Developing Skills With Small Projects

I’m always trying small side projects to fine-tune skills. Even more with modeling track. I’m always trying to learn how the prototype build their components and push myself to grow as a model builder. That said, here are a few projects I completed this year I am quite proud of.

Crossing

I have never built a crossing before and after seeing the O scale and Proto48 castings from Right O’ Way I really wanted to give it a try.

The castings are made for code 148 rail and are cast nickel silver.

I laid out tied based on prototype photos I found online. I noticed they all were set on steel plates which protect the ties and allow the rail to be secured to the ties.

Styrene was used to represent the steel plates as well as filler pieces to isolate the rail (if I wanted to wire it). White filler putty from AK-Interactive was used to fill any imperfections and blend the styrene filler into the metal castings. I then masked the ties and sprayed everything with Rust-Oleum Earth Brown Camouflage as my base coat.

Acrylic rust washes were then brushed onto everything to highlight the details. Finally flat black and ink were used to create the oil and grease stains.

Switch

The next project was completed, again using parts from Right-O’Way. I have been studying switches lately and decided to try and recreate as much detail as I could.

Some parts are not commercially available so I decided to use styrene to represent some of the different tie plates used on the prototype.

I am quite pleased with the look of the switch and I’m getting to the point where I am ready to begin a small display layout with what I’ve learned.