Sometimes, its the simplest things that make the biggest differences. I don’t remember whose blog I saw this on, but I saw it and knew sooner or later, having a template to mark centres in square or round rods for drilling holes would come in handy. How did I know this? Because for years I have tried to sight centres by eye when scratchbuilding or kit building. This has, worked about as well as you would expect…which is to say mostly not at all. The tool I found is sold as Mo Shi Tools part MS018. I honestly think I bought it via Ali-Express, but I’ve found it on other sites. I will leave it to you to search for yourself to find as I can’t find the email from when I bought it last year.
A simple tool for marking holes in square stock or solid rods.
In this case, I needed to centre a hole for a truck bolster in a resin freight car underbody where there was not a pilot hole or mark. Quickly aligned the right sized square, and drilled a No78 pilot hole into the bolster, that I then was able to drill out and tap to take a 2-56 screw for the trucks. I have started a batch of three more Yarmouth Model Works resin box car kits for the layout. The first phase of this is a lot of drilling and prep into the bodies and etching to be ready to get the under-bodies in and start assembling all the brake details.
So many holes to drill out…
After a weekend where I haven’t touched a model as I write this at 7:45 on a Sunday evening, I think its time to go upstairs and do some puttering on models and advancing things on the layout. Was nice to just check out and watch the Le Mans 24hours this weekend and not do anything. I needed that.
Musings on my Model Railroading Addiction 