Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Fos Scale limited kits




Work continues on the podcast layout. I've finished three new Fos Scale Limited structure kits - www.foslimited.com/.

Here's Fos's HO Hooper Oyster Company kit. I've changed the sign on the front to make it The Golden Lobster. The plastic lobster on the sign came from the top of a swizzle stick I picked up at the bar at Anthony's Pier 4 in Boston. The large oyster sign is included with the kit. I've set the building half on and half off the pilings - the front half will be on the street.

The little barge kit comes with Hooper's Oyster. I built it per the instruction but set a model cannon on the deck just for fun. Several folks wrote and said "that's not prototypical!" You think? I told them the barge uses the cannon to go in reverse...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009


Our BBQ team, iQue, had a great weekend. We're now the Massachusetts State Champions having prevailed over 41 other teams, one from as far away as Chicago. The win came out of the blue. We had a couple of calls in ribs and pork shoulder but nothing that would lead us to believe we had enough points to beat several other strong contenders. We had the points and won, and it was great! A nice trophy and even nicer cash made for a great contest.


Now the team is off to Kansas City to cook the American Royal. Over 600 teams compete to see who's got the best BBQ on the planet. If you'd like to check out how we prepare our pork shoulders for Royal competition click this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMjN0I7wD8 - there's 2 parts to this video. Check out part 2 to see how we did.


This link shows our brisket win at the Royal, against 500 teams - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OiTlhlqNJY


At the end of October we travel to Lynchburg, TN for the Jack Daniels Invitational. It's the world series of BBQ - the 50 best teams in America go head to head. We've had very good luck at both contests and hope to continue.


My thanks to the Harpoon Brewery in Boston for providing sponsorship and great beer - http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/




Thursday, September 17, 2009



Wow! It's been way too many weeks since I added anything new to this blog. I took a summer hiatus and now with fall rapidly approaching it's time to get back work.

The Narrow Gauge Convention is going strong in Colorado Springs and this year I decided to stay home. I did get a chance to participate in a small way by building a display for Jimmy Deignan to show off his new line of laser cut kits - www.craftsmankits.com

Jimmy gave me all these built-up kits on small diorama bases. I removed the bases and saved all the little details. The buildings were arranged on a 30" by 32" sheet of reinforced foam core board (the dimensions were determined by the size of the available floor space in Jimmy's van.) I mounted the structures on 1" pink Styrofoam and scenicked around them. It's kind of crowded but I got everything to fit in a small space.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Harpoon BBQ weekend.

I compete in BBQ contests as a hobby. It's more than a hobby but you folks who compete in any sport know what I mean.

Our team, iQue, is again this year competing at the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT, at the New England BBQ Championship. This is by far the best contest on the east coast of the USA. Harpoon is a great host providing lots of fresh beer and prize money for the best BBQ. They'll be 50 teams from all over the country - some of the best BBQ cooks in America competing.

Here Chris Hart, the BBQ master of our team, preps the chicken entry just before turn-in.

Wish us luck!

Thursday, July 16, 2009



I just finished building this nice little laser-cut kit from Stevens Creek Models. It's called Thatcher's Outlet.

I mentioned it in this blog several weeks ago. It's a new kit that'll could find a place on almost any model railroad.

I added the little bicycle to the front porch. It's a pewter casting that comes all painted. I don't remember who makes it - I bought it at a hobby shop in Amsterdam.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

When a customer asked me to put a "village Green" on his O scale, high rail layout I said okay (without knowing what I was going to do.) He wanted something like the green he remembered as a boy growing up in western Massachusetts.


I had a large space in the middle of the O scale village. We had scratchbuilt about a dozen structures that ran down either side of the village. By placing a "green" in the middle, it split the center of town into two main streets and visually looked more realistic.


I started by cutting an oval from a sheet of 1/4" thick Foam Core board and cutout the pond area in the middle. I glued the foam core down to the road surface and held it in place with weights until the glue dried.


I cut several rows of stones from a Scenic Express urethane foam wall and glued them to the edge of the Foam Core.


The whole green was painted with earth colored paint and finely sifted sand and scenic foam were sprinkled into the wet paint. After the paint dried I sprayed the whole area with dilute matte medium adhesive and added more grass and fine sand.


The statue is off the top of a bottle of Jack Daniels. I painted him and put him on a wood base. He's got a pigeon sitting on his hat.


The benches are store bought. The fence posts are made from 3/16th square stripwood with a map pin stuck in the top. Holes were drilled in the sides of the stripwood to hold the brass rods.


The "lake" is a painted bottom with Magic Water poured on top. Several ducks were placed in the pond.


This was an easy project that adds a lot of life to the little village.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

We recorded our July podcast yesterday. A little late in the month but if Scott gets his interviews done it'll be out soon. We talked quite a bit about building the podcast layout. Doug Foscale, Scott and myself worked on it. Jimmy Deignan supplied the materials.
We're building the layout for charity and any profit will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Walk.
The track is down and next week we place the structures and start the scenery. I'll post pictures here.