Model Railroad Blog

DTS Oct. 31 Update

Work continues on Filito’s Market on 12th Avenue. Since the last update, the roof awning was finished as were the banks of security bars along the front.

The steel awning was made from Evergreen #4544 Board and Batten siding. There are angled support brackets underneath made from .060″ styrene. For coloring, I very lightly dusted on Rustoleum Iced Gray from their chalked line of paint. The dusting was light enough that some of the white styrene showed through in places. To bring out the ribs, I gave it a wash of very dilute India Ink and alcohol. ( I think it was roughly 1/2 tsp. per pint)

The banks of security bars were from Tichy. Each bar panel was carefully trimmed. I then lined the bank up against a steel rule and glued a piece of .015″ spring wire along the back with CA to hold everything together. I then airbrushed them with one of Tamiya’s darker grays, I can’t remember which one exactly.

New Miami Book Now Available!

Over the years, I’ve received many requests from my readers to put out a book on my Miami layouts. It took a while, but that day has arrived. The book is now live and available on Amazon. While heavily slanted towards being a photo album, I also cover the thoughts behind the layouts and their history. I discuss the problems that arose and the mistakes I made. I’ve gone back and re-mastered/re-edited many of my older photos.

River Drive 2006

With practice and more experience with cameras, editors, and lighting I feel I can do a better job photographically than I did ten or fifteen years ago. I’ve gone back to re-shoot some of my older images. The one above is looking westward up N River Drive on The Downtown Spur layout.

One thing I’ll often take into account is which camera comes closest to representing what the human eye actually sees. Opinions on general photography sites don’t seem to match up to what applies to model photography. In my experience, the iPhone 6 comes closer than my Canon SLR or newer phone.