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About this blog

The build of my former HOn3 layout (the M-K & Eastern RR), now an On30 layout and some excursions into the art of modeling.

Entries in this blog

Part 45: The Nevada City fire station, ancient kit built.

The HSM Nevada city fire station is done! It was a real challenge, mostly printed cardboard and some sticks of wood...but it went really okay I think. The bell tower has 28 parts.... Fiddly, to say the least. The interior light is a led mounted above the ceiling and has an orange colored diffuser to make it resemble gas light.                
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Part 44: 3D printing and model railroading.

My latest build: A Stamp mill in HO scale for my HOn3 layout. I've made it from plans in the "Old wood and stone buildings​" book. I CAD converted the drawn plans and as I have a 3D printer, I printed the timber frame, windows, doors, smoke stack and loading platform. I then covered the frame with Northeastern wood and the roof with cardboard covered with surgical tape. The stays for the smokestack are made of piano wire. The painting is acrylics on mineral spirits soaked wood...It makes it so
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Part 39: HOn3 Bachmann Shay conversion.

Hello! I 've had a Bachmann three truck 80 ton Shay in HO in quite a few years now. The original:     The Shay has experienced quite a few revisions, among other things, the exchange of the cracked plastic gears with metal gears from NWSL . The largest revision was when I had gotten tired of the lousy tracking of the middle truck. That was when I rebuilt it to a two truck version:   (see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/638/entry-5254-part-6-shay-conversion/ )   Now
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Part 43: Sierra west Hotel.

Hi all! I just finished the build of Sierra wests Hotel in HO.   I made very few changes away from the manual. The peeling paint that is described in it was a bit too uncontrolled (sort of...). So I made the peeling paint by brushing on turpentine and then brush on Vallejo white paint.   I really like the way it turned out. Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think about it.                     I added a few figures.       Thanks for wa
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Part 30: Railroad painting

Here is my latest, made today . I find these very enjoying to make. Size 6" by 6". Acrylic on canvas. Original photo by Kevin Burkholder.     Source: Railway art, show us your work :-)
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Part 10: Downtown Deco kits

Hi all, since the last entry I have bought some kits from Downtown Deco, I thought it would be good to show how I painted them.   This entry will show how to paint and weather the Adams Ave #1, The owner of Downtown Deco, Randy Pepprock, had a thread at a big US Forum on how to paint it, but it was deleted as it was being called "advertising".....   I hope this will show the methods that can be used to paint and weather it. Sure, it´s not as elaborate as Randy´s was, but I think it wi
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Part 42: The Leadville house

Hi all, this is the latest build for my layout: CM's Leadville house! It was a real joy to build, and the mfg delivered the missing parts very swiftly (thanks!). I think it is a really good looking house that I wouldn't mind living in in 1:1 scale! My wife asked when we should start building it.... I have put real glass in all the windows, as I do on all my builds now. That will show the interiors really good when I have installed the lights in it. I will also build a small shed/garage
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Part 41: The Minturn stn.

At the local narrow gauge convention, I bought a Detail associates kit for the "Foothill station". The kit is sold out since many years, so I guess it could be hard to find another one.... It is a mixed media, but mostly wood, kit with plastic windows and doors. The building is made for two levels of terrain which I will use to serve two railroads. A standard gauge railroad on the upper level, and a HOn3 narrow gauge on the lower. A bit like John Allen did with Corsa on the G&D. So, he
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Part 40: The Minturn, Kings divide & Eastern RR

Hi all, I felt that it has become a lot of changes to my model world . So much so that it required a new layout thread . It all started with my Middletown, Kensington & Eastern RR that I built for the 2010 challenge. A layout that would depict a fictional New England in 1943. Thanks to a move to larger premises etc. I started to build on it, and add on to it a little, but felt that it did not really work ... : (   My good friend and museum owner Peter Haventon offered then to aquire the
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Part 37: Miller and sons machine shop

My latest build that I made to incorporate in my new layout. A Woodland scenics machine shop that I made a diorama of. I named it Miller & sons after the great Glenn Miller. I listened to a lot of his music during the build....           I'm very satisfied with the build so far. I was honestly surprised at the value of this kit! It has a few issues though, as it is (as I have understood it) an old Alloy forms kit thar WS have re-released. The white metal is VERY hard, and
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Part 36: Swedish class N3 locomotive brass build in HO

Hello fellow forumites! I'm starting a new project; the brass kit mfg HNJ's steam locomotive class N3! This is the contents of the kit:   Seems to me to be a good kit! :-)   This is the progress so far. The gearbox was a bit fiddly to get smooth, but after some fine adjusting, it is super nice! :-) The boiler is made from thick brass tubes and cast brass pieces. It was a job for the propane torch! Just going to add the smoke box overlay and the boiler bands before detailing it
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Part 34: A new beginning :-)

This is how I have planned my new layout to look. There will be some changes along the way I think.... :-) I have designed it to include my current layout along the left side. The size is nice to fill with landscape. The room is 6.5 x 4.5 meters. The possibility to have a decent sized harbour is really exciting! Almost true to scale liberty ship maybe? :-)
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Part 13: Kitbashed steam engine for my railroad

And now for something completely different I've always been inspired by John Allen and his layout; The Gorre & Daphetid RR. What some do not realize is that he built almost everything himself, including the locomotives. Many of them had no direct prototype for the model, but was built to suit his fictional railroads requirements . I myself have had a project that has had the time to mature for a little while (about 20 years .....), but now the parts that I needed to do it miraculously h
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Part 29: Painting The M-K & Eastern RR's Harbour at night

Hi again, some news from the M-K & Eastern RR. I just finished a painting that I made that depicts the harbour of my layout at night. This one is acrylic on canvas and is 12" x 16". I just have to do some "regular" paintings sometimes.     Source: The M-K & Eastern RR Harbour branch
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Part 27: Some weathered Swedish Ore wagons :-)

I had a client that had built these from kits (brass/white metal), and he wanted them painted and weathered. I primed and painted them with Phoenix paints, when I got to the decaling I got into trouble (wich didn't really show at this point......). There were 4 sheets of decals with most decals for all for cars on one sheet. The problem was that one of the sheets looked okay..... the rest looked "old"..... I applied them on a gloss surface and used both micro-set and micro-sol. There was som
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Part 28: More re-modeling of the layout.

I finally got hold of a kit that I've been "needing" for some time now It's the Heljan Brewery! Every time that it have been on the market, I have either felt no direct need for it, or haven't had the finances for it.... But now I took the plunge and bought it! When looking at the kit, I can see why it's so popular! So many parts and possibilitys.... I can not build it as it's intended to be (and why would I? ). I started with some "bulldozing" of the part of the layout that will be the
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Part 26: Loksound in the Boxcab

I just installed a ESU Loksound V4 micro in my Boxcab (see part 19 & 20), I used the OEM-speaker and I think it is just wonderful! There is noticeable improvement with this decoder compared with the 3.5. I bought the "empty" decoder and used my Lokprogrammer to install the sound. There is no soundfiles for a 1925 AGEIR Boxcab though.... But until I can find some nice sounds to make a soundproject of my own for it,I will use the sound that I installed as a "good enough" sound. The sound
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Part 25: The history behind the RR.

I've had some thoughts about the freelance prototype when building a freelance layout as I´m doing .... When I started the construction of my layout, I envisioned it located in Maine somewhere (a bit vague ...) The name of the company came after the initials of me and my wife ;-) "M-K & E RR" = Michael & Kerstins Enskilda Järnvägar (Michael & Kerstins Private RR) Something has to give when you get to build the layout in the living room ... The "real" readout of the name
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Part 24: Fire engine!

I have some favorite "hate objects" in model railroading. Among other things, in terms of cliches .... For example, I would not like to have a church on the layout, as there is one in every old track book! The same applies to fire trucks .... Scenes of burning buildings with smoke generator and fire trucks with flashing lights ..... Not for me thanks . I happened to see a kit that almost converted me! A-(nother) Jordan-kit! An Ahrens Fox fire engine!?!. I just had to buy it ..... But I c
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Part 23: The finished SW 7

Hi all, I took some new pics of the SW today. It is always hard to photograph black locomotives, but outdoors with some reflector screens, it works quite nice:     The rust on the sideframes with the soaked in oil is something I think worked out really great.   The custom made heralds is very nice to work with, really good quality! (thanks Jack)   All in all, I´m really happy with the result!       I have bought some figures for the layout: It was some need for
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Part 22: Weathered SW diesel loco

This is how I do my model activities this time of the year : It does improve the visibility to work in the sunshine   I felt a bit inspired yesterday and began some much needed overhaul on my Broadway Limited SW-7.   It had been showing some poor power pick up in the leading bogie, so I disassembled the locomotive as best as I could . I washed out as much oil as I could from the gearboxes, as it seemed to be the probable reason for the problem. While it was disassembled, I took
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Part 21: Jordan 1934 Bus

And now for something different:   I found a kit at a Trainshow here in Sweden this weekend: A 1934 Ford Bus. Just what I needed for my layout! As I understand it, it was very common during WW2 that these smaller types of buses were used in major cities in the U.S., in addition to trams and Subways. Jordan/Highway Miniatures makes really nice kits I think! The amount of detail is sufficient without making it tricky to assemble. I deviated from the manual however, as the description ad
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Part 19: A scratchbuilt Boxcab for my layout!

Hello in the summer heat I have always had a desire for a special locomotive for my layout. It all started when I read about the small port terminals in New York and the locomotives they were using. Central of New Jersey had an Ingersoll Rand locomotive that is one of the first commercially made diesel locomotives: A very beautiful locomotives in my opinion Then came Tim Warris with his Bronx Terminal in HO (an incredible layout). There he showed how to take a brass Boxcab and rebuild
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