A Better Knife? Exactamundo!

Like most folks in this hobby, I've "grown up" using the classic hobby knife affectionately known as the Xacto knife.  Many of us incorrectly use the term to refer to a specific type of knife, but as we all know, it's actually a brand name.  There are several manufacturers of these types of knives, but the original and best-known is X-Acto.  Buying my first real X-Acto knife was a big deal - I felt like a real modeler.

Before long, I was buying replacement blades in bulk, because that's what real modelers do.  That, and because I kept breaking off the tip of the blade.  A knife blade with a broken tip becomes useless pretty quickly, requiring a replacement.  Those broken blades aren't completely ineffective - they'll still penetrate a shoe when the knife rolls off the table, as X-Acto knives are prone to do.

About a month ago I came across a discussion on an Internet forum talking about hobby knives made by Olfa, a Japanese company.  Some of the discussion participants were making claims that the Olfa blades were sharper and more durable than the X-Acto blades, and that the knives were in general better products. I decided to try one myself.

My first impressions upon taking the knife out of the packaging was that yes, this is a better knife.  It's heavier than an X-Acto, biased towards the cutting end of the knife.  A padded rubber grip makes the knife comfortable to use and easier to hold on to than the smooth metal body of the X-Acto.  Olfa has even taken steps to prevent impaled-shoe-Syndrome - the knife handle includes a small plastic nub to stop the knife from rolling off of your work surface.  I can put away the steel-toed boots!

So far, I've cut 50 window openings into pieces of black matte board with a single blade.  The tip hasn't broken off, and the blade still seems to be plenty sharp.  It's too early to call me a convert, but it's looking good at this point.  I haven't found a source for bulk blades yet, but if the blades really are this durable, maybe the little 5-pack that I bought will last a long time.

Double-hung, Double-Paned Windows From Scratch - Part 2

As promised, here is the second part of my step-by-step process for building windows from scratch.

If you followed along with the first part (if you missed it, click here), you should now have a pair of window sashes built, ready to have glass installed.  For my construction, I'm going to use real glass.  You could choose to use a different material, some sort of clear plastic or cellophane film, or possibly something else entirely.

The glass that I'm using comes from Sierra Scale Models - seven bucks for 55 pieces of glass, hardly expensive.  Depending on the scale that you're modeling in, you could also use microscope slide covers - they're also real glass, but twice as thick as the Sierra glass.

Cutting this glass can be a bit tricky, and you will waste a few pieces before you master the technique.  The first, and probably most important tip for cutting glass is to work on a hard, perfectly flat, perfectly smooth surface - I work on a 12-inch square marble tile.  The second tip is to secure the glass in such a way that it won't move during cutting, won't scratch, and can easily be unsecured without damage.  I use blue painter's tape for this - turn one piece upside down (i.e. sticky side up), fastened to the work surface with two more pieces of blue tape.  Place the glass sheet on the exposed sticky side of the first piece of tape - this will hold it in place while you're cutting it.

Using one of your window sashes as a guide, place a straightedge (preferably something metal) across the glass and tape it down.

Using a scribing tool (also available from Sierra), make several light passes along the straightedge to score the glass - seven or eight passes should be enough.

Repeat the process for the other dimension of the window sash (width and height).

Carefully slide a razor blade under the scored section of the glass, and using it as a lever, gently lift the scored glass away from the tape.  As I've expertly demonstrated here, if you're too aggressive with this step, or just aren't paying attention, you can easily break the glass.  Store those broken pieces away somewhere safe, and you can reuse them later as trackside debris or litter.

Now it's time to glue the glass onto our window sashes.  It's vital that when you're applying the glue that you don't get sloppy.  Don't use too much glue, don't get glue in the wrong places, don't get glue all over the glass.  Precision is the key.  I've found a glue that works really well for this - a jeweler's glue that I bought from Micro-Mark.  The tube has a syringe-type applicator, allowing for very precise glue placement and flow control.

Place a tiny drop of glue in each corner of the window sash.

Now for the next tricky part - picking up the cut piece of glass, without breaking it, and placing it onto the window sash without smearing the glue.  You can use tweezers for this, but if you do, I recommend wrapping some tape around them to help provide some cushion to protect the glass.  An even better option is to use this nifty suction-cup gizmo.  Micro-Mark sells one, but I found mine on eBay for just a couple of dollars.

Gently place the glass onto the window sash, carefully as to avoid making a mess with the glue.

Repeat for the other window sash, and then take a break.  Let the glue dry for a few hours, preferably overnight.  Tomorrow, in the third and final installment, I'll show you how to put the window sashes into a frame, and ultimately into the wall of your structure.

New Year's Confetti

Like many people, my New Year's Eve celebration involved lots of small bits of paper.  Thanks to the bad cold that I've been fighting, which triggered the occasional cough or sneeze, my bits of paper would occasionally fly through the air, like New Year's confetti.  A few pieces landed where they were supposed to - on the roof of my depot, where they're intended to look like decorative roof shingles.

I started by cutting a piece of plain white printer paper into 1.37 inch (10 scale feet) strips.  Using a special pair of craft scissors, I then cut across those strips, in 1/4-inch intervals, to produce a pile of scalloped strips.

Turning these scalloped strips into roof shingles is a simple matter of gluing (with plain white Elmer's glue) a row of strips across the bottom edge of the roof.  A second row of strips is applied, overlapping and slightly offset from the first row.  Repeat with a third row, then a fourth, and so on until the roof is covered.

As soon as I finish covering the entire roof surface, I'll paint the whole thing a dark gray color, then apply my mix of weathering chalks.  If all goes well, the end result will look like a roof covered with asphalt shingles.

Easy-Peasy Paintbrush Cleansy

I thought I would share a tip for cleaning paint brushes.  I can't remember where I picked this idea up from, it's not my idea, but it works great.  Find an empty bottle of ACT mouthwash, the type in the squeeze bottle with the little cup on top:

• Using pliers, gently pull the center insert out of the bottle.  
• Fill the bottle with blue windshield washer fluid, the best cleaning fluid you can get for water-based paints.
• Replace the plastic insert that you removed
• Label the bottle clearly to indicate that it is NOT FOR DRINKING!!!  You don't want somebody thinking it's blue mouthwash.

You now have a self-contained, spill-proof brush cleaning system.  Just squeeze the bottle to fill the little cup with washer fluid, swish your brush around in the cup, wipe dry with a paper towel, and dump out the dirty fluid.

Here's mine:

What A Stud!

Seriously, who needs a stud-finder?  I have 33 of them, right here, ready to go, each 8 scale feet in length (thank you Chopper!):

It didn't take long to turn these into something resembling a shed:

Tin Roof Sunday

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last post.  During the first of those two weeks, I took a break from modeling to participate in a Polar Bear Plunge event to benefit the Special Olympics.  Raised a lot of money, had a lot of fun, and made a video commemorating the event.  If you're interested, it's on YouTube.

Work on the warehouse resumed on Sunday, with the focus on the tin roof.  It's been a busy week at work, but I managed to get the entire roof covered, and part of it weathered.

The key to making a convincing tin roof is a ribbon cable from a computer hard drive.

What does that have to do with a tin roof?  I'll show you.  We start with a piece of common aluminum foil, cut to the proper size for a scale piece of corrugated tin roofing.

That piece of foil is placed on the ribbon cable, aligned with the grooves in the cable.  By rubbing firmly with a fingertip, the foil picks up the impression of the grooves.

We now have a scaled down piece of tin roofing, ready to be placed onto the roof of our building.

Repeat about a million times, and we end up with something like this:

Notice in that last photo that there is a slight "patchwork" look to the roof.  Common aluminum foil, like that used in the kitchen, typically has one shiny side and one dull side.  To get this patchwork effect, I purposely placed some pieces with the shiny side up, totally at random.  It gives the appearance that some of the panels are newer than the others.

It's All About The Tool

Last weekend I started assembling the rafters for the warehouse.  After a full week, I've managed to assemble two.  Measure, cut, swear, measure, cut, glue, measure, cut, swear, swear, measure - see a pattern here?  With the need for so many identical pieces, measuring and cutting each one individually just doesn't work.  Today, I picked up The Chopper.

I wish I'd bought one before I even started construction.  After reading the instructions, and the helpful safety tip

I was able to, in just under an hour, cut all of the pieces necessary to assemble all of the remaining rafters.  After another hour or so, I had four of them finished.  The two shown below are the original two that took all week to build.  The new ones from today are still pressed between sheets of wax paper, waiting for the glue to dry.

Three more to build, and I'm done...