Front Range

Here is the 1st Quarter Callboard report for Division (16), the Front Range Division:

The Front Range Division is currently meeting by Zoom. Schedule and contact information are at the end of this note. Please join us. We have members and friends logging in from as far away as Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA.

The January Zoom meeting clinic was presented by Kris Blackmarr and titled “Brush Painting Techniques for Model Railroads.” He covered various brush types (see photo below) and cleaning techniques followed by storage methods. Choosing brushes at art and craft stores was reviewed. There are applications for all price ranges of brushes depending on what they are being used for. Kris covered using make up brushes, eyeliner brushes, angle brushes, fan brushes, toothbrushes and types and qualities of paint. Finally, he touched on applying paints in weathering and aging techniques.

Photos by Allen Grasmick and Kris Blackmarr

In February, Glenn Runkewich presented a clinic on techniques he has developed for structure lighting to enhance night time operations. Many of his light applications were on low relief buildings. He used personal photographs and/or internet photos to represent building interiors. Photoshop Elements was used to adjust the photos to fit the windows. Glenn went thru the trial and err routine to get the best background lighting intensity and he found you could shine light thru white printer paper to reduce the intensity. In addition, simple black paper could be used to represent a room with the lights out. All of the lights he worked with were LED’s.

Photos by Allen Grasmick

The March meeting featured Gary Ratay demonstrating how he used various computer applications and his ingenuity to make working train arrival and departure sign boards. The clinic was titled: Modern Electronic Applications for Model Railroading. The animated arrival and departure sign boards could be displayed on computer screens, iPads, smart phones and commercial miniature displays. They could include operating clocks, either digital, analogue, fast, slow or actual time and Gary showed how this could be accomplished. Gary’s layout include lots of passenger trains and his plan is to enunciate arrival and departure of these trains on the sign boards and verbally utilizing a computer.

Photos by Allen Grasmick