Modeling on the road?

I used to build brass bridges as well as repainting a locomotive while in my hotel bedroom during some layovers (I'm working as a crewmember for an airline). I plan to build a few structures in these conditions in a close future. I've never been bothered by security checks for matching stuff (glue, microset, microsol, etc).

But I'm far from Rod Stewart who built nearly all of his structures in his hotel suite, after his worldwide concerts, uh, uh!

Dom

 

I am working on a 1:1 scale interstate bridge project outside of my district, have been since May. Four or five nights a week 200 miles from home. I bring something to work on almost every week. In fact, I brought along a few cars to assemble. I already have an old Walthers 65' LPG tank car assembled and two B&O/TTRX Accurail auto racks assembled.

I keep a bottle of plastic welder, hobby screw drivers, drill and bits and CA/super glue secured in a small box with toilet paper padding. Small box goes into a larger box with the kit(s).

I would like to bring my rolling mill with me to finish up next week, but it won't fit in the truck!

 

Photo from my camera phone last night.


I use cable ties to hold tank car kits with separate sides together while plastic welder sets up. Just have to be careful using hobby knife to cut the ties off to avoid slicing the car or messing up the paint.

 

G&OM,

Most electrical ties have a small tab that you can press to release and reuse again. Look closely and you will see the tab. Use a small pointed knife to press the tab and it will release.

 

peradocsus,

I usually don't have much luck getting them to release on the occasion I do use them. Got the one I used last night for 50 cents a pack, cheap but they work.

 

Here's one for ya. The train my local myseum runs to the state fair for ten round trips tends to be dead on the first few trips of the day, so a couple of roundhouse kits went with me one day...

Mind you, i actually don't reccomend trying to screw parts in on a rocking Budd coach at 25mph. I got lucky and was able to keep everything i the box lids. And you thought chsing a screw across your concrete floor was bad.

 

Pat,
Have you tried rubber bands? they work pretty good for most lite holding projects , are pretty cheap and reusable with out having to poke something ..., I use them to hold wood parts when I do not need a strong clamp .

 

Paperkite,

Thats a good idea. The next time my wife buys fresh broccoli, I will save the small, thick rubber band that comes on them. Those about the only rubber bands I can think of that would have enough "pull" to them.... other than 4 or 5 regular ones wrapped up several times.

 

Yaaaa, rubber bands would go thru the xray okay me thinks. The longer / larger ones may give you more adjustment as well as work good for shootin spit wads, paperclips etc. ...
Paul

 

I quit taking models after the third time they confiscated my Testor's Liquid Cement. The box with my tools like knives, etc. seems to have piqued the interest of the TSA agents and I would find my checked bags had been inspected on almost every trip and the glue confiscated.

Rick J

 

I don't know about modeling on the road ir in a hotel, but I built my first N scale model- a feasibility study to see if I could model in N scale- in a hospital bed on my rollaround food tray-table. I used a roughly-scaled prototype drawing, balsa wood, an Exacto knife with a #11 blade, a grade-school ruler and model airplane cement. Painted it after I got out of the hospital.

 

Having been in the Hospital a time or two myself , that seems like a perfect place to build... but that being said ... I hope I never get to try it ... Kenneth ....BTW ~ Great work on the structure. looks kinda early 1900's Appalachia - Washington National Forrest- West Virginia coal area, possibley eastern TN or western GA , maybe eastern MO . You know , one could make up a kit ( or purchase a lazer kit ) to take on the road and buy the glue/s when you got there or send a head to the motel when you make your reservations, like some of our sales people do - I send samples to them on the road if need be , to the motel/s where they are staying. Most of them will hold in comming packages for registered guests ...
Paul

 

Yep, Rod Stewart, the famous Rod Stewart (who began as the singer of The Faces, with Ron Wood as the lead guitarist, and who then served in the first Jeff Beck Group) is also a modelrailroader. He builds a freemanced New-York Central in HO. His layout is outstanding and there has been a couple articles about it in passed issues of MR these last years... Amazing, isn't it?

On another hand, I'm flying for french airline Corsair (5 B747, soon to be 3, and 2 A330, soon to be 4).

Dom