Details, again Small things have a large effect on a layout’s appearance/Bob Walker M
odel railroaders love details. I know that for certain. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s I made
my living, and not a half bad one, on de- tails. My company (Walker Model Serv- ice, WMS) made thousands of detail parts in spin-cast white metal, and they sold very well. Just one example, and then I’ll move on. Walthers is the biggest model rail- road distributor in the world, and was then, too, so I was elated when I was able to pick them up as a customer. Pri- or to that my good friend Dick Yager (Oregon Rail Supply) had suggested that I do a Hayes bumper, which is a common end of track bumping post seen at the end of thousands of sidings. The “Iron Duke” was seldom wrong, so I painstakingly crafted the brass master and was hoping for a lot of orders. Back then I made a practice of periodically calling (there was no e-mail or websites at that time) my customers and telling them of my new products. When I told the Walthers purchasing agent about my new bumpers, he said he wanted twelve. Boy, was I deflated! A meager dozen? Now I’m not all that shy, so I voiced my disappointment about the number. “Twelve!” Being a newcomer I was unaware of how Walthers did business: “Gross, Bob! Twelve gross. By my math that’s 1,440 packs! When can you deliver?” After a stunned silence: “Two weeks,”
I said, and hung up the phone. It went that way for a lot of items. As
I said, model railroaders love details. Thankfully,
the business is still
around and it is still a “WMS,” Wise- man Model Service. They have made quite a few improvements, expanded the line, and friend Keith still slaves over a hot spin casting machine. Going back to the real story line here,
details, once you have the four walls of a building attached to the roof and all the doors and windows glazed and in- stalled, it may seem that you are done. If that model is going to sit far enough away from the critical eyes of your friends (and in my case, family as well, since Donna is not above saying “You need some curtains there, dear.”), you indeed are. However, all of our struc- tures cannot be background buildings. Some are right under our noses, mere inches from the most critical of viewers: us! I mean that with all sincerity. The only person you need to please is your-
76 JANUARY 2012
Scratchbuilder’s Corner
self. Take all the advice and help from as many people as possible, but let your inner voice have the last word. It’s only a hobby. For the purpose of this column, lets
say that this is a foreground model, and you are going to need to doll it up a bit. No, you actually need to doll it up a lot. (Not that we need every building gee- gaw in the known world attached thereto, but there has to be enough to make it believable.) The things that come to mind that go “on” the structure, like electric boxes,
chimneys, sewer
vents, and the like, can be hand made or purchased. Likewise, the stuff that goes around the building, like vehicles, trash cans, and general junk, will add greatly to the overall effect. Being a manufacturer myself, though I no longer make small detail parts, I encourage you to make use of the mul- titude of commercial details out there. Most are stunningly well done and can enhance a railroad greatly. As a
scratchbuilder, however, I also advocate the use of your own handmade details. Try your hand at some of these, and you will surprise yourself at how well you have done. You can read about this stuff until the cows come home (exactly when is that?), but you won’t learn to do any of it until you have actually gone and done it. Reading only wets the ap- petite and scratches the surface. As your skills in this area progress you can make molds of some of these details, both for future projects and to share with your friends. If they are good enough, and truly 100 per cent original, you can then put some cast- ings up on e-Bay. Some folks may need the item but not be as talented as you are, or they may simply have less hobby time to devote to the small stuff. Here’s a “for instance.” I made a stone
wall for one of my projects by laying up carved stripwood, then made a rubber mold of it because I needed two of them and didn’t feel like making a second wall. Much to my chagrin, the mold turned out to be quite sizeable and con- sumed almost $40 worth of rubber. (There are times when I wish I had the eyesight for N scale.) Well, I decided to cast up a few more walls and see if they could be sold on e-Bay. They could.
When it comes to detailing an area of a layout it is not just a matter of digging into the your scrapbox of leftover or broken model parts for whatever is at hand. Unless it is a general scrap yard, details should be associated with their surroundings. Here, spare wheelsets are neatly arranged by the shop area where they will be used, and the scrap lumber on the ground is close to where the cars would be unloaded or repaired.
PHOTOS BY BOB WALKER
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