Hey guys, I was working on a quick project last night and this morning and had an idea I wanted to share.
Let me begin by saying that some time ago I saw a small boober caboose by MTH or something that I really liked but the $30.00 + pricetag was way more then I was willing to spend. Fastforward to last Saturday when at a trainshow I picked up a new version of a 6257 type caboose from a train set for $5.00. I brought it home and using a hacksaw, Testors glue and a old junk flat car I had laying around, I shorten the caboose and made my own. I have just finished priming it and will paint and decal it soon. After looking at it I began to think about the benifits of the project- first I now have a small boober caboose for my layout,second I use materials on had so the total project cost was five dollars, and third I got to try my hand at kitbashing which I haven’t really do much of since entering O scale.
Since I have been on this forum for some time I have seen that many of us have inexpensive modeling projects that we have done that don’t take forever to complete and add to our layouts or train fleets. My idea is this: Why can’t/doesn’t CTT print one article per issue on one of these projects. There is plenty of ideas out there on this forum alone. I know that the higher ups at CTT read the posts from time to time and I feel they could take the best of the ideas posted and run a small 2 - 3 page article detailing the steps. I know that some time back Model Railroader had a few differant features on one night and budget projects and love to see CTT do the same. I know for my layout alone I have come up with many simple inexpensive projects that would be of benifit to others.
This is just my 2 cents. I feel that there are enough projects out there to fill a book ( or magazine) once a year and would love to see more of these in print.
Sent email to the Great God of CTT [Keller] saying about the same. Told him how much I liked the CTT with the One Weekend Projects. I want to see more. You should submitt yours.
Great idea … also would like weathering and detailing … things I love to do … does’nt seem to be hardly any folks on here in O scale doing it . I’d really like to see a forum dedicated to kit bashing and weathering and detailing in O scale … seems only On3 or HO is covered .
This is a great idea! Perhaps we should all share an idea or two here on the forum to get the ball rolling. I think pictures are a must! I’ll work on something to post soon.
If you guys would be interested I will post a how to with pictures of the next caboose I do. I would love for you guys to post the same as well. If we can get a few togethetr maybe the Gods of CTT will take notice and print a few!
As an update, next month (6-6-09) is the next trainshow in my town. I am going to pick up a second caboose there and i will do the rebuild and post a how to under this thread.
The stock market may not be offering huge returns on investment, but this One Evening Modeling project will.
This is the Easy Tunnel. A simple, portable tunnel project for the toy train guys. It’s also a great project to work on with little kids. The supply list for this build is short and sweet. Not to mention extremely low cost! Oh, and the build time is less than an hour.
Materials:
Two Tunnel Portals (Lionel used in this example)
4 equal length dowel rods (length varies depending on builder)
Brown paper grocery bag
hot glue
lichen
dried weeds
Start by hot gluing the dowel rods at each corner of the tunnel portals. If using an MTH portal, leave just a little room so that the paper bag can be slid between the dowel rod and the tunnel portal’s edge. As you can see, theLionel portals include a space for this.
Cut the your brown paper bag to size. Start by cutting down one edge of the bag. When you get to the base of the bag, cut out the the bottom. You will be left with a large rectangular sheet of brown paper. Now crumble it up in your hands. Then, open it back to a rectangular sheet. No need to smooth out the crinkles, they will give the papers surface a rocky look.
Now the bag needs to be hot glued to the inside edge of the tunnel portals. Take care to tuck it in there so that it will have a nice finished look.
This could be the ending point for this easy project, but with a little more effort, you can really dress up the
This is the final version of my caboose. I am planning on doing another one like I said before and I will post the how-to here. This was my first try at doing something like this in O scale and I gotta say it works for me!
