Repository thread for useful suggestions for everyday items

[ianmacc]

Thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where we point people in the direction of useful paraphernalia from everyday life that has a modelling use.

 

To start off:

 

The top of pencils with an eraser on. That metal tube makes a good brazier or squashed oil drum when painted.

 

Valve caps from tyres make dustbins.

 

Tags from clothes make good signs. Picked that up from RM in the 90s.

 

That bodywork mesh from car repair stores makes great mesh for fencing etc

 

I’m sure more will come to me.

[mezzoman253]

The plastic covers on the pins of 3 pin mains plugs make passable lineside cabinets if you cut them off and "fettle" them by adding a roof and doors.

 

The one on the right is a Hornby item.

 

Rob

 

 

[ianmacc]

Just the type of thing I’m looking for on this thread. Ingenious.

 

Brillo pads as rough scrub.

 

Brush bristles as reeds and long grass.

[Allegheny1600]

'Coffee shop' wooden stirrers for many various uses, 0 scale fences, old sleepers, planks and many, many jobs in modelling. I also cut an end off, thin it and use for helping get coach & loco bodies off their chassis.

 

After fireworks night, new year etc, walk around my neighbourhood and collect used firework sticks (quite square wood) - again many modelling uses.

 

Ladies makeup supplies especially etched glass nail files, these are really good for plasticard. Apparently, some tones of makeup can be used for weathering powders.

No doubt, loads more.

[gobbler]

'Coffee shop' wooden stirrers for many various uses, 0 scale fences, old sleepers, planks and many, many jobs in modelling. I also cut an end off, thin it and use for helping get coach & loco bodies off their chassis.

 

After fireworks night, new year etc, walk around my neighbourhood and collect used firework sticks (quite square wood) - again many modelling uses.

 

Ladies makeup supplies especially etched glass nail files, these are really good for plasticard. Apparently, some tones of makeup can be used for weathering powders.

No doubt, loads more.

Who knew eh?

 

Off to raid the missesses' make up box see what else there is lol

[Phil Bullock]

Olive oil or oven cleaner or sharpie pens for removing tampo printing when renumbering 

 

Cotton buds when applying/removing weathering

 

Fishing line (We use high tech 3lb fluorocarbon Riverge brand) for fence wire

 

Nail buffing pads - best one I have has 6 grades of abrasive on it

 

Acetate sheet from rolling stock boxes for replacement glazing - very useful when doing modern traction headcodes

 

Coffee grounds for soil scatter material

 

Hanging basket liner for rough grass embankments

 

Ladies tights (or stockings if you are lucky!) as a trap in hoover pipe when cleaning layout

 

Toilet/kitchen roll cores as holders wedged in to loco bodies for respraying

 

Phil

[ianmacc]

Probably worth pointing out that makeup costs as much as modelling sundries so not much use as a money saver lol. Although it’s saving us money out of our modelling budget lol

[PatB]

Probably worth pointing out that makeup costs as much as modelling sundries so not much use as a money saver lol. Although it’s saving us money out of our modelling budget lol

Cheapo stuff from places like Superdrug and whatever the Poundstretcher equivalent for makeup are might represent a saving though. It doesn't have to be something of a quality your partner would be prepared to put on their face.

[Thunderforge]

In my attempt to make cheap O-gauge stock I have used short clout nails as buffers, and brass (well, brassish) eyelets from an eyelet punch kit as the buffer surrounds. Once painted oily black you’d never know!

 

Ask nicely at sign writers for offcuts of foamex board and also from litho printers you can get used aluminium plates (0.5mm) if you bring biscuits!

[luckymucklebackit]

Some I have used....

 

While on the subject of makeup, I have one of the wife's old "blusher" brushes that I use for weathering, cleaning up etc.

Old illuminated Xmas decorations can yield a lot of fibre optic strands.

As described many times before, fly zappers + metal tea strainers =Static grass applicator

Dressmakers pins = many uses, (pivot pins and safety rail uprights for Ratio Signals and others)

Cocktail Stirrers = Shunting Poles, Yard Lamp Poles, probably many other uses.

 

Jim 

[Phil Bullock]

And I always thought rememberance poppies suitably bent would make nice yard/street lamps....

 

Phil

[Worsdell forever]

And I always thought rememberance poppies suitably bent would make nice yard/street lamps....

 

Phil

 

I remember a magazine article many moons ago mentioning that, I tried it, they looked terrible.

[Thunderforge]

I’m using the mouthpiece of an electric cigarette as a funnel for my Peckett, it’s not quite right but it might be fine rusted up in the corner of the yard.

[steve1]

End of range make-up can be cheap enough to use for weathering. Also, as has already been said Pound shops the like sell it cheap.

 

Make-up brushes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and cheap ones are good for weathering.

 

steve

[Deano747]

What a good thread!! There must be hundreds of everyday items that have a use in railway modelling?!

I found some hessian type pipe insulation on a roll from Wickes that if dyed green and shredded makes good foliage.

There must be many more out there, so keep them coming!

 

Regards, Deano.

[jdb82]

Heatproof silicone pan mats for use in the kitchen, are great if you cut them up, and use squares/strips to protect your fingers whilst holding items when soldering things. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Probably worth pointing out that makeup costs as much as modelling sundries so not much use as a money saver lol. Although it’s saving us money out of our modelling budget lol

 

Not when the missus has bought it and you've nicked it!

 

Mike.

[Liam]

Large cardboard boxes, especially the ones that clothes you order online come in. Very handy for making bases for wagon loads, though someone threw the box away before I could even do my second wagon!

 

Pity, that box could have made bases for at least 50 wagons...

[luckymucklebackit]

If you are throwing out an old bed - check what it is made from, I salvaged a big sheet of about 5mm thick pasteboard that was stapled to the underside of the frame, excellent for scratchbuilding structures, there is also the usual strips of timber etc.  (Just watch those heavy duty staples - they are sharp!)

 

Jim

[unravelled]

My favourite "found" material is the  wood from discarded  venetian blinds. Useful in the larger gauges for wagon bodies, and I've used them to keep tracks parallel in my 00 storage sidings.

 

Dave

[Worsdell forever]

My favourite "found" material is the  wood from discarded  venetian blinds. Useful in the larger gauges for wagon bodies, and I've used them to keep tracks parallel in my 00 storage sidings.

 

Dave

 

Remember those old grey and green metal industrial style venetian blinds? They make very good wagon roofs.

[ianmacc]

Drinking straws are perfect for ducts and pipework as they chop up easily. The bendy ones also provide ready made curved sections.

 

Washing up bottles (old cylindrical style) are good silos.

Edited July 18, 2018 by ianmacc

[ianmacc]

In January those snow covered bottle brush trees left over from Christmas are sold off for pence.

 

A quick dip in scatter and you have ten for the price of a couple of the usual ones...

[Moxy]

Cheap pan scourers (last lot I found were £1 for a pack of 10), cut into strips & covered with flock can make hedges.

 

The contents of tea bags for ground cover (I'd hesitate to call that tea leaves, it's more a case of tea dust, but more useful for our purposes)*

 

Pan splatter guard provides fine mesh, can be used for fencing.

 

*To dry tea 'dust' and coffee grounds mentioned earlier, put some kitchen roll on a baking tray, spread the damp tea or coffee on it, leave it in a warm oven until dry, around 50C.

[Thunderforge]

I found a roll of sticky backed lead strip in the shed, from the days it was fashionable to put diamonds all over the windows. That’ll be going underneath some rolling stock!

Probably expensive to buy it new, but I also have rolled up bits pulled off old windows as well.