Tips and Tools
Simplify the process by adding expert tips to your skillset and essential tools to your workbench. With practical advice on planning and building taught by masters of the hobby, you’ll spend less effort getting the job done and more time enjoying the fruits of your labor.
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2:03National Model Railroad Association Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone talks wiring in this video. If your layout is like most modelers, then there are tons of wires underneath it, making it hard to find the one you are looking for. Gerry’s tip will help you keep things in order. He mounts inexpensive shower curtain hooks
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2:46Josh Clark has a quick video on cleaning locomotive wheels. If you notice your locomotives and trains aren’t running the smoothest you could try cleaning the track. He also recommends cleaning locomotive wheels on occasion. This could be every once in awhile depending on how often they are run. His method is quick an easy,
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9:58Modeler Josh Clark shows how to renumber a factory painted locomotive in this video. Sometimes the locomotive being modeled in real life doesn’t come in the same number from the factory, so it must be renumbered. The whole thing can be repainted, but Josh shows a quicker easier method that requires simply removing the numbers
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2:08National Model Railroad Association Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone gives some tips for the workbench in this video. When working on the workbench, tweezers are typically used to hold figures and other small objects. Unfortunately, tweezers can marr the paint on the figures, the sharp ends scraping the surface off. Sometimes figures even need to
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2:18A finished skirt makes a model railroad look complete. Unfortunately, cloth can be expensive and may require a seamstress or knowledge of a sewing machine. National Model Railroad Association Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone shows the cheap and easy way he hides everything underneath his layout. A layout skirt makes the underside of a model
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4:32In this video, National Model Railroad Association’s Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone shows how he extends his track across a swinging door to accommodate a layout that crosses doorways. When building a model railroad layout, a modeler must consider the doorways in the space. Some modelers can design the track around doorways to not block
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6:21National Model Railroad Association’s Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone talks tree planting techniques in this video. Trees on model railroad layouts often are mounted on a slope of a hillside. If foam insulation or a hard shell topping is used as a base, it is difficult to keep the trees vertical as the glue is
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22:35Modeler George Sebastian-Coleman discusses the varieties and uses of various cutting tools in the hobby. Cutting tools come in three basic varieties – knives, saws, and files. A hobby knife is common in modeling and useful for making small cuts on wood and styrene. It’s important to have a board underneath the cutting surface so
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3:01National Model Railroad Association’s Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone demonstrates the use of a paint mixer in this video. Modeling experts like Leone say that shaking a jar of paint is not the best way to disperse the pigment. This method of mixing disperses the pigments unevenly and gets paint on the lid of the
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