Tarp Freight: Project by Ray

Tarp Freight is easily made using soft thin paper like facial tissues. Use one piece and place it over the material to be covered. This material could be actual parts or just shapes of wood, plastic, rubber or anything that will look like freight when covered. You can use skids or nothing at all to put the freight on. Whatever you use place wax paper underneath it so when the glue is dry it will be able to be removed easily.



Brush on a 50-50 mixture of white glue and water starting at the highest part and brush down. Try to do the 4 corners first. Try to work quickly and be carefull not to break through the tissue ... the less brushing the better.



When dry cut off the excess and paint them a flat gray, blue, green etc.



These make good looking tarp covered freight that can be used all over the layout and even on flat cars.

Tall Grass: Project by Ray

There are many ways to replicate tall grass ( bristle bush clumps etc.), but this is how I did it.
Using a cheap paint brush I cut off some bristles.



I then wrapped some of these around a toothpick with a small piece of masking tape.



I cut off most of the toothpick and masking tape leaving only about 1/8" to hold everything together until it was inserted into a hole. Placed some white glue on the end and planted my tall grass.





I then trimmed the tops with scissors ... you can make fatter or taller or different color clumps.

Telephone Poles: Project by Ray

The making of telephone poles in this manner is nothing new. This is for those who may not have seen or tried this method yet and a refresher for those who have.



I used 1/4" dowel x 7" long for the poles. Make sure you will have enough clearance, height and width if set next to the track. Rough them up using the side of a fine saw and notch them for 3/32 square crossbeams. Drill the bottom to fit a 3/64 wire leaving enough sticking out to attach to the layout. Using this method of attachment makes it possible to move the poles when necessary or if they happen to be accidentally hit will just bend rather than break. To attach the insulators (beeds) I cut the heads off of straight pins and pushed the pins into the crossbeams, slid 2 beads onto each pin and secured them with a drop of CA glue. After dry cut the pins flush with the beads (always use safety googles when cutting the straight pins!) Now glue the crossbeams to the notched dowel. A brown wash or stain can be used, followed by black paint or alcohol washes. Stabilizer brackets can also be made by using straight pins and bending them to 45 degrees. You can make many variations of these poles.

A Concrete Grade Wall: Project by Ray

This is a project that was done several years back but I had documented it in photos as I went along. I needed to produce a wall for the grade transistion and had discussed it with a co-worker. He came up with a form to cast hydrocal walls that were exactly what I needed.
I used washes of paint and alcohol with india ink to get rid of the bright white color.



I built a frame of wood to glue the walls too.







I used chicken wire for a base for the plaster cloth.





On top of the plaster cloth I used sifted real dirt, ground up twigs and different sizes and shades of ground cover.







This project met all my objectives and it tied in very well to the overpass.

Indian Mfg Co: Project by Ray

It usually starts with "I have this space, what can I put there?" And so it was in this instance. I had this space which was not only oddly shaped but included a tunnel and a grade. What could I put there?



The answer was nothing that was available. So "back to the drawing" board or for me was to the computer. Having a high powered software program and many years experience it was easy for me to use it as someone would use a sketch pad. First, what footprint was I looking at and what kind of clearances would I need? How could I tie it to the existing Bassette Printing Co?
Guided by those parameters I came up with what I thought would be a suitable structure for that place.



Again using the computer I was able to construct a 3d model of what I wanted and determine the shape and sizes of every piece to be used. I transfered these sizes to black foamcore board and started the build.



I wanted the garage doors to be moveable so discarded the frame they came with and built my own with operating hinges.



For this build I used a combination of Precision Products veneer plastic sheets, siding, cement blocks and stone. The 2nd floor doors were built from scratch and again hinged.





The walkway between the 2 buildings was made again using foamcore with wood planking for the side and the roof was printed out from Model Builder Software





Next was the tunnel entrance which was designed to hide as much of the hole as possible.



Plastistruct brick sheets were used on this.



Weathering and detailing are started
I used the roof top entrance to hide the bracket and screw that holds the assembly to the wall.



Finally the whole area has come together as planned









So this is my answer to "what can I put there?"