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Dollar Store Modelling Accessories

I love going to the dollar stores to discover what I can find to use for my model hobby. Here's some of my loot.

  1. Christmas trees. These are 6 inch tall trees that are not the symertical conical bottle brush types. Its the right height for a
1/35 diaorama. One has believable looking branches and a few flecks of snow. The red "berries" are colored styrofoam nodules that should be brushed away. Another seems to use natural plant material to make the tree. It is darker "olive green" branches. Again remove those styrofoam berries.

  1. A pack of five "finger" LED lamps. The LEDs come in five colors including white. The finger part is just a elastic strap to slip the lamp onto the finger. The lamp itself is minimal size ( an slightly elongated block.) The application is to light up a 1/35 garage interior.

  2. A small "remote control" truck It has a double AA battery pack with two buttons, one for forward and the other for reverse. I took this apart to see how the forward and reverse switches worked and haven't managed to figure it out. The parts are really minimal and they came apart when I opened up the control box. After removing the hold-down screw the two locating pins of the cover had to be snapped off. The two fwd/rev buttons were held down by springs that popped the parts. This control box has a 2 ft two conductor lead to the truck motor. 2 conductors, that's why I am so interested in the extremely simple mechanical fwd/rev circuitry as this can be adapted for RC conversion of my model boat projects. Therefore I can do away with the expense of an electronic fwd/rev and speed control unit. Refer to my earlier post on adapting a double AA powered pencil sharpener () to power my Flower Class Crovette. Speed control is not required as the boat will be low speed.

The motor drive has a worm gear to drive the truck's transverse axle that is a complete unit with motor mounted and the axle drive in place ready for installation. This is exactly the solution I need to motorize the sail rigged paddle steamer Heller's Occident. 1/100 scale. I got this ship at a swap meet. I haven't seen this kit anywhere since the 70s. I had been scratching my head for a solution for a long time as the paddlewheels needed to revolve slowly and with high torque.

Reply to
PaPa Peng
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  1. One more Dollar Store item. I needed something to load up the cargo bed of the 1/24 Opel Blitz (pic at
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    There was a truck with a cargo of 44 gal oil barrels of the right "eyeball" size. The modifications done was to remove one lid and replace it with a card disk so as to create a recessed top with a rim. The barrel filler caps are small rings sliced from a ballpoint pen ink comtainer tube, one on the top lid and one on the middle of the barrel. Acrylic Sludge
    formatting link
    to adhere the card to and the filler cap rings.
Reply to
PaPa Peng

that sounds like one to try. more details?

Reply to
someone

I find a LOT of modeling material in Michaels craft stores- fine wire, little beads that make car shift knobs, metallic thread for metal hose lines, tools, etc. Michaels carries Testors paints, and every week the stores around here publish discount coupons in local shopping ads.

Also, basswood and balsa, and Krylon paints.

Reply to
Don Stauffer

lucky stiff! we got nothin' in this hick dustburg. 40 miles to the nearest, and very poorly done, model shop. we go nothing.

Reply to
someone

Amazing. I really cannot figure it out. I'll buy a few more trucks to take apart. The motor itself is worth more than a buck so its a worthwhile investment. The 2-conductor wire (to the motor) each has a copper tab with a square hole to hold it in place on the fwd button and the rev button. Each tab sticks out to form a sandwhich with the tabs from the + and - of the AA battery holder. Its normally OFF. At any time you need both tabs to complete the circuit. So how do you press one tab for fwd and the the other tab for rev without having to switch the two tabs around to reverse polarity? I am very impressed with the simplicity and the minimal parts

Reply to
PaPa Peng

Hobby Lobby has some interesting pliers and things like that in the jewelry section. Much cheaper than the model stuff and might be usable for metal parts. Sometimes its useful to walk around and look at stuff to use for modeling that's intended for something else. Paints and brushes and all the stuff to clean them come to mind.

Reply to
frank

The local Valu Hardware has these as well. I bought a set of needlenose pliers and cutters at a dollar and a quarter each there and saw the same items in Squadron blisters at a local Con a couple months later for five bucks each.

Reply to
The Old Man

AC Moore carries basically the same stuff. In a bit of building planning genius, Michaels took over a vacant store abutting an existing AC Moore in a small shopping mall. It saves a lot of time when shopping for art supplies. :-)

Reply to
willshak

Reversing the polarity? + - to - +

Reply to
R. Franklin

For some reason this reminds me of a Harry Harrison story about someone selling "antigravity" toys - a spaceship which floats in the air when you press a button. Of course it's on a concealed thread - except that if you try to lift the toy without pressing the button, the thread will break. Every time.

The story's twist is that a scientist accidentally discovered antigravity, but could only build a machine of limited power - when switched on it would remove just enough of the toy's weight so that the thread was strong enough to lift it. Since the government wouldn't take him seriously, he build hundreds of machines and put them in toys, knowing that people would take them apart to find how they worked, and somebody would figure out a way of building a practical machine!

Reply to
GordonD

it wasn't james degroot. he never gave anything away. or bill, he was still trying to get his right arm back on the right side.

Reply to
someone

+++++++++++++++++++

Whoever thought of this solution is brilliant. I have never seen it before.

Battery -ve=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3Dtab Motor =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3DL R=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D tab tab

+ve=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3Dtab Battery

  1. Each of the two wires from the motor end in tabs =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D (L &= R) Each of the battery terminals +ve and -ve also end in tabs.

  2. The Motor tabs L & R normally rest on the -ve battery terminal (a tab). The circuit is not connected to the +ve terminal and is therefore open.

  1. To rotate the motor forward the L button is pressed. This makes contact with the +ve. The R tab remains in contact with the -ve terminal. The circuit is closed. The motor rotates clockwise.

  2. When the R button is pressed it makes contact with the +ve terminal. The L tab remains in contact with the -ve terminal. The current flow, thus the motor rotation, is reversed.

++++++++++++++++++

I have also come up with a simple speed control. The motorized pencil sharpener adapted as a boat motor will run on two D cells =3D 3V. I had earlier described making a battery pack by soldering the wire leads direct onto the battery cells with the cells still sealed inside the blister pack. Cut or solder-iron melt the holes for the wire runs. That saves having to buy and install a dedicated battery holder. It is easy enough to add a second twin D cell pack and wire it up to output

4.5V and 6.0V. This ups the rpm and power of the motor and needs only a servo driven wiper switch for Rev-Fwd 3V-Fwd4.5V-Fwd 6V control.

Looks like a fun project.

Reply to
PaPa Peng

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