Car Swap Project part 8: Olympia cars and liquid rust techniques: In this installment of the Car Swap series, David explains how he completed the HO scale Olympia cars for Seth and Gerry’s layouts. Starting with a few of his own decaling tips, David explains how he weathered the cars using various paints, his airbrush, […]
Car Swap Project part 7: Gerry’s creative touch: In this episode of our Car Swap series, Gerry explains how he completed the HO and O scale Bona Vista cars for Seth and David’s layouts. Starting with prep work and a few of decaling tips, Gerry then dives into extensive detail about weathering the two boxcars. […]
Car Swap Project part 6: Seth’s techniques: With the decals finally printed and distributed, it’s time to start the actual work of completing the cars. Seth, Gerry, and David each have their own techniques for doing this kind of work, so parts 6-8 will cover each modeler’s efforts in detail. Seth kicks things off with […]
Car Swap Project part 5: Printing decals with an ALPS printer: As the three friends endeavor to make custom boxcars for each other’s layouts, Gerry Leone, Seth Puffer, and David Popp embark on printing custom decals. There are several easy ways to print your own decals, just as long as you don’t want white lettering. […]
Car Swap Project Part 4: Railroad herald design class: Gerry Leone, Seth Puffer, and David Popp all model freelanced railroads, and each has created names, heralds, and graphics for their fictitious lines. The car swap project spans three different time periods during the 20th Century, so to make cars that work for each other’s railroads, […]
Host David Popp has the track and cork roadbed in hand, so he’s all set for trackwork! Following good construction processes, David first surveys the various sites where tracks will route. You’ll see how to install roadbed along the main line roadbed, along the turntable lead tracks, under turnouts, and even over bridges! Follow along […]
Car Swap Project Part 3: Painting plastic models: As part of trading boxcars custom decorated for each other’s layouts, modelers Gerry Leone, David Popp, and Seth Puffer do some preparation and painting of the plastic models. In this installment, the three use a variety of readily available products to add some color, or take some […]
Car Swap Project Part 2: Stripping lettering from models: As explained in the first installment of the series, modelers Gerry Leone, David Popp, and Seth Puffer have decided to create custom boxcars for each other’s model railroads. This time around, David starts the real work of preparing the cars that he will use for the […]
Car Swap Project Part 1: Trading models: Modelers David Popp, Gerry Leone, and Seth Puffer begin a series of projects to create custom-painted freight cars appropriate for each other’s model railroads. As David, Gerry, and Seth find out during the adventure, this is something fun and easy to do for any group of friends who […]
Build an HO scale weed sprayer Building an HO scale weed sprayer car was not just enjoyable; it was downright fun! It all started when my friend Paul Weiss declared that he was going to run a weed sprayer maintenance-of-way train at an upcoming operating session on his Central Vermont Ry. (www.cvrailroad.com). Five days before […]
David works to put all the right sounds in all the right places on his Olympia Logging Co. On30 layout. His secret to installing the proper audio effects lies in the PRICOM Dream Player modules and the wide array of sounds samples that fit on a tiny micro-SD card. Follow along to learn David’s pro […]
Missouri Pacific pumpkin pie is a delicious variation of a holiday favorite. It includes molasses, which makes the pie a darker orange color. I cut back the sugar a bit from the original recipe, as I didn’t want it to be overly sweet. The original ingredients also included dots of butter, which I omitted as […]
