http://studiopickett.com/blog The art of scratch-building scale models. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:16:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 en http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=305 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=305#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:51:47 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=305 This photo was taken a week ago! Time flies these days. I've been sick, and I've also been trying to finish up a pinhole camera that I am making. Meanwhile, I work a little on my next train model. The RhB has a number of these passenger lounge cars (Salonwagen) and a baggage car to match. I keep wondering if it would be useful to make the baggage car first. I'm also trying to figure out how the passenger loungecars are made - the windows in the sides are not all flush in the same plane as the side - the windows have three parts - the big center part is flush, but the two side pieces are at an angle. So I've been sketching how they go, so I can think about how best to make them. I'm thinking I may make some study models to help out. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=305 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=304 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=304#comments Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:32:36 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=304 Well, that was a longer break than I had planned on taking. I finished the historic subway car, and it is on display at the Flux Factory in Long Island City. I will do a photo shoot of it once it returns back home. I have not yet finished that boxcar, but I just don't feel like finishing it now. I do, however, feel like starting my next car - the RhB's Pullman passenger cars. I learned a lot about modeling passenger cars when making that historic subway car, and a lot of that new knowledge will help me out with this car.]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=304 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=303 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=303#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:50:09 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=303 The car is essentially complete, but I am going to spend the next few days adding some details to it that should give it a more realistic look. I'm planning to add wheel journals, various underside pieces, lights on top, and a roof detail. The model also needs some touch-up paint here and there. The vertical poles at the ends of the car need trimming underneath. I drilled the holes through the underside to hold them in place. And I am trying to push them into the roof piece a little so that they will stay put. They need to be glued and touch-up painted. I'm contemplating trying to add a little of the railing using a method similar to how I made the ladder for the cement silo. We shall see. The window mullions seem to be staying put despite them being wood glued to plastic with carpenter wood glue. The addition of the Liquitex matte medium and paint at the bootom of the mullions - to glue wood to wood - is working well. One mullion popped loose, but stayed nearly in place. So I added the Liquitex matte medium and paint to the top of the mullions - gluing wood to wood - and hopefully that will solve that problem. The roof glued down nicely. I glued the top of the wood trim to the underside of the wood roof and that has good strength to hold the sides straight without allowing them to bulge out. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=303 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=302 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=302#comments Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:43:50 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=302 In the photo above, you can see the short end walls under construction. I made them the same way as the long side walls. These walls have more wall and less window, thus they seem to be less fragile than the long walls. Below is a picture with the end walls glued in place and the roof resting on top. The roof is not glued yet. I need to add some pieces to the corners to round them out and make them look smooth. [...]]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=302 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=301 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=301#comments Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:25:58 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=301 The roof is propped on top of the walls. I am beginning the short side walls now. As you can see, I've made a piece of track for the car to be displayed on. I decided to go with painting Studio Lascaux "anthracite" since subway tracks are generally very dark in appearance. I also decided to not add ballast as the subway tracks in NYC rarely have ballast. The track is 12 inches long, thus it extends a little beyond the photo on each side. The track is made of a bottom piece of 1/8" thick balsa wood, which has a 1/8" thick piece of cork laminated onto it. There is a second piece of cork underneath the track ties. The track ties are walnut. And the track is size code 70. The subway has small track, so code 70 seemed appropriate. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=301 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=300 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=300#comments Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:07:17 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=300 I got the seats finished and glued into place. I also glued the long side walls into place. They warped a little, but I have a plan for solving that problem. So, next I will make the short end walls. I will make the same way as the long side walls despite the difficulties with the glue not sticking to the styrene very well. I may try some other glues to remedy that - though it's not a crisis - the mullions stayed put during the handling necessary to glue the walls into position. [...]]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=300 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=299 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=299#comments Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:58:30 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=299 My apologies for the week break. I'm back to work once again. Today I worked on making the window mullions for the exterior of the long sides for the gate car. I have a few more pieces still remaining. These are made using the basswood Midwest scale lumber and painting them to match the rest of the wood exterior. I am gluing the wood pieces directly to the clear styrene that is the windows using wood carpenter's glue. This is probably not the best glue, but it works as long as no tension is applied to the glue joint. You can see in the photo that one mullion has been knocked loose and is lying at an angle waiting to be re-glued. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=299 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=298 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=298#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:59:12 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=298 I added the remaining seats. They still need the back cushions and then they will be painted. They also have end trim pieces. They all came out a little different on the shaping of the seat cushion - sort of as if they had been in real use (and abuse) by real NYC'ers! I think the seats give the car a little sense of scale. They appear to fit nicely. This Saturday is the sub-regional NMRA train show. I will be taking the gravel car and the cement silo car for judging. I will also be giving a clinic. So I have been busy getting paperwork done for the cars, and finishing prepping for my lecture. I've almost got everything ready, just a few more items to do. I'm excited to be giving a clinic, but at the same time, it's a little stressful. I will be talking about my painting techniques. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=298 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=297 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=297#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:23:09 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=297 I spent a little time working on making the remaining seats. You can see in the picture that I got the seats made for the center on one side. They get end pieces, which I didn't make yet, and they also get cushions on the seat backs. They are made the same way as the long benches - basswood for the support pieces, and balsa wood for the cushions. And they will get painted the same colors. These are fun and easy to make - and they turn out so cute! ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=297 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=296 http://studiopickett.com/blog/?p=296#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:18:14 +0000 gmpicket http://studiopickett.com/?p=296 I got the wood siding made and installed on the long sides for the gate car. I did both sides. They still require all the trimming and framing for diving up the plastic into windows. I think I should get started on the little short sides... The wood siding is scale lumber basswood 2x4's - I thought about making the siding out of 2x2's but decided that was not the right answer. The pictures look like 2x4's. I painted the 2x4's like I did for the RhB boxcar [Güterwagen] - taped them down and painted them. Then sanded them. I used the traction red paint that I had mixed with the Holbein acryla-gouache paint. The paint had come a little unmixed, and despite my remixing it, there is a little red shade variation through the siding pieces. I chopped the 2x4's up into pieces about 50mm long, then taped them down neatly to Bristol board. This allows me to get them spaced as I want and maintain control of the wood pieces. Then I cut them in half and glued each half to one long side. After the glue dried, I trimmed the pieces to the correct length. thus getting a perfect fit. Since the sides were too thick, I removed two layers of the Bristol board from the inside along the bottom of the sides. This made them the correct thickness and makes them fit nicely to the undercarriage piece. ]]> http://studiopickett.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=296