A Joint MiniCon, presented by the Chesapeake and Potomac Divisions, will be held at the South Columbia Baptist Church, from 8:45am – 12:30pm.

We’ll have five clinics and a popular vote contest with “on track” and “off track” categories. Photos of the winning models will be published in the next issue of the Potomac Flyer (the Potomac Division newsletter) and on the Chesapeake Division’s web site. There will be donuts and coffee, tea, and water available for refreshment. So come on out!

The schedule and a description of the clinics follows.

Timetable

Clinic Descriptions

Clinic 1 Motive Power: Alex Belida, MMR, Potomac, has always been fascinated by early generation locomotives used by some logging operations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. One has long been his favorite—the vertical boiler engine. In working for his NMRA Motive Power certificate, he decided to scratchbuild one. In this clinic, Alex explains the process and decisions he went through.

Clinic 2 Weathering with Oils: Jeff Burch, Chesapeake says oil paints provide a way to weather models in an unrushed manner. They have a long working time in comparison to acrylics. Oil paints can be used to provide a color fade, rust, grime, paint streaks, or even to provide a nice color variance to depict a lightly
weathered freight car or locomotive. The following techniques will be demonstrated: light weathering with a dot-filter, heavy rust or grime, fading/bleeding white lettering on a freight car side.

Clinic 3 Backdrops: Brian Sheron, MMR, Potomac, notes that model train layouts are mainly constrained by two factors, limited available space, and accessibility. Both factors inhibit the viewer’s perception of depth when viewing a model railroading scene, unless we can add backdrops to our layouts that will impart the feeling of depth. Brian will describe various techniques that a modeler can use to achieve the perception of depth on their layout.

Clinic 4 Weathering with Vallejo Acrylics: Mike Shylanski, Chesapeake, says versatile Vallejo paints and washes can be very effective at giving your model rolling stock a realistic appearance. This clinic will show examples of how you can hand weather or even hand paint HO freight equipment. Approaches to modeling everything from galvanized car roofs to rust effects will be illustrated. Era-specific weathering will be highlighted.

Clinic 5 Trash to Treasures: Martin Brechbiel, MMR, Potomac, You see these items, models, structures, old half built kits, etc., from what seems an eon past as you wander the aisles of train show and meets, or as you peruse the listings of eBay, shake your head invisibly and think to yourself, “What trash, garbage, rubbish…”.  Yet, some of these items are just waiting for you take them home and work a bit of magic on them, rebuilding and/or repurposing them for use on your layout. So, I look for and find the occasional hidden treasure, and take them home for very little cost (free sometimes!) recognizing the inherent play value that lives on waiting to be appreciated. I’ll show you a few examples these and present the processes that I employ for both rolling stock and structures that become scenery vignettes.

Popular Vote: We’re encouraging members to bring models for display at the Joint Meet. We will conduct a popular vote for favorite On-Track model (engines and cars) and for Off-Track model (structures). Everyone who brings a display model should also bring a card or slip of paper on which they should write their name and a description of their model, placing it with the model on a table that will be set up for this purpose. (We’ll have paper for those who may forget to bring it with them.)

Those who want to vote should complete a paper “ballot” (which will be provided at the minicon) and write down the name(s) of the owner(s) of the model(s) they like best for either or both of the categories –- On-Track and Off-Track. Board members of the two Divisions will count the votes and announce the winners in the closing session and their photos will be taken with their winning models. These will appear in the August-September issue of the Potomac Flyer and on the Chesapeake Division web site.