Z Trains Interview

About Fast Tracks

Last month I was interviewed by John Cubbin of Ztrains, a content rich Z scale online magazine\website.

The focus was on Fast Tracks as it relates to Z scale and some Fast Tracks history.  John is an excellent interviewer and posed several well thought out questions for me to answer via email after a lengthy phone conversation.

I find it interesting that we get such good “press” from online sources such as this site, and others similar to it.  What is nice is that the interest is pure, and sincere as we are not major advertisers.  The interest is strictly a modeler who would like to share what he is finding.  Contrast this with the absolute silence Fast Tracks has received from many mainline print publications.  Since we don’t advertise (we feel the web will take care of that nicely for us) there is almost no interest from the magazines, even though Fast Tracks products are very widely used.

That said, there have been a couple good reviews in some of the more modeler type magazines.  Scale Rails did a great review of the Modeling with the Masters turnout building clinic we sponsored in Anaheim last summer, Model Railroad News and Narrow Gauge Gazette did product reviews.

Anyway, have a look at the interview, even if you are not into Z scale you might find it interesting, and lets face it, everyone is interested at some level in Z scale…

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 11-07-2008 | 08:11 AM
Posted in: Latest Posts | Comments Off on Z Trains Interview

Won’t be long now…

Coming attractions…

Its sunny and warm today, hard to believe in a few weeks we will be doing all this again…

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 11-06-2008 | 10:11 AM
Posted in: Latest Posts | Picture of the Day | Comments Off on Won’t be long now…

An Entire Summers Work

1 (One) Truck

I guess the summer wasen’t a complete modeling write off.  I did manage to build this little Jordan Miniatures pickup truck…

I love building Jordan Miniatures kits.  They only take a few evenings, or in this case, 4 months, but the finished models look great!  You can’t have too many of them, so I make one when I don’t feel like focusing on a big project.

I have noticed lately that the quality of the moulding has dropped, it would appear the moulds are starting to wear out.  I think I will try and only buy the old, beat up boxes I see at train shows and avoid the newer production runs.

After I built this model I painted it with a concoction of paint that I made up previously for a steam engine that had a fair bit of Floquil Glaze in it.  Floquil Glaze is an additive to their paints that aids in airbrushing, sort of like a bit of gloss.  I didn’t realize that this stuff would attack styrene, the plastic that Jordan models are made of.  The entire model crazed after painting.  I figured it was ruined.

After a few days (ok 5 weeks) I repainted it with some water based Accu-Flex.  I had been wanting to try this stuff and figured this would be a good test.  I was quite impressed with the results.  I painted the model with Rail Brown, a nice dirty colour, and did a bit of weathering with some Weathered Black.  The crazing from the earlier paint actually works to create a dirty, rusty look to the truck.

I guess it wasn’t a write off afterall.

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 11-05-2008 | 11:11 PM
Posted in: Latest Posts | Comments Off on An Entire Summers Work