Things that work for . . .


J

Jon NFL

Member
These forums are full of ideas and alternatives that work for or inplace of the store bought counter part. The tough part is trying to find them all - so how about a thread for that purpose??

For precision oilers - ALL - grind the point off an unused diabetic's insulin syringe. Just a couple drops in the syringe will last a long time.

Cable/wire reels - HO - prewound sewing machine bobbin spools. They come in both plastic and cardboard. I've used the plastic with 1/32 balsa on the ends to simulate the wood.

Steam from a stack - HO - very small tuft of filament fibers, twisted at one end and glued into the opening of stack.

Just some starters -
 
Nipping the top half off the eye of a sewing needle provides a precise way to deposit lubes to points of the engines. Dip the resulting twin tines into the lube and then touch the tines to the axle.

The sewing machine thread bobbins is a good idea.

I have found the cotton or other fiber tufts inserted into smoke stacks to be unconvincing. Maybe it's just me, but I don't buy it when I see it.

You can make credible conifers using thick kabob skewers made of wood that you get at grocery stores, and then cut up natural fiber furnace filters into disks of varying diameters. Glue the teased apart disks onto the skewers at intervals, spray the whole with brown or grey paint, and then spray it with a tacky glue. Sprinkle blended turf or flocking onto the fiber disks, and then overspray the whole with superhold hairspray to fix it in place. The exposed trunk can be roughed up before the manufacturing process with the fiber disks by using a hobby saw and scouring the trunk to look like bark. Spraying it with a black wash, or even a white wash, later will help to weather it nicely and expose the bark.
 
The micro fiber doesn't pass the 1ft rule but from a couple feet, not bad. You're right, cotton does not work for me either - tried it, don't like it
 
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