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Details - spikes

edited July 2014 in Miscellaneous
One of the most talked about detail items on the SW forum is nail holes - to do them or not do them. I thought of something the other day re: spikes. You know, for heavy timbers and such. I found a container of 3mm soft pencil leads at home for those annoying office mechanical pencils- you know the ones. See photo - I drilled some holes, touched the end of the lead to some all purpose glue, stuck in the hole, and snapped off- viola! if the ends stick up toi much- push them down or file them off. easy as it gets. The graphite looks like metal. Now this would only work for spikes - O scale these would be about 1/2 " and F/G scale about a 1/4". Suitable for docks, heavy timber flooring etc. Haven't tried on any O scale SW kits yet, but should work in the right context… don't' know if anyone else has tried this ????
image

Comments

  • Geez - sorry- don't know what happened to that image.
  • Here's a properly sized one: other one could be deleted (photos from the iPhone can be resized when sent to one's computer,but not iPad I guess, or at least I don't have that enabled):
  • I'm going to try this for sure.
  • James, this is a great idea. Thank you for showing how you did it. The originality that comes up here is inspiring!

    Respectfully,
    John
  • thanks - I realize that last image didn't post. Here it is again image
  • I like how some of them sit high like they are working their way out. Nice treatment on the wood. Subtle banding and rough treated ends.
  • Wow, that is definitely the way to go . . .
  • that is really cool... never seen that before. Sure looks great.
  • Real nice pic and man that sure looks like nail/spikes and that wood is outstanding!. What scale is the picture and who did the work? Ken
  • This is part of a 1:20.3 scale project I've started. I realize this is not SW but hope to try on some SW dios soon. I don't think this technique would work on anything less than O scale - a 0.3 mm lead works out to about a 1/2 inch spike in O scale.
  • Googling leads (if you think this hobby is pretty rarified - there seem to be mechanical pencil blogs out there)- it seems 0.3 mm is the thinnest leads (actually 0.35mm) but apparently Pentel makes 0.2 and even 0.1mm leads - but would be very hard to find presumably.
  • The thing I like about this technique is it is easy and fast!
  • who knew... mechanical pencil collectors, shows, maybe even a contest room and Saturday night banquet?
  • Thats really cool.
  • James said:

    Googling leads (if you think this hobby is pretty rarified - there seem to be mechanical pencil blogs out there)- it seems 0.3 mm is the thinnest leads (actually 0.35mm) but apparently Pentel makes 0.2 and even 0.1mm leads - but would be very hard to find presumably.

    Hope this is OK to post a URL here. This is a URL to the .2 mm lead. Also saw the .3 mm here also

    http://www.pentel.com/store/refills/pencils-super-hi-polymer-lead#filter:line_width:0.2mm

    OTOH, I did a search out on Amazon, and all I could find for sale there was .5 mm thru .9 mm from Pentel.
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