Layout Tips - Coating Tweezers
Gerry Leone
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Description
National Model Railroad Association Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone gives some tips for the workbench in this video. When working on the workbench, tweezers are typically used to hold figures and other small objects. Unfortunately, tweezers can marr the paint on the figures, the sharp ends scraping the surface off. Sometimes figures even need to be repainted after handling.
Irregular shaped objects like couplers or ball bearings will also slip out of normal tweezers. Gerry manages this problem by coating the tips of his tweezers with rubber. He uses Rubber Mold, which is available in almost all art stores. Rubber Mold is a latex material that is very thick and white. Gerry uses it to make molds, taking a wall casting carved out of plaster and coating it with several layers of latex for a perfect mold for plaster.
Casting is a lot of fun and saves a lot of time and money on the layout. It is easy to dunk the tweezers in a jar of Rubber Mold, letting them set overnight. A second or third coat might be required. The rubber on the tweezer tips won’t ruin any paint and it makes them able to hold strange objects without any slipping. If paint gets on the rubber or it cracks it is easy to remove the rubber and repeat the process again.
When you're working at your work bench painting figures most often we tend to use tweezers to hold the figures. And the problem with tweezers is they tend to mar the paint that you've already put on there. Sometimes they'll scrape the paint off. You'll have to go back in and repaint them. Or if you're trying to hold irregularly shaped objects like couplers or ball bearings or whatever, tweezers, they'll tend to slip out of normal tweezers.
A way to get around that is by coating the tips of your tweezers with some rubber. If you've ever done any rock casting or wall casting, you're undoubtedly familiar with a product called rubber mold. This is available in almost all art stores. It's a latex material. It's very thick and white.
To make castings with it, I've got a wall casting here that I carved out of plaster. You just coat this with several coats of the latex mold material, and you're able to pour some plaster in there and make additional walls. If you haven't tried casting anything for your layout, I urge you to do it 'cause it's a lot of fun and it'll save you a ton of money. But when you're done casting and you've got your rubber mold on the shelf, it's easy enough to just take your tweezers, dunk them in, let them set overnight. The rubber mold and products like it will need a good evening to set up.
And once that's set, you may want to go in there and give it a second or third coat. And the result will be tweezers that have a very nice rubber finish on them so that you can hold figures, you can hold irregularly shaped objects. They won't go popping all over the layout and certainly the rubber won't mar the paint on your things that you've already painted. If it should get full of paint, if it should crack, it's easy enough to just pull the rubber off of here and re-dunk them in the rubber mold.
Bought some liquid electric tape and tried it on a pair of tweezers and it seams to work well. I don't know about longevity, Now i just have to explain to the wife why I am going around the house picking up stuff with these tweezers. Uh-oh, her eyes are rolling back again. lol
<strong>Ticket 40430 Great idea! Would a product like liquid electric tape work too?