Build A Cottage Style Gas Station

Click here for the plans (PDF, 5 MB). The plans include printable windows, doors, trim, and printable brick texture.

Basic Model Window Scratchbuilding

An O Scale Campfire From A Flickering LED Tealight

How To Remove Foil Backing From Acrylic Rhinestones

How To Make Your Own O Scale Signs

Modeling Stonework Using An Embossing Technique

Here's an easy method for modeling stonework using DAS air-dry clay.

An On30 Diesel 'Critter' Locomotive Kitbash

Scratch Building Southern Pine Trees in O Scale

A Mid-Century Motel In O Scale - Part 4: Lighting, Stonework, Completing Assembly

The motel build is complete!

Here are some printable textures I used in the build. Some I posted before, but I've compiled them into a single PDF. Check print "actual size" in your printer dialog for O scale.

And here is the build vid:

(Repost) Classic Shasta Airflyte 16 Trailer In O Scale - Complete Start To Finish Scratch Build

This was a fun build! Here are the templates:

Trailer lines PDF.

Awnings PDF.

Be sure to select "actual size" in your printer dialog when printing.

And here is the build video. I've reworked the video to shorten it a bit:

A Few Links

Tips on painting O scale figures.

Some lovely scratch built O scale windows and doors.

Making corrugated metal using a computer ribbon cable. It's HO scale, but it's a nice example of improvising to make building materials. (Other methods include using corrugated plastic sheet as an embossing jig, or paper crimping or embossing tools, or embossing with anything with extruded ridges with spacing appropriate to your scale.)

A couple of my favorite how-to vids:

Modeling quick realistic trees (YouTube).

Scratchbuilding a turnout for your model railroad (YouTube).

Where I shop online (those times I actually buy stuff):

I hit ebay first, then Model Train Stuff and Hobbylinc.

"Daisy Cola?" I Don't Think So.

Wow. Has it been almost a year since I posted anything?

Well, that's the good thing about a hobby. You can leave it for a while and come back anytime.

I've been quite busy modeling. Remodeling, actually, in real life 1:1 scale. I redid a kitchen, plus finished several other smaller projects.

As rewarding as that is, it's fun to get back to miniatures.

I bought a set of Woodland Scenics O scale bicycles, which came with a few youth figures and a soda machine. The machine appears to be based on a Vendo, with a color scheme strongly inspired by the famous name-brand cola with the red label.

However, it's labeled "Daisy Cola." I guess Woodland Scenics didn't want to go through the hassle of licensing rights and all that. (Although I don't understand why companies don't grant permission regularly for reproduction items -- it is free advertising, after all.)

I wasn't going to be happy with Daisy Cola. I decided to make a change. Using a color laser printer, I printed a few copies of the classic Coca-Cola logo in various sizes.

I painted over the Daisy Cola logo with some white acrylic. Then I applied the new logos using a method I learned about years ago in an article about Fine Scale Miniatures' founder George Sellios. I sanded the back of the print paper until I got it as thin as I dared, then applied it using thinned white glue. It's not quite as effective as a decal, but it's pretty close.

I also applied smaller logos to the sides. While I was at it, I touched up the paint elsewhere on the machine. I darkened the door panel to look more like glass, added some spots to the dispenser rack, and straightened out the lines a bit.

That's more like it. Although I'm still partial to my scratch built O scale soda machine.