Information on kit bashing: cutting tools

What Wolf said ...

Ceramcoat has a terrific variety.

For browns, black, and white I like the most inexpensive acrylic available in our local art supply shop. Couple bucks will go a long long way. Or, 16 ounces for $7.50! Also a good place for inks.

On the web at

Newton was 'the' railroad hub for the Santa Fe and maybe other RR in the 40's, 50's & 60's. It was centrally located.

"LDosser" schreef in bericht news:hkrd55$gc7$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org...

A few reasons actually, first of all i wanted a town where the Santa Fe SuperChief ran through, then a region where at least 2 other Railroads were running and interchanging ( Mopac and Rock Island ), I also didn't want to do the usual suspects ( Tecohapi, Cajon Pass etc. ) , I do want to scratchbuild the beautiful station of Newton, I'm not into rocky mountain scenes, I love smalltowns with the typical mainstreet buildings ( plenty of those in Kansas ). All these things made me do research on Newton and Kansas in general. I've obtained quite a few books on the subject and reading these books, getting a copy of Kansas ( the magazine ) every few months, in short getting to know Kansas has made me even more confident of my choice to model this region. Of course from Europe its hard to tell but I get the feeling that this is a part of the US that is still the US as most europeans think of it, it's certainly a place where I could imagine myself living if I had a decent job.

So those are my reasons, imho nice , good reasons to base my dream layout on, don't you think.

Oh and confirming that my choice was good, was the fact that I've already had lots of help from Kansas people, Elisabeth Hurley telling me where I could get a copy of her fathers book, or Mrs Rachel Goossen who personally sent me a copy of her manuscript "Brick an Mortar a History of Newton Kansas", or the half dozen Kansan people that went out and took pictures of the depot and other buildings in Newton and mailed them to me, etc. etc. I've never been there ( I will though ) but I love Kansas ;-)

The doors are a piece of clear styreen with strips of silver painted styreen to resemble the doors, it was my first try at scratchbuilding and I'm still a far way from scratchbuilding the Newton Depot, my next project in Newton will be the Railroad Savings Bank the hard part about this are the ornaments because in N-scale they don't make things like that so I'll have to make them from clay or something myself.

In the last year I've also decided not to stay prototypical for the whole layout( the meatpacking plant I'm building right now doesnt exist in Harvey county but it could have ), but instead get some significant buildings in the right places so that people that look at my layout will say "hey thats Newton or at least Harvey county Kansas"

Greetz Jan

"David Nebenzahl" schreef in bericht news:4b70c5b8$0$4653$ snipped-for-privacy@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Yes , I use cheap automobile primer in a spray can, 5 euro's to do so much plastic, another advantage it comes in matt grey, matt black, matt sand and best of all in matt brick color, half of my buildings all I do is prime them and then give them a wash and some pastel weathering , if you do the weathering different on 5 buildings you prime with the same color you get 5 different wallcolors. Works great.

Greetz Jan

Sounds like a lot of fun and if you do get to Kansas you will have a pre-existing fan club!

On 2/9/2010 12:34 PM Jan ( Bouli ) Van Gerwen spake thus:

Spray-can primer is fine; the problem with it isn't the paint itself, which works as well for finely-detailed model railroad models as it does for a metal cabinet. The problem is the high nozzle pressure and lack of control of the spray. You can develop your technique on models so that you're only depositing a thin layer of paint, by moving the stream quickly and not spraying too close, but it isn't easy. At least not as easy as using a good airbrush, which you can adjust to spray the finest mist. Which is why, if I had my druthers, I'd like to find solvent-based primer in a bottle and use it with my airbrush.

A good supplier of solvent based primer is an Auto Paint Store. Its already designed for spraying and thins perfectly. Plus you can get a quart mixed of any color of the pantone spectrum you would like. Mike M

On 2/9/2010 7:19 PM mike mueller spake thus:

D'oh! Of course. [slaps forehead] Why didn't I think of that?

(I'm going to guess that automotive paint is probably actually lacquer, which means one needs to be very careful applying it over raw styrene, as it can easily craze or dissolve the plastic. But very much worth trying.)

I think the secret is spraying from a distance so that the primer is nearly, but not quite, dry by the time it hits the plastic. Avoid close spraying that creates runs and pools of wet primer or paint (for solvent-based types).

On 2/10/2010 12:06 PM Rick Jones spake thus:

Yes. I can confirm that this is a good approach (and, as always, experiment on a hidden part of the model first).