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 Posted - June 05 2014 : 4:32:42 PM
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This is a great place for modelers on a budget. Why don't we make a thread to collect our favorite tips in one central location? I'll start off by reposting some of mine which I posted to the Trains forum in 2008. Note that Certain Things have Changed, as will be noted below. ^_^
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Buy kits, not RTR. You usually save at least $6 each, and kits like Bowser freight cars are a lot of relaxing fun to assemble. You can put them together while watching TV.
(If you can get kits now. BAH. Buy Tyco BN boxcars.)
-More complex kits like Bowser locos are quite cheap as good steam goes, and the work required in assembly means you have something to do and are less tempted to spend and buy more.
(Bowser steam is dead. DAMMIT MARIO)
-Buy secondhand locos with open-frame motors, clean and tune them up, and replace the motor magnets with $2 NdFeB rare earth magnets. Result - a great running loco for cheap. (see my current thread :) )
-Use NdFeB magnets for Kadee uncouplers (see my current thread :) )
-Keep operations low-key by modeling a branchline, shortline, or lightly trafficked section of Class I. After all, how many trains are you running, 90% of the time, when operating alone? 1 or 2, probably. The rest are just idle. If you want more traffic, save money by reusing trains. Don't stage up 8 mixed freights. In real life, they look pretty much the same. Stage up 2 and run 4 times.
-Use as many stock or hardware-store materials as possible. Why use Rigid Wrap when paper towels dipped in plaster work fine? Paint with $5 color-mismix latex. There are lots of earth and pukey green tones there.
-Consider scratchbuilding or doing more scratchbuilding. Not only is it cheap, it's fun.
-Use printed-out brick paper from Scale Scenes. Print out only one to save costly printer ink, then take it to the copy shop and get enough color copies to model the Great Wall of China. Make your own windows by inking clear plastic with a ruler and ultrafine Sharpie pen.
(Scale Scenes has awesome windows too. Print out on overhead film. Some people balk at printed-on window frames,but if you go out and look at a typical industrial window, the relief of the frames is typically so low that printed-on is actually quite realistic.)
-Make trees instead of buying them.
-Use secondhand brass or steel track from train shows. Polish it with the GLEAM method described on this forum, then avoid all abrasives coarser than crocus cloth and it will stay clean, with an occasional alcohol-rag wipe and some polishing with a masonite slider car.
Buy an old rheostat-type power pack. Build a transistor throttle with $5 of components from Radio Shack.
In general, the more you can do for yourself, the cheaper it gets, and the more fun you will have. SO dig in.
-Look for motors you can use whenever you throw out broken appliances. I have a Life Like Teakettle running really nicely on a scrounged tape recorder motor, and an Atlas turntable with a VCR drive motor. These motors are usually really quiet.
-Plant a tree garden of herbs you can harvest, dry, and make trees from. A lot of these plants are easy to grow in your yard. I don't know a lot about plants and their names, but I did a lot of this growing up with my dad's garden. I know caspia (babies' breath) is one really good one.
(Achillea is also good, as is sedum, which I currently use a lot of)
-Christmas tree light strings are sometimes more disposable than fixable. Dispose of them by cutting them apart and using them to light buildings. The bulbs are 3v or something like that.
(Wire six in series and wire the groups of six in parallel to your AC terminals. ~-O-O-O-O-O-O-~ )
-Fabricate cheap mechanical remote switch controls from anything handy. I have some right now that are cave-man tech - ball pen tubes, paper clip "Eshleman" cranks (the term is used Loosely), and pieces of rail with a hole drilled through the web, which extend through holes in the fascia, and have wire nuts threaded on. Position is held by a combination of reverse mechanical advantage on the crank and bad high-friction fit of the rail in the drilled hole. C'est brutal mais ca marche.
I once thought I was the only person using mechanical remote control, then found out that everybody and his brother did it too...
-Make oil tanks from tin cans, wrapped in cardboard and painted. Heavily weathered, you'll never know what they're made from. Someone on RMR made a nifty urethane-insulated tank with spalling-off black paint this way. I forget what the urethane was made from. It looked very good.
Another idea I use a lot: buy old model-railroad magazines from the 1930s-1960s and see what kind of economical projects you can find. There's lots of interesting stuff in there. Also asbestos furnace cement scenery. Go to your library and see if they have back issues in the archives.
Raymond F. Yates had a book called "How to Improve your Model Railroad" that has a lot of economical ideas in it. Another good one is Harvey Weiss' "How To Run A Railroad", which is really unconventional yet interesting.
Edited by - Autobus Prime on June 05 2014 4:33:23 PM
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Posted - June 05 2014 : 7:06:26 PM
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| In a couple of the tips you refer to "see my current thread". Are they on this forum or the other one? Links would be nice, as I am interested in a couple of the techniques you describe.
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Posted - June 05 2014 : 7:16:45 PM
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- Lichen for trees and shrubs is old timey method for scenery. Usually found growing in many parts of the U.S.
- Paint brush bristles for weeds. This tip I got from Model Railroader. You take a blonde colored paint brush. A big brush costs about $2.00. Cut some short sections of the fibers and glue them together in small clumps. Makes nice looking weeds.
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
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Posted - June 05 2014 : 9:14:11 PM
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quote:In a couple of the tips you refer to "see my current thread". Are they on this forum or the other one? Links would be nice, as I am interested in a couple of the techniques you describe.
Originally posted by Retired Alex - June 05 2014 : 7:06:26 PM
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RA: Whoops, forgot to edit that, that was 'current as of the Trains forums in 2008." Digging for photos...
...OK, the NdFeB magnet tip is the same trick that a half-dozen people here already use with old open-frame motors. Many of the older ones out there have weak or deteriorated magnets, which make the motors draw more current and run faster for a given voltage. Replacing the deteriorated old magnets with a stack of super-strong rare-earth magnets makes the motor run better than new...slower and with a reduced current draw. It's very dramatic with the PM-1 used in Mantua and Tyco's cheaper locos.
Photo:
Edited by - Autobus Prime on June 05 2014 9:21:27 PM
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Posted - June 06 2014 : 10:27:56 PM
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Goldenrod is a prairie plant, found throughout the Midwest, that when dipped in watered down green latex paint, makes for cheap, effortless trees. They're a bit fragile, but if they're broken, they're easily replaced.
I keep a supply of old frayed manila hemp rope around for high grass. Cut it to the desired length and plant it in a thick layer of white glue or carpenter's glue. Sprinkle some sand in around it and glue it down with thinned white glue to have something that looks like the ground at the base of the grass. Dirty, dusty sand is best.
You'll also notice some conical trees standing in for red cedars. These are some cores of spruce cones that I found after pine squirrels had stripped off the scales. They're covered in green ground foam. There's no guarantee that you'll ever find cones so properly proportioned, but they illustrate that it's handy to have an eye out for potential scenic materials.
Another money saver is to replace expensive dimensional strip wood, where possible, with balsa or card board cut to size with a hobby knife.
Old rheostat power packs can work about as well as transistor throttles with one cheap modification. With old high-draw motors, the rheostat works just fine. The same is true of low-draw motors running in multiple units.
One low-draw motor runs badly on a rheostat throttle, but this can be fixed by wiring an automotive tail light bulb in parallel with the tracks. This makes the light bulb split the voltage with the rheostat. The motor simply inherits the voltage across the light bulb.
Since the tail light in parallel with a high-draw motor is a bad idea, wire a switch in with the bulb so you can turn it off and on, depending on which locomotive you're running.
If you're really cheap, save your burned out tail lights. Chances are, the brake light filament is still good.
Carpe Manana!
Edited by - scsshaggy on June 06 2014 10:35:56 PM
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Posted - June 07 2014 : 10:05:16 PM
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Those trees look great! The pine cone idea is clever too. 
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Posted - June 07 2014 : 10:20:49 PM
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don't pick Goldenrod in Nebraska
Its a State Flower 
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Posted - June 08 2014 : 12:29:54 AM
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quote:Goldenrod is a prairie plant, found throughout the Midwest, that when dipped in watered down green latex paint, makes for cheap, effortless trees. They're a bit fragile, but if they're broken, they're easily replaced.
I keep a supply of old frayed manila hemp rope around for high grass. Cut it to the desired length and plant it in a thick layer of white glue or carpenter's glue. Sprinkle some sand in around it and glue it down with thinned white glue to have something that looks like the ground at the base of the grass. Dirty, dusty sand is best.
You'll also notice some conical trees standing in for red cedars. These are some cores of spruce cones that I found after pine squirrels had stripped off the scales. They're covered in green ground foam. There's no guarantee that you'll ever find cones so properly proportioned, but they illustrate that it's handy to have an eye out for potential scenic materials.
Another money saver is to replace expensive dimensional strip wood, where possible, with balsa or card board cut to size with a hobby knife.
Old rheostat power packs can work about as well as transistor throttles with one cheap modification. With old high-draw motors, the rheostat works just fine. The same is true of low-draw motors running in multiple units.
One low-draw motor runs badly on a rheostat throttle, but this can be fixed by wiring an automotive tail light bulb in parallel with the tracks. This makes the light bulb split the voltage with the rheostat. The motor simply inherits the voltage across the light bulb.
Since the tail light in parallel with a high-draw motor is a bad idea, wire a switch in with the bulb so you can turn it off and on, depending on which locomotive you're running.
If you're really cheap, save your burned out tail lights. Chances are, the brake light filament is still good.
Originally posted by scsshaggy - June 06 2014 : 10:27:56 PM
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I love the look of the lush greenery in these photos!
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 Posted - June 08 2014 : 05:49:29 AM
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-Buy Matchbox. Hot Wheels. Maisto etc vehicles that are close to HO scale
since most are less or at $1 each 
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Posted - June 08 2014 : 11:07:26 AM
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Use black sewing twine for power lines.
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - June 08 2014 : 11:45:48 AM
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Some decal sets, like the Herald King decals, have information or instructions printed on the side of the decal paper. I always save these, as i can use them for lettering and numbers, such as this BN patch on a Galveston Wharves boxcar. Although you can't really see it due to the poor quality of my camera, the reporting marks and numbers have been patched out and replaced.
A picture of the prototype, from the internet.
You don't need fancy brushes or an expensive airbrush, just dab the paint on with a sponge to create realistic rust patches:
Edited by - ChessieRR on June 08 2014 11:46:50 AM
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Posted - June 12 2014 : 9:46:03 PM
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quote:Some decal sets, like the Herald King decals, have information or instructions printed on the side of the decal paper. I always save these, as i can use them for lettering and numbers, such as this BN patch on a Galveston Wharves boxcar. Although you can't really see it due to the poor quality of my camera, the reporting marks and numbers have been patched out and replaced...
You don't need fancy brushes or an expensive airbrush, just dab the paint on with a sponge to create realistic rust patches:
Originally posted by ChessieRR - June 08 2014 : 11:45:48 AM
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The same is true of Woodland Scenics dry transfers - the numbers up at the top by the title and such are sometimes good for car numbers.
Also, for weathering, I just use these 10-for-$5 foam paintbrushes from the local Five Below (5-dollar store for those who don't live around one) for drybrushing, with ordinary craft-store acrylic paint (make sure it is matte finish, and sufficiently thin!). I've gotten close to an airbrushed effect by being really painstakingly careful. I oughtta post pics of a couple cars I've custom-weathered. Also, for the artists among us who also have some modern freight cars, graffiti decals are overrated - I hand-draw all mine with sharpie marker to match prototype photos. All this is just for the odd day I feel like being a prototype modeler instead of restoring old cars.
One other thing: old AHM cars often have fantastic detail, but since they have talgo trucks, people get rid of them at shows for dirt cheap. Simply chop the talgo couplers off the trucks (or replace them with athearn trucks), use a coupler gauge to check how much shim is needed, then glue on kadee coupler pockets to the frame shimmed to the correct height. 10-minute upgrade that puts them right up with old Athearns and MDC's in terms of detail, realism and durability too.
One more: if anyone has a Japanese Maple tree, they will of course be familiar with that tree's habit of dropping scale-tree-sized branches all over the place. Mine grows in the middle of a very large evergreen shrub, so all I have to do is walk out the door and pick up all the sticks sitting on the shrub. They look like perfect dead trees, all sizes from 2" to 12", and I would assume some ground foam or clump foliage can be used to make live trees of them.
Maybe another one: at shows, someone always has a large box/flat of shreds. You know the kind, little scraps of scenery, spare parts, odds and ends, torn-up wires, filthy trucks and wheelsets. Enough of that detritus swept up to fill a whole flat. ALWAYS buy this. I have gotten so many esoteric, arcane repair parts I needed by doing this. Case in point: no fewer than 3 bay doors for an Ulrich metal 2-bay hopper... from two different locations... in the correct colors for the exact cars I wanted to repair.
I'm going to shut up now.
--CRC
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