Diesel Service Kit From Micron Art
There are of lots of reasons I like Z scale of course: the quality of the trains, the 1:220 size itself and not to be overlooked are the Z scale manufacturers and their constant desire to push the details. Here’s a great example of a manufacturer really putting their backs in to an upcoming release, […]
It’s Not Supposed To Be Easy
An overstatement for sure, but is model railroading in any scale supposed to be dead easy? It’s not that I want model railroading to be unnecessarily difficult or complex for the sake of it but there’s an old saying that goes, you get out of something what you put into it. I realize if we’re […]
Evolving Ztrains.com
It’s been a busy start to 2013 here at Ztrains.com, working on our own projects and websites as well as work for both Ztrack Magazine’s and American Z Line’s websites. It’s good to be busy but more important for Z scale; it’s good to see so much activity from these companies. All this activity means […]
2013 Z Scale Resolutions
With the New Year recently begun, many of us are now making good attempts at keeping our resolutions intact, always a tough thing to do a few weeks beyond the January 1 mark. I tried a new approach to my New Year resolutions for 2013 though; I began about 6 weeks early, in November 2012, […]
Desktop Layout | Milwaukee Road 2
This month we’re back to our scenes, starting with the Milwaukee Road desktop layout. In the last installment, we showed the basic foam shape covered in latex paste. It’s always a process to go from that very basic shape to fine tuning the carving of the scene with areas being reworked several times in some […]
After Hurricane Sandy On Long Island
After a total of 9 days without electricity or heat, many of us here on Long Island, NY can begin to put Hurricane Sandy behind us. The effects of the hurricane continue in the form of gas rationing at the pumps, if you can find an open gas station at all. There are still thousands […]
Waterfront Project | Turnout Build 2
In the previous turnout article, we showed the very basics of attaching our turnout stock rails to the ties. In this article, we’ll take a look at our turnout in its near complete form and we’ll also point out a few mistakes we made so you can avoid making them too. This is less of […]
Micron Art | AZL Add-On Details
Micron Art has announced they will be producing replacement handrails for the AZL GP38-2 diesel locomotives in etched stainless steel, as well as many super detailing elements. These details will be a welcome addition to the modestly priced AZL locomotives and knowing Micron Art’s commitment to both Z scale and to high quality, I’m sure […]
Desktop Layout | Milwaukee Road 1
Our first desktop layout is clearly a desert-themed operation so I wanted to go in a very different direction on this second layout. With the recent release of the AZL Milwaukee Road GP38-2, Rob Kluz over at Ztrack Magazine suggested I do a Milwaukee Road layout. Not a bad choice at all when you consider […]
Waterfront Project | Turnout Build 1
This weekend I began working on the turnouts for the Waterfront Project using the #8 Fast Tracks turnout fixture and Code 55 unweathered rail, a good match for Micro-Trains Line flex track. I had always referred to these Fast Tracks tools incorrectly as jigs. A quick definition of jigs vs. fixtures: a jig is a […]
