Category: Useful Tools
YOCTOSUN Head Mount Magnifier
For years I’ve used a simple swing arm magnifying lamp when I need to do close-up model work, and while it’s not particularity fancy, it does a reasonably good job. I recently saw a few folks using a new style of lighted headband magnifier and thought I’d pick one up over at Amazon. The new […]
NO-OX-ID A-SPECIAL For Model Trains
There was a recent post on a forum talking about revitalizing some old, corroded track and the product NO-OX-ID A-SPECIAL electrical grease was brought up in the conversation. This is one of those products you hear about from time to time, make a mental note to buy but never actually get around to buying it; […]
Cleaning Model Trains With Foam Tipped Swabs
Lots of model railroaders use Q-Tips cotton swabs for cleaning hard to reach areas on their trains, track and turnouts. Having worked extensively in the smaller scales, Z and N, the cotton fibers that can / will come loose from a Q-Tip and find their way in to gears, wheels, track joints and all other […]
DIY LED Pin Spotlight
While I was doing a little shopping online the other day I came across some neat looking little LED spotlights. Having no real need for them, I naturally bought several. At less than $3.00 each, how wrong can you really go? These are 1W LED lights with a swivel head and they each come with […]
Pallet Wood & DIY Stain
Using wood pallets in interior design has become very popular, and as I take lots of photos here at my place I thought having pallet wood would make for a great photo backdrop. On a recent trip to Harbor Freight I noticed a stack of pallets near their loading bay and after asking the manager […]
Quick Model Train Asphalt Roads
In need of some quick and easy asphalt roads for a retail project I have upcoming, I spent a little time poking around and seeing what others were doing for their asphalt. I tend to model more rural scenes that include dirt roads or old and chewed-up blacktop, but here I wanted to go with […]
Real Soil or Ground Foam?
When building small scenes that will be photographed close-up, I’ve always used real soil as a base layer. I have coffee grinder for milling any real soil I collect down to dust but this can be a bit messy (think clouds of dust when you open the grinder!), and not always convenient or 100% consistent, […]
Kato Unitrack Ballast For HO, N & Z Scale
I recently needed to build several small scenes in HO, N and Z scale. For ballast on my custom pieces, I tend to use natural materials such as soils and sands, often grinding and sifting it myself. For these pieces however, I wanted to go with a readily available commercial option instead. As I may […]
OrthoTape Plaster Cloth For Scenery Building
I recently built a handful of small scenes to use as “sets” in order to photograph some of our upcoming products here at Raildig and I decided to go with plaster cloth for creating the terrain. I was just about to order some of the hobby-branded plaster cloth but at the last minute looked in […]
Model Parts Holder For Airbrushing
Holding small, and not so small, parts in place when you’re airbrushing a model can be a delicate operation. You want to get a good even coat of paint and as important, you don’t want to ruin that coat of paint by leaving any smudges or worse, a partial fingerprint. There are several commercial part-holding […]
