Old MODEL RAILROADER magazines

Since I am Brad you are a fake poster.

_______

Steve

As usual, you're talking utter s*it. I have MR and Trains going back to the late 1940s - they *aren't* mouldy.

Oh, Jerry, I wouldn't say that. I'm a DCC type, and I love the old issues of MR for the same reasons as you do. In particular I appreciate the excellent structure drawings that used to appear in almost every issue. I think I may be turning into an architectural modeller!

Cheers

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com spake thus:

Peek-a-boo, Curt, we see you.

Those materials are out of date according to ?????

Have you ever been into a hobby shop that deals with radio controled planes? Balsa wood is one of their primary building materials.

I'm quite happy to use illustration board for structure modelling, but I've never cared for balsa. The grain is too coarse, and the timber too soft and brittle to be of any use to me.

Cheers,

Mark.

Balsa works just fine for trestle bridges. I built a 26" long trestle on a 15" radius and a 3% grade entirely out of balsa in 1965 or thereabouts. Used dressmakers pins and glue. Stained it all in diluted creosote first (you could still buy the stuff at the builder's supply in those days), and spiked code 70 rail to it after it was installed. Complete with guard rails. A friend tried his hand at spiking rail on that trestle, decided that building a layout wasn't so tough after all, and went home and built one.

Mark Newton spake thus:

Glad you brought this up, as illustration board* is one of my favorite building materials.

All except for one thing: it's unfortunate propensity to warp. As soon as you glue something to it, as you usually must do in order to create a structure, it absorbs moisture unevenly and warps, usually in the worst way possible for your model, creating a curved wall surface.

The last model I build using this (actually, using chipboard, what people usually call "cardbord" instead of illustration board), I ended up super-gluing lots of peices of cut-up coat hanger wire and clamping the s*it out of it, resulting in a relatively flat structure.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas on how to prevent or fix this problem?

• This is one of the most mis-named materials in our hobby. I'm still amused and annoyed when I hear this referred to in the model RR press as "cardstock", because as a printer, I know that's simply the wrong term. "Card" would apply to what printers call "cover stock", or just "cover", meaning any of a number of heavy printing papers designed for use as covers to printed pieces, and widely used for such items as business cards, postcards, mailers, etc. Much too flimsy to use for modeling structures. There are lots of finishes and textures available, from gloss- or dull-coated to vellum to laid to smooth.

What "cardstock" really means is either illustration board, poster board (but only the heavier types: most of this is still too flimsy), or just plain cardboard (known to printers as "chipboard" and used for such things as the backing for pads of paper and for shipping dunnage), not to be confused with corrugated board used for cartons. Another synonym is "Bristol board", which is the name of a manufacturer.

These boards warp and you need perfect climate to keep them from loosing shape in the train room. Best to avoid and use Styrene it is much better.

___________

Steve the real

Depends on the use. Balsa is often preferred for making models of redwood and Sequoia trees because the coarse grain of balsa is a very good representative of the coarse bark of those trees.

" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" spake thus:

Peek-a-boo, Curt, we see you!

In a particular situation when I used very light balsa sheets to make something, I had the same problem. I simply glued a 1/4" square piece of balsa to the back of the sheet. This resulted in a fairly rigid piece of material as well as a flat piece of material. You could also use such things as popsicle sticks (from a craft store) or other such flat material.

Curt modeled Hanes for his pastor from ages 9 to 17; then Rev Billy Bob gave him commando training.

Peek-a-boo, STEVE CAPLE, we see you!

Gett> " snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" spake thus:

Again you slam god and the church. God is keeping score and hell is where you are bound.

On Feb 19, 1:10?pm, Steve Caple wrote:

I'm partial to any issue with an E. L. Moore article in it :-). His materials may be out of date (balsa and Bristol board) but the structures are great.

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That's why I'd like to look thorugh them too, but I don't really want to buy them then get rid of them later. I'd be itnerested in some of the older construction models as well, but would probably go crazy reading about the prices that some of today's kits sold for "back then."

dlm

Just curious... which ones? The only one I seem to remember hearing about was the one called "KaBOOM Powder Factory."

dlm

So... material like that used to make cereal boxes would be about right in your opinion? I've never really understood all of the different terms for stock. Perhaps it's second nature for a printer though.

dlm