Feb 27
Before adding scenery to your HO or O scale model trains toys, first determine the theme, location and layout.
Theme: Consider the theme or purpose for the setting you want to achieve. Is it a passenger train, a military base, or some other setting? The location should be considered, such as if you want the train to travel through towns to and from its destination. Think about the era; do you want your trains toys to be vintage or modern? Your setting and scenery should reflect the overall theme of your train set. Keeping the scenery consistent with the era and theme will keep your train realistic looking.
Location: Decide where you want to display your model trains toys. You might build it on a shelf or countertop for more permanent mounting. You could create an intricate design in which your train runs through the walls (near the ceiling) of your house, traveling from room to room. A different town or factory could be in each room. (Of course, the downside to this type of track is chasing down derailments, but it would be an interesting hobby.)
Layout: After you know the theme and location, plan the layout for the track, terrain, structures and finally, the scenery. The scenery must work within the constraints of the space available and it should compliment your scale model trains. To get some ideas on what you can do with scenery, there are books available from hobby shops. Another source which is faster and cheaper is a Google search for âtrain stationsâ or other related keyword phrases. When you find a real train station, then choose maps, then the Satellite tab and zoom in for a view of the scenery around a real station. You can model your station after that or use parts of it for your own design.
To get started with laying out the scenery, draw a rough sketch design on a piece of paper to get an idea of where you want to place different items. After you have a plan that you like, use a pencil to lightly draw directly on the surface of your layout, whether it is a plywood board or wherever the scenery will be positioned. Plan for height and depth based on the scale of your trains.
Use either construction foam (spray-on kind) or plaster to build hills. The spray Foam Insulation can be painted and cut to fit your style. Spray the foam on a working surface where you have room to work, away from your actual layout, shaping it to the bottom layer of the âhill.â Trim the edges until you are satisfied with its look. Add more layers, spraying and trimming each time, until your hill is the correct height. Be sure the layers fit together. Once you are satisfied with the hillâs height and shape, glue each layer together with a product like Liquid Nails. Hold the layers together with toothpicks until dry. Once dry, you can glue the hill to your board, making it part of your scenery. Let this sit aside while you continue adding scenery.
Begin adding ground cover materials around the track. Your hobby store should have several sizes and shades available; a mix of colors and sizes will provide realistic settings for a wide variety of trains toys. If you will be painting or trimming any scenery near the tracks, be sure to cover the tracks with masking tape.
Decide the placement of trees, grass, and other ground covers before moving to the next step. Be sure you have marked the board with the location of each item.
When you are ready to use ground cover, brush an earth-colored brown paint onto an area a few feet square. Your ground cover will stick to the paint as the paint dries. Add some broken branches or more ground cover to enhance your scenery. Continue this process around the board, being sure to protect the tracks as you work.
If you added water to your scenery, be sure to check that the water flows easily, but doesnât gush and therefore cause damage to your track. The complexity of your water scene determines how much containment you will need for the water. Simply adding a green paint with shimmers gives the illusion of a small pond.
Once the ground cover is all in place, itâs time to add your trees, animals, or other items to your scene. Be sure that purchased items are the same scale as your scale model trains. Your towns can include traffic lights, building, cars, people, and pets. Browse your local hobby shop or an online store for items that fit your theme, whether itâs early steam engine or modern supersonic trains.
Once youâve mastered these simple scenery-building basics, you can add intricate designs, holiday-themed elements, and trees and scenery that reflect the change of seasons. As your train set expands, you can add detailed cities, construction sites, and other scenic items as you choose. Have fun with your designs. Take pictures, keep them in a photo album so you can see your progress, and have a record of your changes.
Joe Kanooga
Feb 20
We’ve had some very frigid days in the northeastern US and Canada the last few weeks. Those of us who have a crawl space underneath part of our home have felt plenty of chilly floors underfoot and cold air on our ankles.
You may think that putting a heater in your crawl space will leave you with warmer feet. But in fact sealing and insulating your crawl space will not only address your indoor discomfort with cold, drafty floors, it will also avoid problems such as mold and rot in the crawl space itself, and will improve the health of your home overall.
For starters, let’s clear up a common mistake about the air flows in a crawl space. For many years, homeowners, homebuilders, and building inspectors have believed that a crawl space needs exterior venting on opposite walls, so that air can flow from one vent to the other, drawing out any extra dampness from the enclosed space. But the most recent studies show that ventilating a crawl space creates a very different result, known as the stack effect.
In a nutshell, with a good supply of outside air coming from your crawl space, all you need is a few cracks or hair’s width openings between the crawl space and the living areas, and a few drafts at the top of the house, such as old windows or a poorly sealed attic hatch, and your house starts acting like a giant chimney stack. Hot air rises, so the heated air inside your house works its way out the top openings, pulling cold air up from the crawl space.
The result is that the humidity and cold (and mold spores and dust) from the crawl space get drawn into your home, raising your heating costs and endangering your well-being. Ironically, the better you ventilate your crawl space, the more heat gets drawn out of your home through upstairs cracks.
Even in warmer months, when there is no stack effect from a crawl space, ventilating both ends of the crawl space doesn’t actually do much for airflow or humidity. There is no effect of rising heat to make the air flow through the vents, if they are both at the same level. And this approach basicaly amounts to treating the symptoms - poorly at that - instead of curing the disease. The disease, in this case, is excessive dampness and air entering the crawl space, and excess heat transfer during colder times of year between the crawl space and the outdoors.
You may find that your builder scoffs at the idea of insulating and sealing a crawl space. It defies conventional wisdom - and it also contravenes many local building codes that were developed from that conventional wisdom. But you’ll improve your indoor air quality, cut heat loss, and resolve any problems with humidity, mold, or rotting wood down below, if you set this out-of-date belief aside and do what recent research shows is most effective.
To properly seal and insulate your crawl space, start by removing any sharp objects such as old nails, glass shards, or sharp stones from the crawl space floor, so that you don’t hurt your hands or knees as you work (it is a “crawl space” after all). Also, you’ll be placing a plastic liner on the floor and you don’t want any sharp objects to push through the barrier and cut it as you are installing it.
Buy a liner made specifically for the task - or look for a suitable, thick polyethylene plastic. Not the 6 mil typically used for a vapor barrier - you need to go to 15 or 20 mil thickness if you want a liner that will last. The liner should be large enough to cover the whole floor along with the walls - preferably without your having to cut extra pieces for the walls. The best way to compute the size is to add twice the wall height to both the width and length of the floor, and then add 10% extra to account for the slope of the floor. So if you have 2 foot walls around the crawl space and a 15 x 20 foot space, you’ll need a sheet 21 by 29 feet. It’s better to buy a bit too much liner than to find yourself having to cut and tape on small pieces when you find out you didn’t buy enough to begin with!
Close off any ventilation openings, and for crawl space windows, either replace them with energy efficient ones, or at least ensure that they are not cracked or drafty. You may want to cut out rectangular sections of Foam Insulation to close off the window areas, as this will add an extra level of insulation to windows as well as cut down on drafts. Also check that any doors to the outside are also well weatherstripped.
If part or all of the walls are wood framed, place batt insulation against the wall between the studs; if you have masonry walls, use foam board. Be sure that any large gaps in the walls are patched first - any place where you can see outdoor light shining in from the outside.
Lay the liner over the crawl space floor, and up the walls. Trim the excess pieces off where the wall corners meet. Staple the vapor barrier to the studs, and seal all staple holes and any cuts or breaks in the poly with mastic tape.
Don’t do just part of this job. If you seal the ventilation without adding the vapor barrier, or put in the liner without insulating, you will run into trouble later on. And do it all within a week or two - don’t make this one of those projects thattakes months or years.
Once you have properly sealed and insulated your crawl space, you will find your home much more comfortable in winter. Your floors will be warmer, you’ll have fewer drafts, and your home will be safe from the health effects of crawl space mold and mildew. In fact, so will the crawl space itself.
And remember the notion we started with, that a crawl space heater might solve the problem of cold on your floors during this chilly winter? Well, if you follow the guidance above, you won’t need such a heater. We sealed the crawl space below our breakfast nook a while back, and the breakfast nook became so much more comfortable, we were able to disconnect the baseboard heaters that had been installed in the kitchen extension when it was built.
Robin Green
http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/staying-warm-this-winter-whats-the-right-approach-a-crawl-space-heater-or-proper-insulation-728094.html
Feb 11
http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Sheathings/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xl5Zbaxx/R-100322369/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
I need to find Foam board which is the same as this but i’m hoping to find an Eco Friendly (Made) insulation board. I have an art project which we need to use this to make a chair, And want to know if there are any like it but made friendlier.
You should be able to find recycled sheathing as a green building product. Thermo-Ply, made by the Berry Plastics Building Products Group, may be a good alternative.
http://www.berryplasticsbpg.com/products.aspx?page=thermo-ply
