I just joined the group and would like to introduce myself. My name is Peter, and I am an ex-pat Welshman now living in sunny Florida. I am retired, sort of, so now have time to devote to hobbies again.
Over the years, I have built many model aircraft, boats and other things from kits, but my main interest is in older model railway equipment and the restoration there of. I realize that this forum may not have many followers in this field, but many of the processes, procedures, hints, tips, tools and supplies apply equally to all aspects of the miniature world. I have already browsed through some of the posts and have already picked up a few tips.
My latest challange is the making of my own decals (transfers) of the waterslide type to apply to restored pieces. Also airbrushing is fairly new to me, being of the old school, so I will be spending plenty of time in the painting forum.
I may ask what will appear to some experts as silly questions, but bear with me. [:D]
Welcome! Model railroading eh… Yes there are a few of us on here. Railroad stuff is the BEST place to fine tune your weathering skills! I have found that many of the tecniques cross over to other areas of modeling. There are no silly questions but I reserve the right to give a silly answer!
PS I’m from Nevada so we get just as much sun as you do. Water… not so much.
Thanks for the welcome LittleTimmy. I figure that people that are heavily involved in and passionate about the building of scale models, either from scratch or from kits, must be one of the best sources of information available.
Regarding weathering, too many of my model trains and rolling stock come to me in a pre-weathered condition due to poor storage in damp cellars and other odd places. I picked up a box of German pre-WWII H0 tinplate trains recently that had spent a couple of months in the rain on someones back porch. It included a rare 1935 loco. I almost cried when I first saw it. But my despair was mostly offset by the low price I paid; there was no bargaining either. Now the loco is waiting it’s turn in my repair shop.
I am gearing up to make my own decals (transfers) too, so that will be a bit of adventure, but I am sure there’s lots of info on the site. I also own a Unimat lathe which will see lots of use making parts too.
We are in Inverness, Citrus County, just inland of Crystal River. About 75 miles from Tampa, same from Orlando give or take a bit. We are on the high ground about 250 feet above sea level. And that is high for Florida.
Bugs and critters are not a problem where we are, except for the occasional cayote and pocket gophers who take a delight in digging up my lawn leaving huge mounds about a foot and a half in diameter. There are no ponds nearby, so no gators; and not many trees in the neighbour hood either.
Welcome aboard. As mentioned, modellers of all types are welcome here. There may not be a dedicated raliway section, but i am sure you will find a home for your builds.
I bet you wish you were back home now with the weather we are haveing.
Thanks Checkmateking2, where we are we do get a couple of frosts a year. We lived and worked up North and in Canada for several decades, but I sold my snow blower in 2001 when we moved to Florida and swore I would never buy another.
Welcome to the Forums Peter. My name is Jim and I am a plasticaholic. I love the smell of plastic in the morning. Glad to have you aboard. Making decals is one of the things our club has recently started doing. I haven’t tried it yet, but from what I’ve heard, the main thing to remember is to put several light coats of decal bonder on them so the ink doesn’t bleed through. A club member made some for me and the first batch bled all over the place (they were red on white paper). The next batch had more bonder on them and worked perfectly. I recently built an old aircraft kit and the first decal I tried to use broke into a dozen pieces. A couple coats of bonder on the rest of the sheet solved the problem. Good luck with yours.
Making decals is a whole new field of learning for me. I can get the ones I need made in the the UK, but I have to buy a whole sheet of them and they are expensive, when I need only one or two. I will be doing lots of research and will let you all know how I get on.
The decals that my fellow club maker made for me only took up two lines on the sheet. He first made up a sheet for me to check the size that I needed. After I picked out the size, he ran off two lines of the roundels in the two sizes that I needed and sprayed a couple of coats of Testors Decal Bonder on them. He still has the rest of the page of solid white to make more decals on. Here’s a pic of the ones I needed.
Thanks for the welcome G-J. My first project is the development of some decals for some restored H0 Locos and rolling stock. As soon as they are done and applied, I will post a few pics.
