Tag: featured
We Meet Again Manfrotto 244 Magic Arm
A couple months back I wrote a short piece about the Manfrotto 244 Variable Friction Magic Arm and how it arrived to me looking a bit beat-up. Here’s that article. A few months along and recently I decided I needed another 244 Magic Arm and… to make a long story kind of short, this one […]
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
Last January, almost a year ago to this day, I did a real number on my hand while using a single edge razor. Here’s a post I dashed off as a reminder to be very vigilant when working with ANY tools that can cut skin. I find myself now planning on carving lots of DOW […]
Salvaging Scenic Express SuperTrees
A very popular material for making your own model trees are SuperTrees from Scenic Express. SuperTrees are collected from a natural brush-like plant and they do a nice job of simulating real tree trunks and branches. When you purchase SuperTrees, they arrive in tight clumps. You need to go through the clumps and break apart […]
Kato Unitrack Weathering Update
In the last Kato Unitrack article, we masked the rails on our track before painting. We took this extra step to keep the color of the gray roadbed untouched to allow for a better color blend when we added the Kato ballast. By painting the rail sides, we also eliminate any metal from the rail […]
David Rees | BlueRail Trains
I recently read about BlueRail Trains and their new control system for trains, but not the sort of control system I’m used to seeing. Not DCC, but one that can be run right alongside DCC and doesn’t need a lot of hardware in the middle. A system that looks incredibly elegant to me that requires […]
Manfrotto 244 Variable Friction Magic Arm
Previously I’d written about using an inexpensive (e.g., eBay) softbox setup for both my train photos and for my general work lights
Painting Kato Unitrack Rail
In a recent article, I applied Kato ballast to HO, N and Z scale track and I was pretty happy with the results. Here’s the link to that article: https://www.raildig.com/useful-tools/kato-unitrack-ballast-for-ho-n-z-scale. What I was less happy about was the rail itself, specifically my paint coverage of the rail sides, there was still too much underlying shine […]
Dave Meek | On30 Thunder Mesa Mining Co.
During a recent YouTube poking around session, I came across a model railroad video that just made me smile. Not that I wasn’t impressed with the On30 scenery (I was), and not that I didn’t appreciate the quality of the video production (I did), but the video just made me happy enough to watch it […]
Walter Vail | Showcase Miniatures Nn3 Shay
To model railroaders not familiar with narrow gauge modeling, can you give us a little background on the prototype of your Class B Shay locomotive kit? Actually, there is not one individual prototype for this Shay. These locomotives varied within their class according to many needs of the individual owners. Many prototypical engine designs went […]
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 […]
