Verlinden Modeling Magazine Vol.5 No.2

Here you see a typical scene during the Allied push to Germany. A free French Forces M4A2 Sherman is passing the ruins of a small factory which shielded a rather hastily abandoned German Flak Position. A small touch of sentiment is also provided in the form of the real "losers" in any war. orphaned children. However, the main focal point is the ruin itself. Trophy N°20030, Small Factory Ruin. Under the 'Lend-Lease' program the Allies not only recieved clothing, food and ammo, but also tanks, vehicles and other armored equipment. The Sherman found its way into those ranks, mostly in the M4A2 and M4A4 versions. It was well-loved by its crews, regardless of nationality. The one shown here is a combination of a TAMIYA M4A3 made into an M4A2 using VP kit N°333 (M4A2 welded hull) and a VP turret (N°334 Early M34 gun shield turret). The second point of interest on this diorama is of course the Factory Ruin. N° 20030. It can be seen embedded within piles of debris all coming from TROPHY N°'s 20027. 20028. 20034. A good balance was obtained in this scene between the ruin, models and figures. The importance of balance in a diorama can never be over emphasized.

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Verlinden Modeling Magazine Vol.5 No.4

The base is a piece of plywood cut to size, edges sanded smooth and sprayed with Flat Black with a spray can. The borders were then taped with masking tape to obtain a black frame. The water area was then airbrushed with a base coat of Very Dark Green, lightly oversprayed with Olive Green and Dirty Brown for approximating the appearance of dirty water. Finally a heavy coat of Humbrol gloss varnish was airbrushed to simulate sheen of the water. Next a thick piece of marine styrofoam was cut to size to fit the frame on the base plate. Sides are sanded smooth and painted Flat Black with water based paint (enamels would attack the styrofoam). Four sheets of VP cobblestones were needed to cover the surface of the road and they were glued to the base with contact cement. The cobblestones received a wash of a Humbrol mixture of Black & Gray and a little Dark Green. Cleaned with a cloth while the paint was still wet. Then dust was sprinkled on and partially wiped off. This process was repeated 3 or 4 times achieving a weathered and dusty road surface. Next the VP embankment walls at the rear of the scene were painted, weathered and glued in place.

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Verlinden Modeling Magazine Vol.6 No.4

Something all military enthusiasts are aware of is the rarity of seeing an authentic German vehicle, especially a tank, in a Hollywood production. With this in mind, the obvious choice for a German tank was a Chaffee. By adding a muzzle brake, "Schutzen" (Skirts) and Panzer gray paint with German crosses, we have a "genuine" Hollywood Panzer. The addition of an AMT Ford 150 pickup lends contrast between the modern and the historical. VP's Normandy Ruin became the focal point of the movie set and was detailed with Trophy Roof Tiles and balsa, not to simulate the real thing, but to depict a typical facade used in making films. After completing the components. I started on the groundwork. The plywood base was covered with homemade paper mache' sprinkled with sand, pebbles and finally, static grass. All were pressed into the "terrain". For the base I used Humbrol paint, artists oil wash, and drybrushed with enamels. The figures were base coated with Humbrol and blended with oils. The vehicles were finished using the same method as the terrain.

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Advanced Terrain Modelling

Plaster bandage, often sold in the UK under the name 'Mod-Roc', is a coarse woven bandage impregnated with plaster-When making up a section of groundwork that needs to be very irregular or lumpy, I normally use odd scraps of polystyrene as a foundation. (If you ever buy some of the larger electrical items such as TVs or computers, you'll find they are usually packed in enough thick polystyrene to provide you with a generous stash.) Carve your lumps roughly to shape, stick them in place, and then apply the bandage. Simply take a length from the roll, dip it in water, and then smooth it over your 'Jumps' to blend them into the baseboard. You can then seal it with a layer of Hydrocal to give yourself a good surface for colouring, attaching 'scatter' and so forth.

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Model Railroader 2008 08

During a recent expansion, Jim Gideon's HO railroad grew into a 25 x 43-foot empire. A 32-foot-long peninsula, 50" high, runs lengthwise through the middle of the room, and its supports include three steel columns. Jim used a trio of tall industries to divide the peninsula into two separate scenes. A sprawling steel mill and its accompanying industrial area occupy one side of the peninsula. The opposite side is home to a large grain elevator, a Hour mill, and a paper mill that screen the steel plant from view. Hiding the three columns was a major concern as Jim began kitbashing the various industries. In each case, the tall industrial structures conceal the posts until they're well above eye level. Jim painted the upper ends of the posts with the same sky color he used on the backdrop, so the posts tend to blend in under the normally bright layout room lighting. The largest industry is a paper mill kitbashed from a Walthers Tri State Power Authority kit. Jim assembled the 15" tall main building to fit around the first column and used the balance of the 40" x 40" plant to fill the end loop of the peninsula. This mill includes parts from several Walthers paper mill and tire plant kits supplemented with plenty of Evergreen and Plastruct structural materials and small detail kits.

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Model Railroader 2008 09

The Maine Central RR (MEC), like most New England railroads in the late 1940s, was primarily a boxcar railroad. That means the vast majority of the MEC's traffic, including its paper business, moved in 40-foot boxcars. As the photo shows, many of the war-weary older freight cars remained in regular service while their replacements were under construction. In 1947, the Maine Central's car roster in the Official Railway Equipment Register lists 4,619 cars, including 3,584 boxcars, which made up 77 percent of its fleet. The rest of the MEC's roster included 418 gondolas, 250 hoppers, 172 stock cars, 30 covered hoppers (for cement), 25 flatcars, and a handful of other types. Note that some cars were modified for special jobs like hauling pulpwood and wood chips. To represent a typical cross-section of this MEC car fleet, about half of the models should be 40-foot boxcars. Judging from the capacities listed in the car register, most of these were older single-sheathed composite boxcars (with visible steel side bracing), as only a few of the new all-steel boxcars had been delivered. You'll also need some flatcars and gondolas fitted with end racks to haul pulpwood; twin hoppers for coal, sand, and gravel; and one or more two-bay covered hoppers for cement.

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Model Railroader 2008 12

At one time, the meat industry played a major role in railroading. The trackside slaughterhouse was a busy, interesting place surrounded by a fascinating array of stock pens, loading ramps and gates. Meat would arrive on the hoof in dingy stockcars and depart on the hook in bright reefers. Most of these industries were very large, but we feel that the small single or double pen facilities that were usually located in rural areas and small towns make the most interesting and best models. Just about every small town in the U.S. had some kind of meat processing industry. Our latest HO kit is called "Butcher's Way". Livestock is processed at the slaughterhouse and is then picked up or delivered to meat packers and local butcher shops. The company also runs their own adjoining packing house, butcher shop and small luncheonette specializing in steaks, hot dogs and hamburgers and is run by "Ma Magdalina". Kit includes eight beef cattle. Figures and vehicles are not included. Only 700 kits will be made, so order from us now.

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Railroad Model Craftsman 2008 08

Mention two-foot gauge to most readers and they immediately think of Maine and the legendary Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes or the Wiscasset, Wa-terville & Farmington, but there were a few railroads out west that chose 24-inch as even more economical than the three foot width most railfans associate with western narrow gauge lines. Colorado's two-foot Gilpin Tram has been described by a number of writers and modelers and now the Silver City, Pinos Altos & Mogollon will enjoy better notoriety thanks to Duane Ericson. Author Ericson grew up in Southern Arizona where he spent many weekends with his parents exploring the ghost towns and abandoned mines scattered throughout the desert, relics of America's early mining history. He now resides in Silver City where he has spent the last several years carefully gleaning material from local libraries, area mining historians and the remains of the railway itself to compose this authoritative account of the Silver City, Pinos Altos & Mogollon Railroad. Ericson devotes his opening chapter to an overview of the region, describing the early Spanish discoveries of copper deposits that were significant enough to warrant the long haul into Mexico where the ores could be refined. Once the threat of Apache attacks eased, miners exploited the area with better equipment and better transportation when they became available after the opening of the Silver City, Deming & Pacific Railroad in 1883.

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Railroad Model Craftsman 2008 09

In the forty-five or so years that I have seriously pursued this pastime, change has been voluminous, and readers of this magazine will notice that recently I have written about change quite frequently. I guess it is a factor of growing older. Looking over editions of RMC and Model Railroader from the 1950's and 1960's teaches one that at that time, this hobby was still essentially a craftsman's domain. There were ready to run locomotives and cars, pre-built structures and the like, but for the most part, kits of those buildings and of that rolling stock were the staple. Wood, die-cast metal and even cardstock, with a little brass thrown in for those who could afford, it were the primary construction materials. Track usually had brass rail, in HO; other scales were lucky to have ready to lay track. Power packs were primitive by today's measures, by which DCC and Quantum Sound are beginning to rule the roost. But with all of this, it was a fun time to be a model railroader, and I look back at some of my older efforts, even a "mere" fifteen or twenty years ago, and marvel at how I was able to come up with some pretty good results, even by modern standards. As a segue, this change is especially notable in model locomotives in HO scale, one of my primary interests.

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Railroad Model Craftsman 2008 11

With the headlight bracket in place I was able to determine that there was lots of room for the small LokSound decoder to fit just behind it and adequate space for all the decoder wires. The decoder was also held in place with a small piece of double-sided carpet tape. Now, if you're like me, one of the biggest problems with installing decoders in a small space is what to do with all those darn wires. Well, I decided to make a small circuit board that would fit between the speaker and decoder to which I could solder corresponding wires, thus eliminating a lot of space-consuming, shrink-wrapped wire joints and at the same time keeping the wires neat and organized. To do this I cut a small piece of blank copper-clad circuit board to fit the width of the styrene mounting blank and just long enough to allow room for soldering two or three wires. After determining the number of sets of wires that were to be soldered to the board, I evenly divided the board into that many strips and took a razor saw and cut slots the length of the board to isolate each strip. I attached the circuit board to the blank with thin double sided tape. Another advantage to this method is that it is much easier to remove wires from the board by touching a soldering iron to them rather than having to cut apart a shrink wrapped joint. Believe me, I know from firsthand experience.

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Railroad Model Craftsman 2008 12

Recently, while searching through the old Railroad Magazine files, I stumbled upon three photographs of the Waterville Railway. While they were not what I was looking for, they immediately caught my eye, so much so that I stopped what I was doing to share them with my colleagues. A lone steam engine, a few old, wooden boxcars and the wide open country dusted with freshly fallen snow-these captivating images of shortline railroading elicited a sense of nostalgia for a bygone era. How I wished I could have been there on that cold, snow-covered day. Digging deeper into the folder I hit upon a newspaper clipping dated Monday, September 29, 1941, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The above-the-fold story was on the front page of the second section. A typical "little railroad that could" feature, it was accompanied by four good-sized photos. There was a large shot of Ten-wheeler No.949 (a secondhand Baldwin classic built in 1896), one of the engineer in the cab, another of the local board of directors meeting in the town hardware store, and, finally, a shot featuring two women visitors from Wenatchee gleefully waving from the cab. Ten weeks before Pearl Harbor, it was obviously a slow news day in Seattle. That would soon change, but the slow pace of business on the railway would remain for at least a few more years.

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