to be the ultimate in originality, even when making something as plain as a crate or barrel.

You get the pride of workmanship and being able to say "I made it". What impresses me perhaps even more are the real freaks, uh, afficionados, who can scratchbuild a loco in brass right down to the wheels and every last bolt, even making their own screws! (except for the motor, wire and light bulbs or LEDs, of course).(Quote)



This "freak " is almost guilty as charged, however the only time I made my own wheels was for a Galloping Goose type thing & I have never made my own screws for the brass locos I have built.
In fact I am at a standstill on a USRA 2-8-2 that I am in the middle of , following a MR magazine atricle of the 80s that called for making your own crankpins for the drivers because I am unwilling to pay a couple of hundred dollars for the jewelers tap & die plate needed to make said crankpins.
I also "cheat" in that the 4 Climax , 4-6-2 Pacific , Western Maryland Shay, & Heisler I did all have Precision Scale or Kemtron whistles, bells, smoke box fronts ( except the 4-6-2) , headlights, compressors, stacks
& a few other cast parts on them.
I did build my own Transmissions for the Shay , Heisler, Goose & the Climaxes , actually a different design for Each of the 4 Climax, that mostly because as I would get one transmission working, I could see a different & perhaps better way it could have been done.
The Climax Locos were my first effort & would have never come to pass if Cliff Grandt had not been willing to spend a few hours over several phone calls to help me figure out the gear train for them & suggesting which of the gears he produced might be suitable to make the thing work.
The 4-6-2 Pacific was built exactly as per a construction article in a
40's or 50's series of articles in Model Railroader by Mel Thornburgh ( sp?) except that unlike Mel , I used Power Tools , he had NONE --not even an electric drill, he used an eggbeater type hand drill & files to turn his parts that required machining, I am fortunate enought to have both a drill press & a Unimat.
I am still contamplating if I want to build what was called a "Kitchen Table Locomotive" several of which were featured in atricles published During WW II . These were engines in which , because of war time metal shortages, the boiler, frame & most of the superstructure were made of wood, they turned out surprisingly well & attractive. I have the construction detals for one that the boiler was made from a six inch piece sawed off a shovel handle from the guys work place!!
 
Not trying to hijack the thread, but I'd love to see some of your work, Dave. Perhaps a thread over in Scratchin' & Bashin' if you don't have a gallery set up already?
 
Photos

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I'd love to see some of your work, Dave. Perhaps a thread over in Scratchin' & Bashin' if you don't have a gallery set up already?

I not only don't have a gallery , I have taken very few pics of my stuff.

I just sold my house in Jan. (Big 4 B/R) & moved into a 10 X 60 rental trailer in preperation for a retirement to Colorado. My son & I are looking at 40 acres , it has a small house & a HUGE shop 1100 SF , perfect for building hot rods & the zoning will allow a trailer 14 X 60 or so to build a railroad in, a run out mobile home to convert can be had fior 5-600 $ ---PERFECT set up !!

ALL my model stuff is now buried in a storage ( WAS buried), I am going stir crazy with nothing to work on so I am getting some things out & am going to get building something soon.

I will get a item or two out , they ain't easy to get to --- a complete life of stacking stuff in a big house & Garage is in a 10 & 30 shed, including an almost complete 27 T roadster in pieces & 5 392 hemi motors & a 64 Merc 390 mill,all FULL SCALE

But I will soon get a couple of things out & photo--- then all I need is someone to tell me how to post them here & I'll do it.
Thanks For showing interest
Dave
 

Dirtyd79

New Member
Basically what I did was I built some HO scale pepsi machines using a method mentioned in The Academy. The original poster Arlaghan provided some overlays or whatever you want to call it to wrap around a block of wood cardstock or styrene to make the outside panels. For the rest of it I used black permanent marker. Actually looking for that post is what brought me here to this forum. It's not really hard and you can bang out several of them in an hour. The hardest part was enlarging the overlays to HO scale which I did with the paint program for Windows.
 

Tileguy

Member
Arlaghan's Good..............You should see the Miniature Working grandfather clock he built............He did it a few years back...I think i have pics on a disc SOMEWHERE LOL
Maybe he'll see this and Post pics of it......probobly be faster than me trying to find that Disk among the bunch i have.
 
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