Great Model Railroading Tools from Beauty Supply Stores

We model railroaders are always on the lookout for stuff that can be used on our layout. But sometimes we'll find some tools in most unlikely places, like a beauty supply store, and I'm gonna show you a bunch of that stuff right now. The first item that I found at a beauty supply store that really works well, are these pointed cotton swabs. These have a point on one end. They're great for getting into places in an airbrush or a locomotive or some car that you're disassembling. And there's a paddle, a piece of cotton on the backside which works really well for a spreading out pastel chalks. They come in a variety of brands. You'll find them in cosmetic aisles and beauty supply stores. And parenthetically, if you're looking for cotton swabs that are even smaller, Tema will sell a package of these cotton swabs that have very, very fine points on them. And you can get into every last little nook and cranny on your airbrush or in your model locomotive. Spray bottles are something that you'll find at a a beauty supply store that come in very very handy for a model railroad. They come in all kinds of sizes, you can see this one is meant for a haircutting. They have small ones for smaller materials that you may want. I've got one here that I really love for rubbing alcohol. It puts out a very fine spray so that you can let the alcohol drop onto your ground foam and it won't be blowing the stuff all over the place. Cosmetic sponges. You may have already used these, maybe you haven't. They come in packages of several dozen. They're nothing more than foam rubber sponges that that can be used for applying weathering to buildings. You can use the pointed end for a cleaning up stuff. They're a great value. They're pretty cheap and they come in handy all kinds of places on a model railroad. Makeup, an unlikely weathering agent here but if you're looking to, let's say you've got some blue paint on on a wall that you want to have that smeared effect, you usually won't find blue weathering pastels. Makeup will work, a kit like this, you can see there's 10 colors in there. It comes with two little applicators, one of which is a very soft bristled brush. And it works extremely well for, for doing some, weathering. In a cosmetic aisles and beauty supply stores, you'll find emery boards. I love these emery boards, I use them rather than sandpaper nowadays. They're pretty rigid, they come in all kinds of varieties of grits. You can see this one here on one side has 100 grit on the backside has 180. You can really take some material off with those. They come in a larger pieces that are square for brushing along walls of structures and cars. And what's wonderful about these is you can take a pair of scissors and cut these to any sizes that you want. So let's say you're filing a window, in a structure, you can cut that down to the size of the windowsill and take off the material that way. They come in a variety of grits, this one happens to be 280 on both sides, so it's very, very fine and you'll be able to do some finished sanding with those. There's also these, sanding blocks. These are much more of a flexible foam and they work great when you're trying to sand something that perhaps is round and you wanna keep that contour but yet get a nice sanded, smooth finish on it. Blush brushes, of which this is one are great on a model railroad because these have extremely soft bristles. You can use them to a brush the dust off the tops of your cars, off the tops of your structures. And you don't have to worry about the thing knocking the details all over the place. Mascara wands, you can buy these at beauty supply stores in bags of a couple of dozen. These are great for getting into gears of locomotives, the running gear of steam locomotives getting some of that dust and gunk out of there. Again, you can use these in an airbrush for just getting the loose paint out. They're pretty darn inexpensive. And last, of course, there's hair clips. These metal hair clips come in a wide variety of sizes and they come in extremely handy. You can use your needle nose pliers to bend the tips of these down, so that you can hold the corner of a structure as the glue sets. You can just put a couple of pieces that way and use them that way. And you'll find that they're easily usable all over your layout, all over your a work bench. So keep your eyes open next time you're in the cosmetic aisle or venture into a beauty supply store, and you'll find all kinds of tools that you can use on your model railroad.