Category: Construction

Moving Beyond Being an “8 out of 10” Modeler

Victoria Embankment, London. G.De Nittis. Last weekend I attended a lecture at the Phillips on the work of Italian impressionist Giuseppe De Nittis (more well known in Europe than the US).  On the panel were two art historians and two museum curators, all excellent speakers.  They’d put up a slide of a piece of work…


Directing the Eye

No matter how much of a prototype modeler we’d like to say we are, the reality of our limited space is such that everything we do is ultimately somewhere on the “proto-freelance” spectrum. Since we can’t copy actual scenes exactly, decisions need to be made with respect to composition. One of the key principles of…


Grab N Go Staging

This weekend’s project was adding another shelf for my open top staging. These are floating shelves with a 1 1/2″ trim strip on top to keep the cars from rolling off. Steve Jobs big thing was his obsession with ergonomics and the user experience. A lot of this is subtle. I find that if I…


Industrial Park Grade Crossing Signage

Grade crossing signs within the confines of a private industrial park sometimes take on looks other than the tradition crossbucks. Shown above is one such example at the NEPW Logistics campus in Portland, ME which I’m currently modeling for a commercial customer. Here’s the artwork for those interested in making your own. I print the…


A Gondola for FP&T

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any rolling stock so I decided to do so in a way that added some local flavor. Ferrous Process and Trading (FP&T) is a scrap steel recycler and one of the larger industries on the layout. They have their own small fleet of gondolas with the odd reporting marks…