#1. I use liquid white shoe polish to paint in mortar joints in a brick wall , just wipe on & wipe off with a damp cloth. Works grat & its cheap.
#2.I use tacky glue, found at hobby lobby & other craft stores. Glue people to the layout etc. Its semipermanent so you car remove the items you use it on at a later time,if that your desire.
#3.Im sure most of you have thought of this one,Fasten velcro to the back of your cab controllers,mount the other piece of velcro to the side of the layout in various places so you can save time and effort. Ive used them for years,with great results.
#4. I use plain old cheap cotten swabs for touch up painting to save my good brushes.
#5.I put very tiny pieces of linen cloth on one of the logs on the rear of my log truck for safety.
#6.Aluminum foil makes great roofing if you scribe them first. I also use them in my junk yard for pieces of tin.
#7. I think I may have mentioned this one before,For background hills & mountains, I take a piece of carpet foam about one half inch by 4 feet, taper the top to look like the tops of mountains , paint it grey or brown,sprinkle it with dirt or grass, & its quite convincing, Just staple it to the background wall.
#8. I break kd magnets into thirds to save money.I suggest scoring them first & then put them in a vise to break.
#9.Speaking of kd magnets, to add realism I use a black marker pen to draw ties on the magnets. I paint the magnets first a light grey color.
#10. For all the purist & nit pickers , I use a human hair for fishing lines on my fishermens poles,you can even glue a tiny fish on the end of the line if you are that artistic.
I have & do use these ideas & they work for me. If anybody else has ideas,Im sure a lot of modelers would like to hear them.[:)]