tunely to warp. Leather dye and the aniline powders will do a beautiful job on your skin. Wear rubber or neoprene gloves because there are health issues, as well as the cosmetic ones. When mixing any new batch of col-
orant, start light and experiment often on the material you intend to color. Many of the blacks are really some bizarre form of midnight blue or royal purple. Likewise, many browns are re- ally some deep shade of red or god-aw- ful mud color. Keep testing your latest concoction on scraps until you are sat- isfied. Even then, test it on some non- show surface of the material you are actually using on the model. All stripwood is not created equal, and it may surprise you in unpleasant ways. Ask me how I know! Sneak up on the desired effect by adding a little stain at a time and note the proportions used to achieve those results. Part of my work area looks as if it belongs to a mad alchemist, considering all the jars and containers of solutions on the shelves. It is a good idea to label all these contain- ers if your memory is anything like mine. What is the word for a memory that does not exist? Non-memory? My mother’s hobby was painting in
oils, and she was pretty good at it. She had a good artist’s eye and knew color well. As much as it pained this teenage boy to take scratchbuilding advice from a “girl,” she taught me a lot about the color wheel and how to make the color I wanted. Oil paints and turps make for some pretty useful colorants. I’m not just talking about artist’s oils here, but regular solvent-based paints like Floquil (now discontinued, but there’s plenty of it out there) and Scalecoat and others used with their proprietary solvents. It’s easy to make most any paint into a stain with the proper amount of solvent, though some brands are better than others. Once again, sneak up on that elusive desired mix, then label it, not just with
a color’s name, but the formula on how you got there. Here is where I’ve taken a leaf out of the photo lab notebook and made strong working solutions of a stain that can be thinned as necessary for the given task at hand. You can then mix just what you need from the stock solution, saving the rest for lighter or darker applications. Most of you know that I try not to spend your money unwisely with all kinds of fancy tool recommendations. I will make exceptions from time to time, and one is the Microlux 4″ table saw. Not that I can’t live without it, but I must say building anything in wood would be a lot more time consuming and difficult had I not made that pur- chase. It’s now summer of 2013 and it lists at $538.00. Mine is approaching 20 years old and has performed flawlessly the entire time. I am pretty sure it will last for the rest of my life. If it lasts you 25 years, your cost is about $21.50 a year. In any situation where multiples of a given size are required and accura- cy is more or less a must, it will save your bacon. I use that saw on 99 percent of my scratchbuilding projects. For cutting multiples, even if
it is
only four wall braces, I use masking tape to secure a stack of stripwood, then trim the end of the set. Tape where the cut is to be made, and the burr/fuzz will be kept to a minimum. To remove the possibility of a bind, I add a ¹/₄″ to a measurement to the fence, then add a ¹/₄″×¹/₄″ scrap of stripwood to the fence until the wood to be cut is secure. You then remove that scrap of stripwood, and there’s your clearance. Now what you cut won’t bind up. For projects requiring a lot of a given
size, and a lot of given sizes, that saw will save you countless (and valuable) hobby hours.
Cutting window holes in wood is a lot easier with a simple little scrap of pre- cisely-sized styrene with a little chunk
of ¹/₈″×¹/₄″ for a handle. Make one of these templates for each size of window you use on a regular basis. It is also a good idea to put an “X” in the opening so you can avoid inadvertently cutting out the space between windows.
I like to cut the window holes just a few thousandths small, then sand the opening to a snug (not tight—it deforms the muntins.) fit. If you do not have a styrene template,
say, for an oddly
shaped window you will likely never use again, trace the outline, but then cut a tad smaller for that same snug fit. A great aid for laying out walls and
decks is a two-inch wide roll of mask- ing tape. Just tape down a length of tape, sticky side up, to the bench, then lay up the wall or deck with pre- stained sticks. Cut the stripwood slightly long, then trim to exact size af- ter they are all lined up. I keep an old kitchen strainer handy
for mass staining projects. Cut all you need, usually on a NWSL Chopper (an- other tool I’d obtain), then stain them all at once. I use an old kitchen strainer for this. Believe me, the kitchen is the last place you want this item to be after you have used it. Buy your own and leave the kitchen one alone. Once stained, spread the wood on a paper towel to dry. Don’t let them touch or overlap one an- other as it renders weird drying results. I will sometimes use chunks of wood
to represent stones. I once carved some ¹/₈″×¹/₈″ stripwood into rows of “blocks” for a building wall. I laid up the strips on a drawing of the wall, leaving the win- dow areas open. Once the wall was carved and the stonework done, I paint- ed the wood with two heavy coats of sanding sealer, then a coat of regular paint to seal it well. I made a rubber mold of the wall for later casting in den- tal plaster, which I consider the best rep- resentation of masonry there is. Next month, we’ll continue our treat- ment of the scratchbuilding materials, with a discussion about styrene.
When cutting and fitting wood supports or pieces of siding (left) lay down a piece of tape with the sticky side up to add stability to
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
any cuts or to keep pieces square while gluing. Corner braces (right) can be added in multiples to add strength to a structure.
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