As a companion piece to the upcoming video on building a small trestle bridge I have made a list of the specific materials I used as well as a PDF template of the bridge in HO scale available here:
Bridge Files

The tutorial video will be published to YouTube very soon (approximately 6 hours from the time this blog update was posted) however for anyone who is a current patron you have an early access pass and have a chance to view the tutorial now.

It's a long video (27 minutes) and full of tips and tricks, if you want to get a head start on the specific details on the bridge prior to watching the tutorial you can check out the Bridge Files page.

Before I start filming I generally test out a few different techniques, today I have been testing out the difference between either having the small bolt details on the trestle or possibly not having those details and I think the results speak for themselves.

It's only a tiny detail however in the big picture it makes a massive difference.
The packet of bolts I bought came with 96 bolts and by my calculation I'll be needing every last one of those bolts and possibly more to finish this small trestle bridge!

The templates for each trestle have been draw up to scale in CoralDRAW, basically any drawing program could work however having access to a good one like CoralDRAW or Adobe Illustrator will make getting the dimensions and angles set precisely much easier. 
Some things I may possibly change on this current iteration is to have a larger angle of divergence on the two outer posts, it's currently set at 4 degrees but I think 5 degrees may be a little better... Time will tell.

So if you're trying to decide on whether it's worth adding fine details to a model you might consider doing a test and comparing one with details and another without details to see which looks better and whether it's worth the extra time and effort adding those details.
However if you ask me... I'll almost always decide to add those extra details!

Building Moe's Tavern from scratch using a $2200 laser cutter! Believe it or not but that is considered cheap compared to some that cost well over $10,000.

Building Moe's Tavern was a lot of fun, the hardest part of the entire process was actually designing the building on the computer.
I used a vector drawing program called CorelDRAW x8, it's very similar to another program I'm much more familiar with called Adobe Illustrator however there are just enough differences between the two programs that I had to watch an online learning course in order to understand the different functions.

Moe's Tavern is not the only design I've cut so far using the laser, I also recently cut and engraved a paint rack to hold all of my Vallejo paints. Laser cut paint racks are very popular in hobby shops so it's pretty cool to be able to design and cut my very own version to exactly suit my needs.

The possibilities are nearly endless with whats possible using a laser cutter, I have heaps of ideas and projects that I'll be working on in 2018 using this awesome laser cutter!
If you too are planning on buying your own laser cutter I strongly recommend doing your research before buying one from China, if you can afford it the brand name laser cutters are a much better first start however if budget is the limiting factor and you don't mind fixing small problems like mirror alignment or loose leveling beds then a cheap laser might just be a good fit. 

Be sure to check the laser cutting section of this website if you want to find out more about laser cutting and if you want to download the free plans for cutting Moe's Tavern and the Paint Rack you'll find those plans HERE: LASER CUTTING PLANS

​Building models from scratch can be difficult… but with a bit of practice and some patience you’ll be surprised how easy it is to build something that you’ll be proud of!
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​Styrene is usually the material of choice for a lot of modelers who scratch build models however you can use all sorts of materials like balsa wood, bass wood, different types of plastic, paper and even recycled material from around the house.

​Even for very creative people it can prove difficult to come up with a building right of the top of your head and that’s why I always do a little research before I start. It might be as simple as looking at a picture online or it might involve going on a road trip with my camera in hand to get the images I want that will ultimately inspire me when I start scratch building.

​Having a wide variety of tools certainly makes scratch building much easier but it’s by no means entirely necessary, you can build a fantastic building simply using a sharp hobby knife, a pencil and a metal ruler. However I like to do as much as I can to make my life easier and in the video I demonstrate the use of many different tools that are specifically designed for scratch building in mind.

​Many of the tools I use like the 'Chop-It', ‘Duplicate-It’, Corner Punch, Adjustable Magnetic Clamps, Airbrush Moisture Trap were all purchased from Micro-Mark.
For those interested, you can get 10% of you shopping cart at the checkout by using the promo code ‘boulder’ exclusive to viewers and fans of boulder creek railroad.

​Stay tuned in the future as I’m working on an e-book about building with styrene and I’ll also be posting more specific plans on how I built this building on my website with measurements and a parts list. 

​Often the greatest model scenes are packed full of detail that often goes unnoticed! So you may be thinking what’s the point?

​The human mind is a very tough critique when it comes to spotting things that look out of place so when a person looks at a scene and all those fine details you spent hours perfecting appear to go unnoticed you should take that as a compliment. 

​Too often do I see some amazing model scenery only to notice a vehicle that has been randomly placed on the road straight from the box it came in and it looks totally out of place not to mention it’s in the middle of the road and driverless…

​In the tutorial I demonstrate some simple techniques for weathering and detailing the flatbed truck, the techniques can be applied to any vehicle. I also created a template for the crates I built which you can download and modify so you can build your very own details.

You can click on this link to download the MS word template and to modify the size simply click on the image and drag it to increase or decrease the size. Or you can download a PDF version however you may not be able to modify its size easily.

As you know I use a number of different modeling tools and the tool I use the most right now is the 'Chop-It' from Micro-Mark. To help you out... and lets not beat around the bush but it also helps me out... I have a unique code that you can use at Micro-Mark to get 10% off your shopping cart.
The promo code is BOULDER.
So feel free to go have a browse at ​http://www.micromark.com/

Thank you for getting this far, I hope you continue to enjoy the videos and tutorials.