Neatness


The first step in creating an effective model is having a clear understanding of the elements that contribute to the end result, and the percentages of those contributions.  Looking solely at the visual impact something contributes, and not taking into account prototypical accuracy, those elements are: Today I’m going to discuss neatness of assembly.  Neatness […]

Dialing Things Back


Tony Koester made some excellent points in his March Trains of Thought column. The piece dealt with one of the most important modeling topics, color management. He made a point that often gets skipped over and that’s the fact that we view things through atmosphere. As a result, saturation drops off with distance. In addition, […]

Graffiti Tips


An upgraded Walthers Cryo reefer sits in front of SALCO on the East Rail 2 layout. If you’re a modern era modeler, graffiti is part of the landscape. Here are a few tips to make it more convincing on a model. Working with larger decals takes patience as far as getting them to ultimately sit […]

Color Management


The challenge of having so much information instantly at our fingertips is, that when something particularly insightful is written, it can get lost in the background noise. There is no element of modeling that contributes more to visual impact and plausibility than nailing the colors. To that end, Tony Koester’s editorial on color strategy in […]