Page 34 - The Pan-American2017 Mid-Central NMRA Region Convention

Rail Clinic Descriptions (nine)

19. Mark Norman

Building Railroad Cars - a Structured Ap-
proach
Whether you strive to earn Master Builder –
Cars or simply want to build better cars, this
clinic is for you. Perhaps you have heard the ex-
pression “plan the work, then work the plan”,
except in this instance, the work is fun. Many
modelers enjoy building structures and are quite
good at it. Fewer can say this about railcars. Per-
haps it’s because we live and work in structures
but not in railcars. Sitting at the workbench, I
too suffered from ‘modeler’s block.' The break-
through was writing down the plan; which will
be shared. The plan is a general purpose guide
that has made this modeler’s life easier and the
cars more prototypical.

25. Mark Norman

Salt Weathering
This clinic will demonstrate a weathering tech-
nique that is inexpensive and highly effective.
Each participant will receive materials to help
them get started. Freight cars, especially gondo-
las, bear the brunt of all the railroads, shippers,
and consignees can throw at them. Within days
of leaving the factory they are scarred and
bruised. We will explore achieving this appear-
ance for our scale cars; any kind of heavily
weathered car. This technique hits the trifecta –
low cost, good results, simple. Moreover, it’s ra-
ther fun.