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Tips & Tricks Updated January 26, 2008 This page is dedicated to aiding you, fellow model railroaders, enhance your model railroading experience. We will share with you our own tips and tricks we have picked up over the years as well as do reviews of a products we have used. Please note: You do not have to belong to the Ponderosa North to submit an article. So, if you have a tip or trick you have used or just a how to question, PLEASE submit it. Note as the Tips & Tricks articles have grown I have created a link to the left to better access and find them. This update we have 2 tips on 1 page Scenery in a tube By John Staehle Installing DCC reverser and circuit breaker boards By Val Danos Scenery in a tube You may have seen this technique or even tried it but I have discovered other uses for carpenter’s gap filler, “Polycrylic” waterproof sealer and other common home improvement products that are available in the home repair section of most hardware stores and The Home Depot. The tube type acrylic sealers, gap fillers and caulking are all used on my HO RR and 1/35th scale military dioramas (I have both hobbies to look forward to). The caulking is best used when thinned with water and acrylic craft paint (cheap) are mixed all together to make a batter of sorts that is the consistency of pancake batter. This can be applied to carved insulation foam, ceiling tile, and when thinned more to brown wrapping paper to make scenery. I also now use florists foam to represent the contours of landscape. Applied with an old paint brush the substance take on the appearance of plain soil or rock. Apply a second thinner coat and sprinkle with ground cover; sand, pebbles, grass, etc. Allow to dry for about 12 hours and the clean-up is easy as well. Polycrylic sealer used to coat wood is best for water. Applied in thin layers over plain sandy bottom creeks the effect is very convincing. The same application over caulking colored in water tones is effective as well. The waterfall effect can be accomplished with amazing results when the base of a water fall is carved from foam and the layering as described above is used. Further detailing can be accomplished by using white caulking to represent waves on a lake or seacoast and white-water on a river. I have been building models of every variety in military, aircraft and RR scales since the 1960’s and have found that any acrylic based product is by far the only way to model anything related to scenery as the ease of mixing the elements, application and safe handling are all part of the plans. Installing DCC reverser and circuit breaker boards The PSX1 is a circuit breaker only and does not require as much clearance as the PSXAR. For the PSX1, I used plastruct tubing to mount our circuit boards. (It's available at most hobby shops and I think only comes in white.) I cut 1/4" lengths for each of the four mounting holes (for each board) and used small round headed wood screws with a small washer to mount the cards. These can then be attached to the front of the layout to display the LED's if you like. For the PSXAR auto reverser/circuit breaker, which is different from the two, I got four 1" nylon spacer tubes an 12 nylon washers from Walt's Ace Hardware. But it was not possible to get #4 wood screws that were at least 1 1/2" long, the longest is 1". So, I ended up getting 2 #4-40 threaded rods from The Hobby Bench. Turns out that these rods are used in remote controlled airplanes for something or other. Trouble is the rods come in 12" lengths so I used a bolt cutter to cut 4 3" lengths from the 2 rods. After that it was only necessary to drill four holes through the cross beam on my layout and then in order: 1. Thread a hex nut on one end followed by the nylon washer 2. Insert the rod into the hole through the back 3. Insert nylon washer onto the rod then the 1" nylon spacer 4. Repeat 1 - 3 for the other three holes. 5. Place PSXAR over the rods up against the tubing spacer. 6. Insert a nylon washer ver the rod up against the PSXAR 7. Finish off with another hex nut. This assembly except for the back of the cross beam can be seen on the pic "PSXAR side". The front view shows the four corner hex nuts holding the PSXAR against the spacer tubes shown in the side pic. The spcer tubes are white and the nylon washers are black. [ Home ] [ Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club ] [ Model Rail News] [ Arizona Rail Calendar ] [Tips & Tricks] [ E-mail the webmaster ]