Peter's Model Railroading | My Library | Magazine Authors
Magazine Articles By Sam Swanson

A Trio of Scenic Inserts

Building three scenes that can be inserted into the layout. Includes construction photos.

Add Weeds to Your Layout

The article describes how to use jute or sisal twine to make weeds. It includes how to color it, how to add leaves, and how to plant them.

Backwoods Gravel Producer

The author describes how he scratchbuilt a structure and a scene showing a gravel producer, based on prototype magazine articles. Includes model photos, drawings, materials list, and references used.

Basic Techniques for Painting and Finishing Structures

Styrene surface preparation and priming, finishing white styrene to look like wood, base-coating plastic structures, staining wood, finishing wood structures, painting metal, finishing metal structures, painting and detailing structure exteriors, handles and hinges, base basics, detailing bases, scenery and junk-filled bases, and figures.

Build Realistic Scenery

From using foam as a base to leaves for the trees.

Dented Hoppers and Gons

This article describes how to model damage done to hoppers and gondolas working in and around steel mills and scrap yards.

Modeling Board-and-Batten Structures

Creating homes and a church using either basswood or styrene. Detailed instructions, many photos, and a scale diagram for the church.

Modifying and Painting Figures

The article covers modifying the plastic bodies to get them to do something other than the manufacturers' normal behavior. It also includes information about adding such details as hands, newspapers, rags in back pocket, etc. Finally, painting and what-not-to-do to figures completes the article. Includes a list of all the manufacturers making figures in HO, N, Z, O, and S scale.

Scratchbuilding Clark's Filling Station

The author describes how he built this Saxton, Pennsylvania cottage-style gas station suitable for the 1930s. He used drawings from the December 1996 issue of RMC, which are duplicated in this article.

Scratchbuilding River Fish Filet

Although the article is about building the structure, a significant part is about the large number of signs using on this building. The model is based on a 1936 photograph of "Roadside Stand Near Birmingham, Alabama".

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 1

This is the introductory installment of a series for scratchbuilding an HO-scale water-powered sawmill. The prototype of this saw mill, found in western North Carolina, was built in the early 1940s, and is based on prototype photos found in the book Foxfire 6 (1980), which came from a collection of articles published in the Foxfire magazine. The owner of the mill was Ben Ward. This installment offers a design diagram of how the equipment was powered inside the buildings, an overall overhead photo of the completed diorama, and text that covers the overall construction sequence. It took the author 4 years, off-and-on, to build the model.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 2

In this installment the author shows how to he built the bandsaw filing room, which houses customized workbenches to sharpen and weld the handsaw blades, and a small workbench for general equipment repair. Shelves in the back of the room are used for machinery parts storage. Includes construction photos, diagrams of the floor, walls, windows, and interior details, and a parts list for building this in HO-scale.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 3A

This installment covers the construction of the woodworking shop, which houses the turbines, drive pulleys, and belts and shafts that power the bandmill equipment and the woodworking shop machinery.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 3B

In this installment the author describes how he scratchbuilt the many interior details for the woodworking shop. Photos and diagrams help in illustrating all of the machinery that is modeled. The article ends with a description of adding the building's exterior details and surrounding scenery.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 4

This installment covers the construction of the scrapwood storage bin. Includes construction photos, HO-scale diagrams, and a materials list.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 5A

This installment covers the construction of the bandmill, which houses the log-handling equipment, handsaw, and circular-saw machinery used to produce finish lumber. Includes HO-scale diagrams and construction photos.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 5B

This installment covers the construction of the bandsaw section. Includes photos of the interior details, HO-scale diagrams, and a materials list.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 5C

This installment covers the construction of the lumbering section, where rough-cut lumber is cut into finished boards. Includes construction photos, and HO-scale diagrams.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 6A

This installment covers the construction of the support features surrounding the sawmill buildings, including the dam components and the log pond they create, the log dump, the log drag and walkway, and the lumberyard where the newly cut wood is dried, cured and stored.

Scratchbuilding Ward's Sawmill Part 6B

This installment focuses on combining the sub-assemblies to complete the diorama, and the site details, such as power pit components, the incline section roof, the log pond, the loading dock, the lumber piles and rack, and the various miscellaneous details to complete the scenes. Includes model photos and detail drawings, materials list, and a Northeastern Scale Lumber Co. conversion chart for the old-to-new parts numbers for HO-, S-, and O-scale.