Missouri History Museum Model
Railroad Layout
 text
by James McDonald
photos by Richard Schumacher
This kit includes the crane, wood platform and ramp,
concrete ramp, office, conveyor and unloader, utility
pole, and wood fence sections.
Parts Preparation
Testor's Micro Shear Sprue Cutter was used for
removing larger parts from the plastic sprue trees.
Micromark's Despruing Tweezers was used for small parts.
All parts are sanded with sanding sticks and/or
needle files to remove burrs remaining after removal
from the sprue and to remove ejection pin marks.
Gluing
Testor's Cement for Plastic Models (the thick type)
was used by placing a blob on a piece of cardboard (old
business cards work well for this) and applied to the
model with a toothpick.
Some parts were attached with CA adhesive - also
applied with a toothpick.
Ambroid Pro-Weld was used to assemble the walls of
the small building and the walls of the hoist house.
Paint
 I used an Aztek double action internal
mix airbrush for this job.
I used primarily ModelFlex paints when airbrushing.
They are pre-thinned for airbrush use, and the bottles
screw directly onto my airbrush siphon feeds. 30 to 35
psi works well for this paint.
For some airbrushing Floquil was used because I
didn't have any ModelFlex in the correct colors. A 75%
paint 25% disol mixture was used to airbrush with the
Floquil.
Testor's Dullcote was used as a sealer for
weathering. The airbrush type was used (not the aerosol
can type) thinned with a 50% mixture of lacquer thinner.
15 to 20 psi works well for this mixture.
Floquil was used for brush painting. I find that this
type works much better than acrylic paints (such as
ModelFlex) for brushing.
Everything was painted with a coat of ModelFlex Grimy
Black as a primer with the exception of the fences which
I painted ModelFlex Primer Gray (to get a lighter
topcoat).
Decals
Microset and Microsol are my favorite decal applying
solutions. I use a small scissor for decal cutting, a
cross-locking tweezers to hold decals and a small brush
for Microset/Microsol application and for decal
positioning. I use room temperature water in a kidney
bowl (acquired from a hospital visit) to soak the decal.
I usually submerse the decal in water (holding it with
the tweezers) for 20 seconds.
The decal was then placed on a paper towel.
Apply Microset to the model where the decal will go.
I pick up the decal with the tweezers and position it.
Weathering
An earth tone set of colored chalks was used for
weathering. The chalk was applied by sanding some of the
chalk off directly onto the model. An inexpensive brush
is used to blend in the colors. Blacks and browns are
used to simulate dirt, oranges and reds for rust, and
light yellows for dust.
A colored pencil set was used to simulate drips (rust
and liquid residue) by drawing lines directly on the
model and rubbing with a finger to achieve the desired
result.
After weathering, the chalk was sealed with an
application of Testor's Dullcote.
Assembly
Virtually everything was assembled before painting.
The exceptions were: the hoist house (which sits on top
of the crane), the hoist house's roof, the roof of the
small building and the windows of the small building.
Crane
Crane assembly required quite a bit of sanding to
make parts fit properly. Even after sanding, some seams
still needed Squadron Green plastic putty.
I assembled the hoist house without its roof and
didn't attach it to the main model. There were several
reasons for this.
First the house needed to be strung with thread which
is used to simulate the cabling for the hook--I didn't
want the thread airbrushed with paint! So waiting to
attach the roof later would allow the hoist house to be
painted before the thread was strung. It also let me
paint the roof separately without masking.
I didn't attach the house (sans roof) to the crane
because I was unsure where the crane's hook should be
placed on the actual layout.
I hand painted the concrete footings with Floquil
Concrete and the metal attachment plates with Testor's
Steel.
Loaders
The loaders assembled easily. The only difficult part
being to use a pin vise to enlarge the holes for the
wheels so that they could be glued on. After priming
with grimy black paint. I masked the area where the
conveyers are with regular masking tape.
I cut narrow strips with a small scissors and
applied. I used two strips for each conveyor so that the
"true" side (the side not cut with the scissor
was towards the outside of the conveyor. I burnished the
edges with a small screwdriver and trimmed any excess
with a new #11 X-acto blade.
I repainted the entire assembly a maroon red, waited
for it to dry and removed the masking.
I hand painted the wheels Floquil Roof Brown, and the
wheel rims Testor's Steel.
Fences
The fences required a considerable amount of sanding.
The vertical posts had a lot of ejection pin marks.
After sanding, I used a HO scale ruler to determine
where to place the vertical posts since there were no
location marks. I spaced them evenly making a mark with
a 0.5mm mechanical pencil at the locations where I
wanted the posts, then glued them in place.
I primed these parts with a ModelFlex light gray
color (to make the top coat lighter). I painted these
with a light coat of Floquil Roof Brown (since I was out
of ModelFlex).
I applied decals to the fences by first dipping the
decals in cool water for 20 seconds holding the decal
with a cross sprung tweezers, placing them on a paper
towel and then applying a coat of Microset to the model
where I wanted them to go. I picked up the decal with
the tweezers and used a brush dipped in Microset to slide
the decal onto the model. I aligned by using the brush.
After the decal was where I wanted it, I used Microsol
to set the decal in place.
This worked well for everything except the graffiti
decals. In retrospect I should have painted the entire
fence with a gloss coat then, applied the decals, then
Dullcote. The graffiti doesn't look natural. It looks
like a decal, mainly because it didn't adhere well to
the dull finish.
I applied weathering (with chalks) and then tried
creating a little of my own graffiti with a white
pencil. This actually looks the best to me! It is what I
will be doing in the future to simulate graffiti.
I then sealed everything with Dullcote.
Concrete Ramp
I assembled the ramp walls with Ambroid Pro-Weld and
the bottom with Testor's Plastic Cement. I filled gaps
with Squadron Green Putty. After priming, I painted the
entire ramp ModelFlex Concrete. After this dried I
masked off the ramp and side walls with masking tape,
leaving the ramp side rails exposed. I repainted these
ModelFlex Grimy black.
I weathered the center sections of the ramp a brown
color (chalk) and the sides a rust color. More sealing
with Dullcote.
Wood Ramp and Dock
I assembled the ramp and dock to the support piers
without using the bases for these. I thought that the
appearance on the layout would be enhanced without the
bases. I did use the base to ensure that the piers where
aligned (without gluing to it) until the glue was dry.
After priming I airbrushed the top of the ramp and
dock Floquil Roof Brown without masking. Any overspray
would appear as dirt on the piers after weathering.
I used black chalk rubbed with a finger in the center
of the ramp and dock to make it appear well used. I also
applied a little yellow for "dustiness".
After sealing with Dullcote, I decided that the
concrete footings should be, well, concrete color! So I
hand painted these with Floquil Concrete.
Telephone Pole
I assembled all the telephone pole parts before
painting. In retrospect I should have waited before
attaching the conduit from the electrical transformer to
the electrical box mounted on the pole. It made painting
afterwards difficult. I drilled a small hole in the
bottom of the transformer with a pin vise to make gluing
it in place easier.
After priming, I painted the telephone pole assembly
Floquil Roof Brown.
I hand painted many details on the pole. I used
Testor's gloss green for the glass insulators, Floquil
Primer Gray for the electrical transformer, conduit and
electrical box. Floquil Engine Black for the transformer
insulators and Floquil Rust for the bolts.
I weathered with black chalks and sealed with
Dullcote.
Building
I assembled the walls and the base of the building
with Ambroid Pro-Weld. I left off the windows, roof,
tank, vent stack and power meter.
I primed the building wall/base assembly and the
roof. I then painted the building ModelFlex Reefer
White.
The base of the building was hand painted Floquil
Concrete. I hand painted the vent stack Testor's Steel,
the power meter Floquil Primer Gray, and the Tank
Floquil Engine Black with Floquil Roof Brown legs.
I painted the windows and door while still on the
sprue. I used ModelFlex paint--a Dark Maroon color. I
carefully removed these from the sprue and scraped paint
off two (non-visible) sides for attachment to the
building. I glued these in place with Testor's Plastic
Cement. I glued the window "glass" in place
with Testor's Clear Parts Cement. I used the smallest
amount of glue possible for this (a micro drop in each
corner of the window).
Then the roof was glued in place.
One decal was added to the building. The electric
power meter and the tank were attached to the building
back - I attached these with a small drop of CA
adhesive.
I then weathered the building with black and brown
chalks and the roof with a light yellow chalk.
The building was then sealed with Dullcote.
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