Being the “Great Railroad Molder” that I am, my grandson who is 7 years old but, very incisive for his age, agrees with me. I decided to buy three Tree Kits. I should be able to knock these out in a matter of 15 or 20 minutes or so.
I looked at the instructions for all three. Just four simple steps and the same for all three kits. Why even a “Cave Man” could do it. Sorry cave men. But not to sorry because your the cause of so many women wearing short hair today.
I opened the first one, a twenty-one tree kit. I started step one, bend and twist (shades of Chubby Checker) the tree Armatures into realistic tree shapes. I tried and tried but none of the armatures bent and twisted into a realistic tree shape. My most logical and realistic assumption was that, it was not my fault, but definitely a manufacturing error and the plastic armatures were no good. I’m also a great innovator, as well as molder, so I decided to throw out all the plastic armatures and their bases. Now some people might use these for a flat tree on top of a mountain, or use the bases for tree stumps. But not me. If it’s no good throw it out. No matter what my wife says you save money in the long run. And I knew she was exaggerating when she told me how much I’d spent so far. On second thought (I told you I was an innovator) I keep the foliage.
The next two kits had much bigger Armatures, As my wife says, some things should be bigger. Anyway, I check the armatures and decided they need painting. So I mixed a little oil based green primer I had left over from painting the house. Not more than 3 or 4 years old. I mix in a little red acrylic to give it that fall color and proceeded to paint the armatures. Well! Right away when the limbs started falling off, I knew something was wrong. My super logic told me to stop. But to be sure, I tried one mo
Same here. I’ve also used pine trees that I bought at Hobby Lobby around Christmas time for a $1.29 a bag. They come in three sizes - large, medium and small, and will work for either HO or N scale. If memory serves me right, the large bag contains about six, the medium bag about ten and the small bag about twelve. The wooden bases have to be removed, and I painted mine olive drab green so they’d look more realistic.
We all have our modeling nemesis. With me, it’s airbrushing. I’ve bought 4 different models and still can’t get the hang of it. It never occurred to me until now they might all have been defective.
Fellow Members,
Thank you for all the sage advise, suggestions, and commensuration with my plight. There is a very small (really tiny tiny) possibility That I might have been in error. Ops, I never said that and you never heard it. I’m awfully smart guy and attribute it to just bad luck in encountering defective tree kits, paints, and paper towels. I hope it brightened your day and brought a smile or two to you.
See Ya
I thought your post amusing, seems I’ve been there, done that, myself. However, my wife is watching the same program on TV, and when I asked her to turn it down, just a little, it seems she turned the volume way up. Can hardly hear myself think now…[(-D]
1) If at first you don’t succeed, blame it on the manufacturer.
2) If the manufacturer is also blameless, blame it on the designer, architect, or inventer.
3) The instructions will always be written in another language, even if it appears to be English.
4)They say “form follows function”. Well, form may follow function, but does the function of the form really work?
5) Is the “better mousetrap” they made that caused you to beat a path to their door really the right machine for the job?
6) And, what, praytell, does one do with a “widget”?Did Gidget have a widget with which to fidget?
7) Remember that when you call the Help Hot Line that everyone will automatically be on lunch or on break, regardless of what country they are in.
8) When in doubt, paint it one of three colors: black, black, or black.
9) Switchman, stick to real trees, their leaves are supposed to fall off, and sometimes so will their branches![;)] If not, try modeling fall…like New England October-November?!
I feel your pain. I have went through 3 airbrushes, and its not that I can’t get the hang of it, I can’t manage to get the right paint and can’t get the hang of properly cleaning. It could be I buy the cheaper ones, maybe I will invest in a compresser and a good airbrush, right after I take out a loan and buy that DCC system. LOL as far as the tree situation, its a good story, we all will learn, but the rubber contact cement such as Goo!, it works great with foilage and trees.
No worries mate - next time use the slide rule to stir the glue.
Spray contact cement works well except when you get it in your beard and hair.
After the armature and foam stick to the inside of the plastic bag you can cut it out and use the tree anyway. The strips of clear plastic look sort of like toilet paper and if you put the tree in front of the model of your history teachers house - priceless.
Air brushes are over rated and I still use my old Badger which i learned to jam a strand of wire down to clean. The tint from the previous job you did was of course intentional. [8D]J.R.
Actually, I think we fought the English, not the language. But now we are trying to get the illegal immigrants to speak English!!! I do know I cannot read any instruction in any other language in the book, but I can try to follow the one that appears to be English. If I have trouble I can try to get help from the hotline and hope I can understand India-n!!!