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Makin' Smoke - 1
I
run steam locomotives on my N Scale Stevens Pass layout,
but the lack of smoke and steam from the locos seems
unrealistic, especially those with sound.
Photos in various magazines with smoke or steam appear to
have been Photoshop-enhanced to add the effects. While this
is nice for photos, it didn’t solve my desire to have the smoke
come from the locomotives while running on the layout.
How to get
locomotives, buildings
and other things on
the layout to smoke ...
– By David Salsbery
Photos by the author
Makin' Smoke
So I stopped and asked myself, “Could I come up with a way to
create the effects of smoke and steam coming from my locos
running on the layout?”
After some experimenting, here’s the technique I developed.
Getting smoke in my steam locos
To create the smoke for my N scale steamers, I use Q-tips
swabs as the starting point. I cut the swab stick in half; this
gives me two chances for each swab, one for each end.
I tease out the cotton using a dental pick; a round toothpick also
works, and I pick at the cotton little by little. I aim to tease it out
into a thin, airy texture that will look like smoke or steam (2).
I like to leave as little cotton as possible attached to the shaft
of the swab when I am done. It took me a little practice to
get some good enough to be classified as keepers. Those that
didn’t turn out to my liking were used for smaller projects that
I will share with you a little later.
1
1. Typical locomotive without smoke.
MRH-Mar 2013
