M Graff

Tested my scratchbuilt turntable. https://youtu.be/SHpQah58BqE

Hi all! I felt a bit creative today, so I decided to paint some more on the backdrop. The backdrop at this section is almost 2' behind the scenery. I think that'll give a good 3D effect.

More scenery in place. Now I only have to finish up the rails and ground around the turntable and some ballasting before I can continue building eastward!

Progress. It looks a lot better with some scenery. The section I've been working on. The brewery and coal dock. The brewery from the other side. The track to the brewery and supply store. The bordello. The band! Some trees around the engine house. The town. It'll be fun to start detailing.

Hi all. I just built this. Limited edition kit #168. I've had it for a very long time, and each time I looked at the manual, I just put it away again... The big issue was the tapered tank and the bands. I just bit the bullet now and built it! The base was rather easy to build. To solve the tapering of the scale 8"x 2" planks, I made a fixture in my 3D printer. The planks was to be reduced by 1/64" on one end... So a good fixture was crucial. I taped the planks before removing them from the fixture. That's so I didn't mix the small and big ends. I stained them while taped. The wood was then glued to the cardboard tank base. I only had to trim some of them to get good vertical alignment. Finished tank: All in all a very nice kit.

I really like the Rail line kits! Sure, they have a bunch of miniature parts to be fitted, but the results are so worth it! I started on this D&RGW 3000 series boxcar the other night. I painted it with Testor DRGW freight car red and then Microscale gloss before adding the San Juan decals. It took a LOT of MicroSol to make the decals conform to the planking. I used my own designed/printed trucks with Kadee wheelsets. They are very suitable for this car, as the couplers went on at perfect height with no shims. I weather the car with oil paints that I dab on and then streak with a flat brush moistened with turpenoid. When the oils have dried I add a brownish black oilbased filter all over before the detail weathering. I add some rust with Lifecolor acrylics and then some airbrushed dust. Weathered and finished. The roof did turn out quite good. It's always nice to have doors that can be opened. I use Sergent couplers on my fleet, and they sure look good. Now I have 4 more to finish.

Hi all, I've made a control panel for my layout. I used 10 mm thick MDF. It's 18" x 6.5" in size, which was the minimum I wanted. I drew the plan and then drilled all the holes for the LEDs and push buttons. I counter drilled the holes from the backside to make it possible to add the LED and the nuts for the push buttons. I primed it with cellulose first and then black Badger Stynylrez primer. I then airbrush painted white where the track lines were going to be. I masked the lines with 1/16" automotive masking tape. I painted over the tape with white to minimize the risk of bleeding. The panel was then painted with dark green acrylic paint. Around the tracks I shaded with black. This is how it looked when I removed the masking tape. I added texts with Microscale decals. The panel is clearcoated with Alclad matte. Now it's the fun part; installing all the electrical bits. I use the panel control system from MGP Here in Sweden, a very competent system with its own programming app and uses Loconet for communication.

I built a new workshop next to my layout room. The layout is in the back of my big garage (1700 sq.foot), and I really needed a warm clean space to build models in.... This is how it looked on the 5th of January: I had new doors installed last year. Some of the lumber. New door to the workshop. I framed the walls with 2 x 4 lumber. The room will be 17' x 15'. OSB sheets over moisture barrier. Door installed and sheetrock finished. Walls painted and electrical work done. Floor painted with 2-part epoxy. The room in front is also getting there... Bench tops are installed on special wall brackets screwed to the wall studs. Storage shelves and work table. Special place for the Anycubic printer... Paint booth with filter. The 14' long workbench getting ready for work. I use LED armatures all over. LED tubes in the roof and LED strips over the workbenches. Thanks for watching. The project didn't take more than 3 weeks from start to finish.

Hi, I have a friend who has some issues with his z21. The original power supply died, so he got a new MeanWell 18V DC 3.3 Ah switched supply instead. It has the right plug for the z21 input socket with positive on the center pin, just like the original. When he plugs it in it shorts out (i.e. the light blinks red). That's without any track connection... What's up with it? I find it strange as I use a power supply of the same specs on my z21....

Nah, I have air cleaning system in the layout room.

Spruce/fir trees 2.0 Faller's fir trees are really not at all good looking, but with a few minutes of work their appearance can be much improved. I use Polak model turf and some spray adhesive for this project. They are very coarse as they are... I trim the armatures to avoid the cone shape. Less is more... I applied some spray glue and two layers of turf. This group of five trees took me 10 minutes to do, a time that can be reduced severely if made in a series. I have over 1000 trees to do, so any savings of time and money are very welcome.

I've started with the plaster work on the mountains. I use a mix of WS moulds, home made latex moulds and alu foil. The plaster is regular plaster of Paris. I prefer to cast in situ. I wait until the plaster shows small wrinkles in the mould before placing it on the mountain. I carve the surface with WS rock carving tools. May need some more plaster in places. I test painted the mountain... I use regular acrylics and WS earth pigments. First ochre. Then burnt sienna. And finally (?) gray stone pigment. As it is supposed to look Colorado-ish, I hope this is the way to go. It will lighten when dry. Then some dry brushing. I'm trying to match some photos I have of the Colorado mountains. The color lightened a bit when it dried. But the dry brushing went well.

Hi all! I made a tool for embossing stones in DAS clay. The tools and stuff needed. DAS clay, an empty sugar dispenser, rolling pin, knife, glue and a good supply of small pebbles. Roll out some clay with the rolling pin, it should be large enough to cover the plastic tube and be around 1/8" thick. Emboss the clay with the pebbles. Wrap it around the plastic tube, seal it together by pressing it. Then emboss stones at the seam. When dry, seal the clay with varnish. Roll out some DAS clay and then roll the stone tool over it, firmly! Then lay it to dry. You can drape it around objects to shape it while drying. Next installment will be painting it.

Hi all! I'm building on my layout again after the summer months. The town of Holy cross on my HOn3 layout is slowly taking shape. But, I realised that the station took up too much real estate. I therefore decided to move it to the aisle side of the rails. The space was a bit narrow though. So, I decided to cut the building in half lengthwise. That makes it possible to see the interior of it and make it a bit of a show point. The starting point was an Atlas station. I cut it in half and used the remaining pieces to make the interior walls. The cut was painted red to highlight it. What do you think?

A lot! Mostly with a mini torch. I have a Kemtron C16 kit, and that one is also thick!

Made a little more progress on my LaBelle boxcar. Only a few brake parts and coupler pockets remain to be mounted before painting. I also finished a reefer marked for my railroad company. Painted and decaled the boxcar. I had a little mishap... I was going to add the handbrake chain, and I took a piece out of the box and soldered it in place. Then I realized that it was the wrong kind of link! I had taken a piece of an old gold chain.... Well, it is probably worth more than the kit... The decals are dry transfers from Woodland scenics and some old ones I had in a box. Started the weathering. I begin by painting flaked paint, i.e. paint on grayish wood color. The markings are for one of my mines on my layout; the Yvon Gold Mining company. Named after my late mother. Because there is genuine gold on the car, it suits it well. My mother would had loved this one.

This is my latest build, a car shop I made from a Campbell Seebold and sons kit. Just some lights left to install.

I've CAD designed a coupler box to suit the Sergent Sharon-couplers. They will soon be available through my Shapeways shop.

I have built one of these before, but that one got sold. This one is built more or less as it was out of the box, as the former one was heavily modified to match the original blueprints... The kit contents. The new parts added, turnbuckles, stirrups and couplers with boxes. The frame started. The subframe for the body and roof. Notice the paper strips glued to the frame sides to shim it to the correct width. Sheeting added. End sheeting. Painted, all the parts installed. The dry transfer decals added, I just love how the dry transfers look painted on the surface even when it's as uneven as here. The end with brake rod and decals. Only trucks, couplers and weathering left to do.

I got this very old Kemtron kit from a friend of mine. It is etched from very thick brass and had to be filed to shape.... I will use plastic trucks as the brass ones included wasn't of the caboose sort with leaf springs. The amount of heat needed to solder this kit was daunting.... The shape of the roof had to be shaped with a mallet over a wooden form due to the thickness of the brass. Finished and ready for paint. It was a fun kit to build, albeit a bit dated. It will be fun to paint and weather it.

I built a LaBelle HOn3 gondola kit, and decided to make a honorary car for my late mother Yvonne who died last year of cancer. I have already a mine on my layout called the Ywon mine. So this became the Yvon/Ywon Gold mine Co. car number 47 (as in her birth year). Weathered to represent a well used car that has shipped a lot of gold ore. The text are dry transfers. The boggies are 3D printed from Shapeways with Kadee wheels. The couplers are Sergent Sharon-couplers. I'm very satisfied with it.

My Westside models C25 in HOn3 will be getting some upgrades. It already has new gears installed and will now get sound, lights and a good paint job. I will also improve the power pick-ups with added wipers on the tender and the locomotive. The parts involved (well, at least some of them...). Disassembly of the locomotive. The main parts cleaned with soda and repaired. Some loose solder joints that had to be fixed. AO blasted, ready for paint. As can be seen it isn't air blowed clean yet as some of the blasting medium is still on the model. More blasted parts... Painted and decalled. The paint is Scalecoat 1 engine black that has been baked in the oven. The decals are from San Juan decals. The number was easy to choose as the D&RGW only had one C25; #375... The smokebox is painted with Alclad silver. The tender shell. All in all a good start on the project. Now I have to install the decoder, light and speaker. Then some light weathering... I'll be making it look like the photos of the original.

Thanks. Yes, they're all brush painted.

Hi all! These are my latest paintings. Abandoned track #1 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm. Abandoned track #2 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm.