The Haunted Hamlet Layout | Part 2
Last time in the Haunted Hamlet build, we got our layout base together and rough arrangement of the buildings in place. This time out, we’re finalizing some of the hamlet’s details. Even on a layout this small, I want to have a sense of a place; roads that come in and out of town, like […]
The Haunted Hamlet Layout | Part 1
Welcome to our online build of the N scale Micro-Trains Haunted Hamlet layout, a small but very scary layout! I wanted to build this little layout for some Halloween fun and maybe to get some of you to build a similar layout as a great way to introduce some younger people to the hobby. Kids love […]
Micro-Trains Haunted Hamlet Layout
Almost every year for the past several years around this time, I’ve wanted to play with the Micro-Trains Haunted Hamlet building set, usually a few days or so before Halloween and by then it’s a bit late. This year, I’m all in for the Haunted Hamlet, and over a month before Halloween get here, cool! […]
Real Soil or Ground Foam?
When building small scenes that will be photographed close-up, I’ve always used real soil as a base layer. I have coffee grinder for milling any real soil I collect down to dust but this can be a bit messy (think clouds of dust when you open the grinder!), and not always convenient or 100% consistent, […]
We Meet Again Manfrotto 244 Magic Arm
A couple months back I wrote a short piece about the Manfrotto 244 Variable Friction Magic Arm and how it arrived to me looking a bit beat-up. Here’s that article. A few months along and recently I decided I needed another 244 Magic Arm and… to make a long story kind of short, this one […]
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
Last January, almost a year ago to this day, I did a real number on my hand while using a single edge razor. Here’s a post I dashed off as a reminder to be very vigilant when working with ANY tools that can cut skin. I find myself now planning on carving lots of DOW […]
Christmas 2015 Desktop Wallpaper
Our good friend Jürg Rüedi in Switzerland has sent us a fun new desktop wallpaper for Christmas. Jürg is a Christmas magician with Photoshop and this year he’s created a very atmospheric Christmas greeting for us. Based on a Z scale diorama we built for Jürg a few years back, we have a pair of […]
Salvaging Scenic Express SuperTrees
A very popular material for making your own model trees are SuperTrees from Scenic Express. SuperTrees are collected from a natural brush-like plant and they do a nice job of simulating real tree trunks and branches. When you purchase SuperTrees, they arrive in tight clumps. You need to go through the clumps and break apart […]
Kato Unitrack Weathering Update
In the last Kato Unitrack article, we masked the rails on our track before painting. We took this extra step to keep the color of the gray roadbed untouched to allow for a better color blend when we added the Kato ballast. By painting the rail sides, we also eliminate any metal from the rail […]
David Rees | BlueRail Trains
I recently read about BlueRail Trains and their new control system for trains, but not the sort of control system I’m used to seeing. Not DCC, but one that can be run right alongside DCC and doesn’t need a lot of hardware in the middle. A system that looks incredibly elegant to me that requires […]
